214 CRUISING ALOXG SHORE. 



found along the shore of Hobe Sound, into which we 

 emerge from the Narrows. Near its entrance we saw the 

 carcass of a manatee, or sea-cow, over which a coroner s 

 jury of vultures were holding inquest. From the south 

 end of the Narrows, which are seven miles in length, it 

 is twelve miles to the end of the river. Crossing 

 &quot; Conch Bar,&quot; we follow the stakes indicating the chan 

 nel, and soon see the dome-shaped lantern, and afterward 

 the symmetrical shaft of Jupiter Light. During all our 

 voyage, our course has ever been to the south. Soon we 

 strike the waters of the Lokohatchee, which coming from 

 the west, unite with Indian river near the lighthouse, 

 and run due east, through Jupiter Inlet to the ocean. 

 Rounding the point, we are soon at anchor, and ascend 

 the steep bank to a small house of coquina rock, where 

 we are made welcome. 



This was at noon. At night I climbed, with the two 

 keepers, to the top of the hollow shaft, and looked off 

 from the circling platform upon a scene of absorbing 

 interest. A glimpse of northern wildness and sterility, 

 and southern luxuriance and fertility, the fragile flowers 

 of the tropics blended with the hardy shrubs and trees of 

 the north. The palm and pine, the oak and orange, man 

 grove and maple. &quot; Semi-tropical &quot; indicates Florida s 

 status in climate and vegetation. Half northern, half 

 southern a kind of half-and-half character that extends 

 to more than climate. We have here a land and water 

 view of surpassing beauty. The broad Atlantic bounds 

 the vision east, its shores extending in curving lines from 

 north to south. Down from the north comes Indian 

 river, curved in outline a bay, a creek, fringed with 

 ] nil in, pine, and mangrove. From the west comes in 

 the Lokohatchee, charming in parks of pine and green 



