A ^VINTEi: ^'ISIT TO THE KAIIA.^IA ISLANDS. 219 



by the trade-winds into sand dunes thirt}^ and forty feet in lieight, 

 to be .crested and covered Avitli a profusion of trailing leguminous 

 plants, notably the Batatas litloralis, with various grasses and 

 shrubs, among which the scrub!)}- Palmetto (Sabal serrnlata) is 

 common. These all serve to retain the sands in place, prevent their 

 shifting, and arrest new deposits through which they continue to 

 grow with surprising luxuriance. These great sand dunes in time 

 become indurated b}- the continued action of the rains from the 

 well-known effect of the carbonic acid, prevalent in rain water, 

 which cements the grains of oolitic sand into a dense and even 

 crj'stalline limestone rock. 



These masses of algw, as well as the foliage and stems of the 

 shrubs, decompose in the places where the sands have buried them, 

 the result being that the solid and compact oolitic rock is penetrated 

 through and through with apertures, channels, crannies and cavi- 

 ties that are filled with decomposed vegetable matter, so that 

 while to the uninformed eye the surface of the ground may seem 

 as bai'e and hopeless of sustaining vegetable life as are the tops of 

 our Quincj' ledges, the fact is that one has but to break a hole 

 into the surface of tlie rock, put in a little soil which may be 

 scraped together, insert the seeds or plants and leave them to their 

 own devices, with the certaiut}' that thej- will germinate and thrive, 

 pushing their roots out and around into these various interstices 

 that have been filled, by the processes of nature, with just the kind 

 of material best suited for their sustenance and growth. In most 

 fields that have not been artificially prepared, the natural surface 

 covering of soil is but slight, and in some that I saw the surface 

 seemed to be nothing but honey-combed rock, entirely destitute of 

 soil, and yet it was covered with a vigorous growth of shrubs and 

 trees. Upon such gi'ound there is no chance to use either spade or 

 plough, neither do you see them in use anywhere, the principal and 

 most effective implements of husbandry being the crowbar, pickaxe 

 and sledge-hammer. 



To make a fruitful vegetable garden all that is required is to 

 pulverize the surface of the limestone rock, which becomes mingled 

 with what vegetable matter there is, Avhile more is speedily added 

 from the rank growth of vegetation which invariably follows, and 

 a good friable soil of sufficient depth is the result. Thus it is 

 apparent that land which would well sustain a thrifty growth of 

 trees and shrubs would not, by any means, auswer for a vegetable 



