EAST-FLORIDA 247 



inland, are found extensive oyster-beds, which here 

 and there at the ebb are quite exposed. At such times 

 it may be seen that almost all of them are set upright, 

 in heaps one over another. Where trees stand close 

 to the water, or their roots are washed bare at the 

 edge of the stream, it happens frequently that oysters 

 are found thick set upon them ; for it is indifferent to 

 the oyster what the nature is of the solid body to which 

 it fastens. They are so closely fixed one upon the 

 other, that the lowest and innermost cannot open with- 

 out setting the rest in motion. These creeks and salty 

 swamps are favorite haunts of raccoons, which there 

 feed on fish, crabs, and oysters. 



The immediate ocean shore consists of quartz-sand, 

 mixed with shells broken very small ; the surface, from 

 the incessant wash of the sea, is firm and smooth, like 

 a threshing-floor except for the slope. If, by length of 

 time and such a binding as the mixture likely gets 

 from the sea-water, the whole mass becomes hard, then 

 one has the so-called shell-stone which is at present dug 

 on Fisher's Island, and used in buildings. 



This North Beach extends towards the south in a 

 long point, and where this ceases to appear above the 

 water the sands or shallow banks begin, giving rise to 

 the breakers among which the tedious entrance to the 

 harbor must be sought. But parallel with this point, 

 from south to north, there runs at a moderate distance 

 the northern point of Fisher's Island, (or Anastasia 

 Island with the Spanish), and between them is a chan- 

 nel of deep and quiet water. These points are so low 

 that from the town one can see out over the Bay, 

 across these points, the channel, and the breakers, 

 having an open view to the ocean on the east. How- 



