1883] Exploration of Florida Keys 



In December, with the help of a student, William 

 H. Dye of Indianapolis, I undertook explorations at 

 Cedar Keys, Key West, and Havana. In crossing 

 northern Florida by rail from Jacksonville on the 

 Atlantic to Cedar Keys on the Gulf, the long train, 

 made up of freight cars with a passenger coach at- 

 tached, parted quietly in the middle so that we were 

 left far behind while the oblivious engineer went 

 gayly on to his terminus. We thus found ourselves Marooned 

 marooned for some hours in the swamps which 

 border the vast half-submerged area of the "Ever- 

 glades." Not to lose the chance, I used my um- 

 brella as a net to "fish for gambusinos" in the forest 

 pools. 1 



But the trip as a whole yielded rich booty, for Key West 

 Key West 2 has the best fish market in the United 

 States. There food fish in great variety are brought 

 in alive in the wells of specially constructed boats 

 and killed as the purchaser demands, a method 

 which ensures their being fresh but does not ac- 

 cord with that of certain Buddhist fishermen in 

 Japan. As "conscientious objectors" to the killing 

 of any living thing, they haul their catch out on 

 the bank and leave it to the option of the fish to 

 live or die. 



Key West at the time of my visit was an extremely 

 isolated little city on one of the outermost of the 

 white islands built up from the wreckage of broken 



1 To the commonest fish there, a minute viviparous top minnow, Dr. Felipe 

 Poey gave the scientific name of Gambusia, derived from the Spanish phrase, 

 " pescar para gambusinos" " fishing for gambusinos" that is, catching nothing. 

 In justice, however, it should be added that this tiny creature has proved to be 

 the greatest of mosquito devourers. It was therefore carried by my student, 

 Alvin Seale, from Galveston to Hawaii, where it has rapidly multiplied and 

 whence it has been introduced into Formosa and the Philippines. 



2 Originally Cayo Hueso, Bone Key. 



r. 281 ] 



