ANDROS, Bahamas, Aug. 28 — As the largest island in the Bahamian archipelago — 104 miles long— Andros is more than its coral reef. My taxi driver, Russell, like all good taxi drivers, overflows with information about the island. He points out banana fields as we whiz by them, and describes the logging and paper mill industries that once operated here.

I ask him if wild animals lurk in the forests and mangrove swamps that dominate the island.

"All we have here are wild cats, wild dogs, squirrels, wild boar and rabbits," Russell says. "Sometimes you’ll hear the old folks talk about the wee-wee men, but I’ve never seen one."

Wee-wee men?

Otherwise known as chickcharnies, wee-wee men, as the name suggests, are very small men who are very dark and very hairy. They come out of the woods at night, apparently to do little but stand there and scare people. I wonder if the wild boar and wee-wee men are the same, but hope never to find out.

Russell's not too interested in the coral reef, even if it is the third-largest in the world behind Australia's Great Barrier Reef and Mexico’s Belize Reef. He dove it a few times, he says: "I’m afraid of the deep water. If I get in trouble and yell, no one can hear me."

When it comes to island sights, he’s much more excited about Morgan's Bluff, the 65-foot "mountain" at the island's northern tip. The notorious Capt. Henry Morgan — the Welsh 17-century buccaneer who deserted his followers and stole all the gold — allegedly buried his treasure there. Russell is tickled to think that Morgan’s biggest bluff is that he buried the treasure somewhere else.

Right now, I'm most interested in Forfar Field Station, nestled in a coconut grove that overlooks an azure lagoon. The station consists of a main building with classrooms and living and dining areas surrounded by outbuildings that house an office and accommodations. All of the structures are made from ancient local coral that Archie Forfar dragged out of the water and surrounding forest.

Forfar is a legend himself. He built the station in the late 1960s as a rustic dive resort, but died shortly after during an attempt to break the world record in scuba diving. Archie and his partner, Ann Gunderson, dove to 475 feet, never to surface. One story says they swam off together into the deep blue; Archie was deeply in love with Ann, but married to someone else. The Forfar staff swears that his ghost haunts the station.

Walter (Ben) Bohl acquired the station from the Forfar family in the early 1970s as a hands-on learning site for International Field Studies, a nonprofit organization that helps teachers who want to teach outside of the classroom. With its boats, straight shot out to the reef and knowledgeable staff, Forfar is a perfect outpost for the reef survey.

Marine biologists now are converging on Forfar to wade, snorkel and dive the reef in search of creatures like turtle grass, sea fans, trumpet fish and towering elkhorn coral. Perhaps the biggest legend of all, though, is the "wall of Andros" — the last stop on the reef before it plunges 6,000 feet into the underwater canyon that is the Tongue of the Ocean.

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