RIVEE. 103 



but of a beautiful red color, and takes a very fine polish, 

 and the whole zone is thickly dotted with the graceful, 

 picturesque, and useful cabbage palmetto tree, which is 

 valuable as a timber for many purposes, and its leaves 

 also, while its unexpanded young foliage is a delicious 

 vegetable. Other and even more valuable trees of the same 

 (palm) species might be largely introduced, as, for ex 

 ample, the cocoanut, which has been shown to flourish 

 there. It is in part this low-lying skirt of luxuriantly 

 wooded, dry sandy soil, breaking the force of tempestuous 

 winter winds, met at times on the southern Atlantic 

 coast, which makes the western shore of Indian river so 

 highly favorable as a winter residence for invalids. 



Near Indian River Inlet, upon the main land, a mili 

 tary post (Fort Capron) was established in November, 

 1849, and careful meteorological observations were taken 

 for a series of years, which show rare cliinatological 

 characteristics peculiarly favorable for pulmonary pa 

 tients, that is to say, a singularly equable temperature 

 with comparative dryness. For example, during a period 

 of five years ending with 1854 the mean temperature of 

 the winter months was 63 deg. 20 min., with a relatively 

 small rain-fall during the late autumn, winter, and early 

 spring months, or 217 fair-weather days for the year. 



The lagoon has a coralline bed, and is free from 

 marshes. Communicating with the sea by Indian 

 River Inlet, as I have stated, it likewise receives a 

 good deal of fresh water through Santa Lucia river, 

 which is an outlet of the Everglades. It teems to an 

 almost incredible degree with fish of the finest and most 

 palatable varieties, including that most delicate and 

 toothsome of all American fish, the pompano. Never, 

 indeed, on either the Atlantic, Gulf, or Pacific coast 



