ALONG THE FLORIDA REEF. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE LAND OF THE DANCING CRANE. 



Leaving Key West The expedition Catching a kingfish The 

 Marquesas Graining a Tartar In the wake of a big ray The 

 spoonbill A small Sargasso sea The nest of a fish The float- 

 ing coral Animal flowers The dancing cranes A sea of fire 

 The ames of animals. 



LL aboard for the Tuguses ! " 

 shouted a jolly-faced col- 

 ored man. 



" All aboard ! " echoed three 

 youthful voices. 



The hawsers were cast off, 

 the jib run merrily up by. willing- 

 hands, and the trim schooner 

 Tortfagas bore away down Key 

 West Harbor, headed for Gar- 

 den Key, the land's end of the 

 great Florida reef the key of 

 the Gulf of Mexico. 



The Tortugas was a Government schooner 



