PREFACE. 



THE following pages briefly narrate observations made, during the 

 early part of i8cS6, in a region the greater part of which had most 

 singularly escaped the attention of the scientific world. Although nearly 

 seventy years have elapsed since the dominion of Florida was by act of 

 Congress constituted into a territorial government, and upwards of forty 

 years since admission into the Union was obtained, the State remains to 

 the present day, as far as its geographical, zoological and geological 

 features are concerned, very nearly the least-known portion of the national 

 domain. So vague, indeed, has been the general scientific knowledge 

 respecting the peninsula, that up to the time of our visit not even its 

 broader geological aspects had been determined ; that most fascinating of 

 theories which ascribed the formation of this long stretch of country to 

 the unceasing labors of the coral animal, and which, for nearly a full 

 quarter of a century, received the almost undivided support of naturalists of 

 both hemispheres, had only just begun to meet with its own disproof. The 

 labors of a number of investigators in the northern part of the peninsula 

 had already clearly demonstrated the inapplicability of the coral theory 

 of growth to the facts presented in that section of the State, but we were 

 as yet without data respecting the larger southern portion. With a view 

 of adding to our knowledge more particularly of this region, a veritable 

 terra incognita to science, the expedition, the details of which are here 

 recorded, was, with the generous co-operation of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of this city, and of Messrs. Joseph Willcox and Charles H. 

 Brock, organized by the Wagner Free Institute of Science. 



The personnel of this expedition consisted of the gentlemen above 

 mentioned, of Captain Frank Strobhar, master of the schooner " Rambler," 

 Moses Natteal, cook, and myself. Observations were conducted on 

 the west coast as far south as the mouth of the Caloosahatchie, whence 

 the expedition was deflected eastward into the Okeechobee wilderness. 

 The general results of our geological investigations are summarized on 

 pp. 65-67 of this report. The zoological researches were almost wholly 

 confined to an examination of the littoral oceanic fauna, and to the fauna 

 of the Okeechobee Lake region, which, I believe, had not hitherto been 

 systematically investigated. Our facilities for work in this direction were, 



