72 THE NAUTILUS. 



tion, but in trying to avoid the swamps were obliged to zigzag 

 about considerably. The walking on the lower islands is much 

 better than that of the upper ones, the general surface being 

 level and comparatively smooth. This is an oolitic limestone 

 much like that of the Miami region, but it was deposited in a 

 shallow sea while the latter formed a retreating shore and is 

 irregularly stratified. In many places the rock of the Lower 

 Keys has split loose in thin layers and become broken up, and 

 between the pine trees there is often a dense growth of a pal- 

 metto (Thrinax microcarpa). The whole is generally tied to- 

 gether with a villainous climbing smilax which is most liberally 

 provided with thorns. 



After a long tramp we reached the village, and the next morn- 

 ing had my old friend Joseph Sears take us across the strait to 

 No Name Key. Sears is a powerful Bahama negro, good- 

 natured and voluble, and in time past he has taken me to many 

 of the keys in his boat, the "Three Fannies." 



We camped in the front yard of an abandoned place, again 

 getting a bed of the Eleocharis, and this time were fortunate 

 enough to entirely shut out the mosquitos, but we could hear 

 their angry humming all night, music which lulled us to sleep. 

 No Name is nearly three miles long and about a mile wide, its 

 northern part being pine forest with a dense undergrowth of 

 palmettos. There is, or has been, a great central hammock of 

 magnificent tall, closely-set tropical trees, but about 60 acres 

 of it have been cut out. Much of the southern part of the 

 island has been hammock but most of it is now destroyed. We 

 carefully searched this interior forest, almost tree by tree, but 

 found no living Liguus. In places the ground was thickly 

 strewn with broken and bleached shells, some of the fragments 

 still retaining color. 



It may be asked, " What has become of them ? " Their dis- 

 appearance is due to several causes, man being the chief. The 

 building of the extension of the Florida East Coast Railway 

 wrought terrible destruction among the hammocks on the keys. 

 One of the finest pieces of this growth was located on Key Largo 

 where sparks from the engines set the timber cleared from the 

 right-of-way on fire and destroyed hundred of acres of splendid 



