EASTERN FLORIDA AND ITS FISHERIES. 



A. GENERAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



187. TOPOGRAPHY OP THE EEGION. 



GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. Florida, the southernmost State of the Union, has an area of 

 59,268 square miles. It is a peninsula of sand and shells, 400 miles long, separating the waters of 

 the Atlantic from those of the Gulf of Mexico. It is for the most part a sandy waste, with a level 

 surface gradually rising toward the center where it attains a height of several hundred feet. The 

 evenness of the surface is occasionally interrupted by low ridges of sand running parallel to each 

 other. These are often separated by immense shoal water lakes, rivers, or swamps, covering hun- 

 dreds or even thousands of square miles, while the surface of the higher lands is everywhere dotted 

 with laud-locked lakes and ponds of smaller size. In its southern portion the laud is particularly 

 low and becomes simply a large grassy swamp, known as the Everglades, which is wholly sub- 

 merged during a considerable portion of the year. Continuing southward the peninsula is broken 

 into an almost innumerable number of sandy islands and coral reefs, some of them quite small and 

 others of considerable size. 



The peculiar shape and position of the peninsula gives to Florida a more extensive sea coast 

 than that of any other State ; on the Atlantic there are over 450 miles of coast line and there are 

 fully 050 on the gulf, making a total of 1,100 miles. This distance, though enormous, is vastly 

 increased by the numerous salt-water lagoons and bays along the shore. 



DESCRIPTION OF EASTERN FLORIDA. The eastern portion of the State, which is the one at 

 present under consideration, is a remarkably level section, rising but a few feet above the sea. The 

 land is composed wholly of sand and broken shells, covered here and there by a thin layer of 

 vegetable mold. The higher ridges of the region are covered with a scattered growth of pine, 

 while the intervening depressions, which are submerged to a depth of from a few inches to several 

 feet, support a rank growth of various swamp grasses, or are covered with dense thickets of 

 cypress, palmetto, magnolia, and ash. Even in the higher pine lands one finds a great number of 

 land-locked ponds and lakes varying from a few rods to several miles in extent. 



Along the ocean shore the current has thrown up low sandy bars for nearly the entire length 

 of the State; and behind these are shallow lagoons or arms of the sea, with here and there an 

 opening to the ocean. These lagoons, called by the inhabitants rivers, are often broad sheets of 

 salt or brackish water, extending continuously for many miles along the coast, and with but few 

 interruptions along the entire eastern shore of the State. They usually connect with the ocean by 

 means of shallow inlets, which are separated from each other by a considerable distance; these, 



