104 INDIA X KIYEK. 



have I seen fish so fat and well flavored. The ordinary 

 mullet, here very fine, is found in extraordinary shoals at 

 certain seasons, and nowhere else is the sheepshead so 

 line and dainty a fish as in Indian river. As for the 

 oyster, it is worth a visit to Indian river to eat those 

 found there, especially those which have been trans 

 planted ; their flavor is the finest in the United States. 



Some four miles southward of the inlet, the western 

 shore rises some thirty feet above the level of the sea into 

 a bluff of compact, broken, or decomposed shell, for some, 

 distance. Here there are fine situations for building, 

 with the necessary space for small plantations of tropical 

 fruits and plants, which thrive so w r ell in all that region. 

 There are already orange orchards which have been 

 planted for a quarter of a century. The pineapple, 

 found in most of its numerous varieties, and other inter- 

 tropical fruits, do as well here as in the Antilles. North 

 ward the shore is skirted in large part by narrow reaches 

 of dry hammock land, covered with the live-oak. This 

 soil is shallow, but underlaid by a marl, which keeps 

 fresh its virgin fertility, and is found particularly well 

 adapted to the growth of sugar-cane, which comes to 

 flower or tassel on Indian river as in Cuba, but not hab 

 itually in Louisiana. Therefore, the cane of Indian 

 river is richer in saccharine matter to the pound than 

 that of Louisiana. 



Immediately back of these arable tracts, the very tim 

 ber of which is so valuable in ship-building, there runs a 

 sand ridge, which here and there abuts directly upon the 

 water of the lagoon, and is everywhere covered with noble 

 pines, affording an exhaustlcss supply of accessible build 

 ing timber, liearward of this ridge the country, some 

 what lower than the ridge, stretches out into great spaces 



