Cashing.] ^^" [Nov. 6, 



bore, but, like the first, had long been abandoned and was even more 

 overgrown by vine-smothered trees and brambles — among them many 

 pitiful limes and a few pomegranates run wild, but still faithfully bear- 

 ing fruit — so that here, too, the knife was constantly requisite. 



It was in some respects the most remarkable key encountered during 

 the entire reconnaissance. Its elevations formed — as maj^ be seen by ref- 

 erence to plan and elevation on Plate XXVIII, — an elongated curve five 

 hundred yards in length, the northward extension of which was nearly 

 straight, the southward extension bending around like a hook to the 

 southeast and east, and embracing within its ample circuit a wide 

 swamp thickly overgrown Avith high mangroves, which also narrowly 

 fringed the outer shore, so that the whole key, when seen from the 

 water, presented the appearance of a trim round or oval, and thickly 

 wooded island. Tlie lower end or point of this key consisted of an 

 imposingly massive and symmetrical sea wall, of conch-shells chiefly, 

 ten or twelve feet high, and as level and' broad on top as a turnpike. 

 This wall had evidently once encircled the entire lower bend of the kej', 

 but was now merged in the second and third of a series of broad, com- 

 paratively level terraces, that rose one above the other within it, from a 

 little terminal muck-court, westwardly to the central and widest, although 

 not highest, elevation of the key, at the commencement of its northward 

 extension. Occupying a point midway along the inner curve of this 

 elevation, that is, directly up from the mangrove swamp it encircled on 

 the one hand, and from the terraces outside on the other, stood a lofty 

 group of five elongated mounds. These mounds were divided from the 

 embracing terraces by a long, deep, and very regularly graded way, 

 which led, in straight sections corresponding to the inner margins of the 

 first three successive terraces, up from a canal formed by shell banks or 

 ridges in the swamp, to the highest of the terraces — the one forming the 

 wide central elevation. Another and much steeper and shorter graded 

 way led up from yet another parallel canal farther within the swamp, to 

 between the two highest mounds, down from them again, and joined 

 this longer graded way near the point of its ascent to the high central 

 terrace. This foundation, for it proved to be such, arose very steeply 

 from the here sharply curved edge of the mangrove swamp, to an almost 

 uniform height of about twenty -three feet ; was from twelve to fourteen 

 yards wide, and thence sloped more gentlj^ toward the outer or western 

 shores. The northern extension of the key was occupied by two or tliree 

 elevated and comparatively inconsiderable mounds, beyond which it was 

 terraced off toward the extreme point, as was the lower point — though 

 less regularly — to a short, similar sea-wall extension eastwardly, that 

 partly enclosed, not a muck-court, but a low, bordered garden-plat, con- 

 taining two or three round sinks or basins. 



The most remarkable feature of this key was a flat, elongated bench, 

 or truncated pyramid, that crowned the middle elevation. I discovered 

 ihis merely by accident. In order to gain a general idea of the key, 



