THE TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS 65 



Before long the forest was a little more open in 

 front and a short distance farther I emerged at the 

 very spot where I had crawled through into the 

 swamp an hour before. The sun had set and as I 

 hastened across the rolling sandy plain I saw our 

 launch at anchor and the skiff on the beach. 

 Some of our party were just coming out of the 

 swamp, but none of them had found the hammock. 

 I concluded that the name "Lostmans Key" was 

 entirely appropriate. 



Here and there among the Ten Thousand 

 Islands are shell mounds, some of them of con- 

 siderable size; indeed that on Chokoloskee Island 

 is said to cover two hundred acres. I may remark 

 in passing that like the geography of this region 

 the spelling of all its names is very confusing. The 

 name of this particular island is variously written ; 

 on some of the maps the island is spelled one way 

 and the village another. There is a "Harney" 

 or "Hurney" River; the same stream is called 

 "Chokaliskee," "Chokaluskee," "Chokoloskee" 

 and "Turners" River. On some maps a great 

 arm of the sea, twenty miles wide and over thirty 

 long, enters this region just north of Cape Sable 

 and is called "Ponce de Leon Bay" and again 



