76 ALONG THE FLORIDA KEEP. 



stairs of the big building and was soon at the 

 boat-house, hoisting the Hosetta, or the Roaring 

 Gimlet, as he preferred to call her, out of the 

 water. 



Busby was a true prophet, as before many 

 hours it began to blow, and by night a heavy 

 gale broke upon the key. The cocoa-nut trees 

 in the fort were lashed and torn, and as far as 

 the eye could see was a mass of boiling foam, 

 while the water rose so high that the boys sailed 

 about on planks in the interior of the fort. This 

 weather continued for three days before the 

 " norther," as this wind is called, was succeeded 

 by a dead calm. Then the boats were put in 

 readiness for a trip, and it was decided to start 

 at Long Key and follow along the entire length 

 of the reef, which was now piled with dead 

 coral, weeds, and deep-sea shells tossed up by 

 the waves. Long Key was appropriately named, 

 being a long, attenuated island, half a mile in 

 length and from twenty to fifty feet wide, run- 

 ning north and south, just across the channel 

 from Garden Key, and so near that the boys 

 often swam to it. 



