2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE WAGNER FREE 



and again on Philippi's Creek (tributary of Big Sarasota Bay) at the 

 latter locality overlying a fossiliferous arenaceous limestone the first 

 time, I believe, that it had been noticed on the west coast of the State. 



Everywhere along the border the oceanic floor shelves very gradually, 

 so that at even considerable distances out to sea only a few feet of water 

 can be obtained. Whether or not a distinct channel depression exists 

 beyond the mouths of all the various streams discharging on the coast, 

 our means did not permit us to determine with any amount of positive- 

 ness, but it would seem that such is the case in at least some instances. 

 Admitting this configuration of the bottom, it could readily be accounted 

 for on the hypothesis of a steady or continued subsidence of the land, to 

 which numerous facts, not necessary to be indicated in this place, 

 seem to point. It is barely possible that the acidulated waters of the 

 outflowing streams could have produced any measurable amount of 

 subaqueous erosion. The mouths of the northern streams more espe- 

 cially Homosassa, Cheeshowiska, etc. are very largely obstructed by 

 oyster-reefs, which, in some places, appear above water-level during low 

 water, and render difficult a passage of the channel to all but the smallest 

 craft. These reefs are rapidly developing, and must ultimately com- 

 pletely bar the passages. 



The vegetation along the west coast may be said to be fairly luxu- 

 riant. A semi-tropical character prevails in the northern tracts, especially 

 well-marked along the upper Cheeshowiska, where the forest unfolds 

 itself in its noblest and most magnificent proportions. The bay, water- 

 oak, live-oak, cypress, and palmetto stand out as the most prominent 

 features of this confused vegetable maze, whose penetrability is rendered 

 possible only through the small bayous or narrow water-courses which 

 partially enter the inner recesses of the wilderness. Southward, as at 

 Dunedin, etc., where the thickness of the sand deposit very materially 

 increases, the virgin forest largely disappears, and is replaced by a much 

 weaker growth of yellow-pine and saw-palmetto, the latter forming an 

 undergrowth rarely rising above three or four feet. This stretch of pine 

 land extends for a very considerable distance down the shore, relieved 

 here and there by recurrences of the more vigorous tropical jungle, a 

 feature observed along some of the larger water-courses. Much of the 

 thicket has been removed from the banks of the Hillsboro, but on the 

 Big Manatee, a short distance above Braidentown, the palm forest assumes 

 its pristine character. Along the protected bays and lagoons, formed 

 by the outlying sand keys Sarasota Bay, Gasparilla the outer border 

 more especially (or the keys) is fringed by a dense growth of mangrove, 

 which continues with but slight interruption to the southern end of 

 Charlotte Harbor. Its greatest development is seen here, where the 

 " bushes " attain the dimensions of small forest trees. At the time of 



