INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, PHILADELPHIA. 23 



gradual shelving of the sea-bottom, no really great depth of water could 

 ever be secured. But even with this deepening the tortuousness of the 

 channel would still very materially interfere with the possible conversion of 

 the stream into a highway of travel, and not until connecting canals are cut 

 to shorten distances is it likely that much use will be made of the stream 

 as a water-way either to or from the far interior. The deepest sounding 

 obtained by Engineer Meigs during his official survey of the river was 

 sixteen feet, but at least in one instance, not very far from the site of Fort 

 Denaud, our lead dropped 28 feet, and I am informed by our captain that 

 on a former occasion he had marked off 32 feet. Numerous snags, prin- 

 cipally trunks of live-oak and palmetto, around which sand-bars have 

 formed, and are forming, obstruct the channel of the river for a very consid- 

 erable part of its course, and render navigation in some parts a matter of 

 considerable caution. These could be very readily removed, however, as 

 only in very few places do they appear to be actually jammed. 



The width of the stream varies considerably, naturally narrowing 

 very rapidly in its upper course. Here, the numerous projecting or 

 overhanging trees, in their tendency to catch on to the rigging, necessi- 

 tate a careful rounding of the bights, into which a vessel is apt to be 

 forced by the current of the water. On more than one occasion a 

 pennant, derived from the overhanging vegetation, was added to our top- 

 mast, and once we barely escaped serious accident through this novel 

 method of aerial anchorage. Along the lower reaches of the river the 

 mangrove constitutes the predominating element in the vegetation, its 

 dense line of aerial roots forming an impenetrable palisade for miles of 

 the river-front. We found that the plants here had suffered much less 

 from the cold than elsewhere, and they accordingly presented a much 

 more vernal aspect than in the bays and inlets to the north. The foliage 

 was brilliant green, and showed but little of that purple tint which else- 

 where recalled our autumnal season. At Fort Myers the orange trees 

 were in both fruit and flower, and here for the first time could we obtain 

 quantities of that most luscious fruit without being compelled to select 

 from a mass of frost-bitten specimens. The general southern limit of the 

 cold wave, which at Tampa is reported to have depressed the thermom- 

 eter to 1 8 F., might be said to have been the Caloosahatchie. Still, even 

 along this river many of the more tropical plants appear to have suffered. 

 Thus, while at Fort Myers the cocoanut and date-palm were bearing 

 fruit noble specimens of their kind the banana presented a most wilted 

 appearance, the few straggling leaves or stems that were not frost- 

 bitten little recalling those graceful outlines which the delineations of 

 travelers impress upon their sketches of tropical scenery. The pineapple 

 appears to have suffered equally with the banana, both here and further 

 along the river in the interior. 



OF 



UNIVERSITY 



