Notices of the Floridas, &c. 123 
in all the salt creeks of Florida. I observed at Fort 
George, mural precipices of soft ferruginous sandstone ele- 
vated considerably above the waters of an adjacent sal 
creek; they are composed of sand, sea mud, and oxide o: 
iron indurated ; similar rocks are formed on other parts of 
the coast. ' 
Extensive beds of shell rock, of a peculiar character, oc- 
cupy the borders of the ocean, in various places from the 
river St. Johns to Cape Florida. They are composed of 
unmineralized marine shells, of species common, to our 
coast, mostly small bivalves, whole and in minute Dison, 
connected by calcareous cement. I examined this rock 
on the isle of Anastasia opposite St. Augustine where it ex- 
tends for miles, rising twenty feet above the sea and of un- 
known depth. It has been penetrated about thirty feet. 
In these quarries, horizontal strata of shell rock of sufficient 
thickness and solidity for good building stone, alternate with 
narrow parallel beds of larger and mostly unbroken shells, 
but slightly connected. Hatchets are used in squaring the 
stone. Lime is made from this material, of a quality infe- 
rior to ordinary stone lime. 
The large Spanish fort, and most of the public and pri- 
vate buildings of St. Augustine, are constructed of this 
to he rock extends in places into the sea, with su- 
perincumbent beds of new shells of the same character. 
Similar shell rock is found on the continent in several 
_places. © 
The eastern coast of Florida is lined with high sand-bluffs, 
surmounted by low entangled thickets composed princi- 
pally of evergreens; dwarf live oak, small bay and cabbage 
trees, and myrtle, predominate. The saco palmetto infests 
the islands and adjacent continent—it has a large body re- 
cumbent on the ground terminating in tufts of fan-like 
es. 
There is but little cultivable land on the isles and pe- 
ninsulas below the St. Johns. Excepting narrow strips of 
hammock, the general character of the southern Florida 
sea-board is pine barren. Graham’s Swamp, one of the 
largest of the hammocks, extends thirty miles between 
Matanzie inlet and Mocca, with an average width of a mile ; 
its rich vegetable soil has a marl basis, and will be valuable 
if it can be drained. About Mocca, and Indian river, there 
