INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, PHILADELPHIA. 51 



found in Lake Hikpochce and the connecting canal, which in its general 

 characters approaches very closely some of the more northerly marine 

 species. In Eagle Bay I collected a solitary young cray-fish, the only 

 specimen of this group of the decapod Crustacea observed during our 

 entire trip. The red larva of a species of annelid, measuring about three- 

 quarters of an inch in length, is sufficiently abundant in the bed of the 

 lake, but we were unable to discover the adult which it represents. The 

 same species was also abundant in Lake Hikpochee, while a slightly 

 differing, emerald-green, form was found in the canal connecting the 

 two lakes. 



Of the vertebrate life of the lake we found but few traces. The only 

 species of fish obtained by us were the black-bass and cat-fish, both of 

 them of good size. A specimen of the latter, obtained some distance 

 out from the mouth of the Kissimmee River, measured about twenty 

 inches in length. It appears to be specifically distinct from any of the 

 described forms, and I have accordingly proposed for it the name of 

 Okeechobee cat (Ictalurus Okeechobeensis), We found the bass very 

 plentiful just at the entrance to Eagle Bay, where the fish were readily 

 caught by means of the trolling line. This method of fishing was also 

 tried for a long time on the open expanse of the lake, but without 

 success. We observed here at intervals a larger fish jump from the 

 water, but the impossibility of a near approach prevented us from ascer- 

 taining the species ; not improbably it was a sturgeon. 



We found the alligator nowhere about the lake, except on its imme- 

 diate border line as in the lagoons opposite Observation Island, or in 

 Eagle Bay. This condition was also observed in the case of Lake Hikpo- 

 chee. Whether these animals perform long journeys by water, or not, I 

 am unable to say, but as far as our own observations go, it would appear 

 that they do not. I noticed two individuals off the mouth of Taylor's 

 Creek swimming leisurely in the lake at a distance of perhaps two or 



three hundred feet from the actual border. 







*** The remarkable parasite described on page 46, and doubtfully 

 referred to Clusia, is, I am informed by Mr. A. H. Curtiss, of Jacksonville, 

 Fla., a species of fig (Fiats anrca). It is said to at first feed on other 

 trees, "but finally, by sending down multitudes of intergrafting roots, it 

 completely enwraps and smothers the supporting tree and forms a hollow 

 trunk of its own." 



