INTRODUCTION OF FOREIGN SPECIES. ^53 



principal stream and the currents ori^^inating in it, bear 

 upon their surface various vegetable and other produc- 

 tions brought by rivers into the Gulf, or swept from its 

 shores, and these are frequently deposited upon parts of 

 the coast very distant from their origin. In this way 

 seed-vessels from the Spanish Main, trunks of trees and 

 fragments of wood of unascertained origin, and numer- 

 ous objects from the northern shore of Cuba, are fre- 

 quently found on the shore of Key West, and on the 

 beach of Cape Florida and the shores and islands to the 

 north of it.' These circumstances are adequate to 

 account for the transmission of land-shells from the 

 Island of Cuba, and even from more distant places, to 

 the mam land and islands of Florida ; and to this source 

 we ascribe the origin of Selix rJwdoeheila, and Bulimus 

 vir^ulatus, which are probably derived from the Bar 

 hamas, but possibly from the Spanish Main, and of 

 Selix ottonis, Bulimus fasciatus, B. zehra, B. siibula, 

 BujM incana, Cydostoma dentatum, and Cylindrella 

 lactaria, all midoubtedly from Cuba, which, having 

 found a congenial soil and chmate in the southern 

 part of the peninsula of Florida, are now flourishing 

 there in great numbers. To the same cause may 



' A few years since a bottle was picked up on Tavernia Key, near Cape 

 Florida, containing a note stating that it was thrown overboard ofl' the More 

 Castle. A Cuba barge, of the kind used in lading and unlading vessels in 

 Mataazas, was lately found stranded on the beach at New River, twenty- 

 five miles north of Cape Florida. Small objects from Cuba are often found 

 on the shore of Key West. 



VOL. I. 19 



