' . 



.. " x 



7ER3ITT) 

 V 



THE WEST COAST OP FLORIDA. 



Our observations on the west coast of the peninsula were confined to 

 the tract included between Cedar Keys and the mouth of the Caloosa- 

 hatchie (Punta Rassa), or over an area measured by somewhat less than 

 three degrees of latitude. Along this entire reach the coast is very low, 

 rarely rising more than from five to ten feet above water-level in the 

 immediate neighborhood of the ocean border. The most elevated point 

 would seem to be the dune at Clearwater, which, according to an official 

 railroad survey, rises to a height of thirty-two feet; a portion of this 

 " bluff" is made up of the remains of an ancient Indian shell mound, 

 the wreck of which is clearly indicated in the large conchs, Fulgur pcr- 

 versum, Mcloiigcna corona, etc., which lie scattered about. Immediately 

 back of the town of Tampa, about a quarter of a mile up the Hillsboro 

 River, and a little to the inland of the left bank, the solid rock rises to a 

 height of some fifteen or twenty feet, but southward, again, even these 

 minor elevations disappear, and the coast for the greater distance presents 

 the appearance of a tide-level reach. 



Contrary to what is generally supposed, solid rock enters very largely 

 into the formation of the peninsular border, and its outcrops can be 

 observed as well without as within the river channels. Thus, it is exposed 

 on the Homosassa River a short distance (a mile or more) above its 

 mouth, at various points on the Cheeshowiska, on John's Island at the 

 mouth of that river, along the Pithlachascootie, on Clearwater beach, 

 at Ballast Point on Hillsboro Bay, at the locality above Tampa already 

 indicated, and at numerous other points. The rock is almost everywhere 

 a more or less compact limestone, heavily charged with fossil remains, 

 and at a few localities, as at Ballast Point and along the bed of the Hills- 

 boro River, largely impregnated with silica, forming a tough siliceous 

 matrix which readily yields to the hammer. Where the solid rock is not 

 visible the eye rests upon a beach of homogeneous white or yellowish 

 sand, which in some places is almost wholly deficient in shell-fragments, 

 while in others it is literally packed with them. The most extensive shell- 

 bank observed forms the ocean front between Little Sarasota Inlet and 

 Casey's Pass, where, in a thickness of 4-5 feet, the greater number of the 

 molluscan species now inhabiting this part of the coast can be found. 

 A true coquina rock was found at the entrance to Little Sarasota Inlet, 

 1 



