CHAPTER II 



XKe Florida Keys 



LET us in fancy take a very large pair of 

 dividers, setting one point at Cape Romano 

 on the southwest coast of Florida, and the 

 other at Miami and then sweep the latter 

 point first south, then southwest, and finally west 

 until it reaches a spot west of south of the central 

 point. We have thereby fairly accurately marked 

 the curved axis of a group of islands called the 

 "Florida Keys." From Miami another but irreg- 

 ular curve to the south and west nearly coincides 

 with the southeast and southern coasts of the main- 

 land. These two curved lines begin together on 

 the east coast but diverge as they make to the 

 south and west so that when Key Vaca on the first 

 line is reached, Cape Sable, which lies due north of 

 it on the second line, is twenty-eight miles distant. 

 The horn-shaped area of shallow water between 

 which separates the keys and the mainland is the 

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