SOOTY TERNS. "THEY SETTLE DOWN UPON THE SAND' 



CHAPTER V 



ON LONELY BIRD KEY 



As the chain grated the ear, I saw a clotid-like mass arise oz'er the " Bird Key" 

 from which we were only a few hundred yards distance. . . . On lajtding, I felt for 

 a moment as if the birds would raise me from the ground. — AuDUBON. 



OUTSIDE of Alaska, it would be hard to find a more 

 desolate or isolated region in our national domain 

 than the Dry Tortugas. Far out in the Gulf of 

 Mexico, sixty-five miles from Key West toward the setting 

 sun, rise half a dozen barren sand-bars from the exquisite 

 turquoise-blue w^aters of the Gulf. One of these, Garden 

 Key, has been appropriated for a government fort and coal- 

 ing-station, and from the massive walls of Fort Jefferson the 

 exiled marines gaze wistfully across the sparkling waters, 

 white-capped by the brisk trade-wind, toward their Brooklvn 

 Navy Yard Jerusalem, and count up the remaining months 



