60 A NATURE WOOING. 



Mosquito Inlet is the northernmost point at which the 

 mangrove flourishes. 



Oyster beds are very common in this portion of 

 the river; their product being gathered and sold at 

 points higher up. At last we arrived 



' ' At the inlet bar where the yellow sands 



Gleam bare when the tide is low, 

 And the crested line of the tumbling brine 

 Flings the froth like driven snow." 



The Atlantic is here much wilder than at Ormond, 

 the breakers extending farther out, and the beach, 

 or distance between high and low tides, twice as wide. 

 Sea shells were much more abundant, but were, for 

 the most part, species of Area and other common 

 forms. 



The most prominent objects along the beach were 

 several pairs of king, or horse-shoe, crabs, Limulus 

 polyphemus L. Most interesting to naturalists are 

 they on account of being the sole living representa- 

 tives of a great group of crustaceans which, beginning 

 in the Lower Silurian, culminated in the Upper Silur- 

 ian, and practically died out at the close of the Coal 

 period. The Eurypterids of the water-lime forma- 

 tion were the giants of this group, while the trilo j 

 bites of the different ages were its most common rep- 

 resentatives. 



The female of the largest pair of king crabs on the 

 beach measured twenty-three inches in length by ten 



