118 INTRODUCTION. 



arc peculiar to cacli. And notwithstanding that these 

 sections may he defined "with some particularity, their 

 limits are necessarily in a considerable degree arbitrary ; 

 and it Avill require many years of patient and indus- 

 trious observation, and the accumulation of a great 

 number of facts, before they can be laid down with cer- 

 tainty. Beginning at the southern extremity and pro- 

 ceeding northwards, they occur in the follow^ing order. 



Section 1. Tlte Peninsula of Florida, and the 

 adjacent islands, extending from 24° 30^ to 30° north 

 latitude, and at the nearest pomt being about one hun- 

 dred and tliirty miles distant from the northern shore of 

 the island of Cuba. This section, surrounded by the 

 ocean on every side except the north, is but little raised 

 above it, no part rising more than one hundred and fifty 

 feet above its level. The interior of its southern part is 

 an immense morass intersected by sluggish streams, while 

 its northern portion is in some parts a level, and in others 

 an undulated country with a sandy soil, and, except 

 near the streams and ponds, and in the islands or insu- 

 lated thickets of verdure locally called hammocks, where 

 deciduous trees prevail, covered with pine trees and an 

 undergrowth of dwarf palmetto. The chmate is peculiar ; 

 summer and winter present no great extremes, and meet 

 each other by slow and insensible changes ; the beautiful 

 vegetation and verdant fohage of the tropics are ever 

 present ; and with the temperature of Cuba, are enjoyed 

 many of its productions also. Its zoology has never 

 .been thoroughly investigated, but a careful exploration 



