170 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



culture, arc thought to be sufi&cient reasons for debarring it from 

 present consideration. 



South of Lake Worth, the ])hysical aud other conditions are not favor- 

 able for the i)urpose in question until Biscayne Bay is reached, while 

 the region south of that bay is too remote from present and prosi)ective 

 lines of comuumication to entitle it to notice. It was, therefore, the 

 Biscayne Bay region that the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries con- 

 ceived to be the most inviting section of the east coast of Florida for 

 the special object named, and it was there that the writer was instructed 

 to make a preliminary investigation covering the physical conditions, 

 natural resources, eligible sites for a station, commercial fisheries, aud 

 prosi)ects for the future development of the fishing industry. 



The imiuirios of the Commission were greatly facilitated by Mr. J. E. 

 Ingraham, general agent of the Jacksonville, St. ^Vugustine and Indian 

 River Radroad, and by Hon. Frederick S. Morse, of Miami, to whom 

 acknowledgments are due. 



GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES OF THE BISCAYNE BAY REGION. 



Key Biscayne Bay, or Biscayne Bay as it is more commonly desig- 

 nated, is one of the finest bodies of water on the coast of Florida. It 

 is the most northern member of a series of shallow bays or sounds inter- 

 vening between the Florida keys and the mainland. It occupies 

 almost the extreme southern part of the east side of Florida and extends 

 from 25° 57' to 25° 22' north latitude, its length being about 35 

 miles. Its northern third is comi^aratively narrow, having an average 

 width of only 2 miles. The remaining part has a maximum width of 

 about 8^ miles and an average width of 7 miles. Its area is 210 miles. 

 On the south, at xVrseniker Keys, it merges into Cards Sound. In the 

 upper 10 miles of its length it is separated from the Strait of Florida 

 by a very narrow strip of mainland ending at Norris or Narrow Cut, 

 which is the most northern opening into the ba3^ South of this inlet 

 the following keys form the eastern boundary of the bay: Virginia 

 Key, Key Biscayne, Soldier Key, Ragged Keys, Sands Key, Elliott 

 Key, and Old Khodes Key. The largest aud widest of these is Key 

 Biscayne, at whose southern end is Cape Florida, which marks the 

 principal passageway into the bay. 



The shores of the bay are for the most part low and densely over- 

 grown with mangrove trees; in i)laces, however, on he mainland, the 

 shores are comparatively high, consisting of an abrupt bank of coral 

 limestone overgrown with deciduous trees, constituting a topograph- 

 ical feature said to exist nowhere else in Florida. 



The bay is shoal throughout. In that i)art north of the Miami River 

 a greater dei)th than 7 feet is not found, and the average is not more 

 than 4 feet. In the southern i)art the depth varies from 7 to 13 feet in 

 the center of the bay and gradually decreases toward the shores. The 



