ORIGIN OF HAMMOCKS. 75 



overlain by three inches of whitish sand, above which 

 one to three inches of vegetable humus forms the sur- 

 face. But a few thousand years have elapsed since 

 this broken mass of shells was a part of the ocean's 

 bed. Over it the reddish sand, already noted as at 

 present occupying much of the space between the lim- 

 its of high and low tide, was deposited by the water. 

 The white sand was then blown over this by the wind, 

 just as it is now being spread by that agency over the 

 red along the sea beach. The saw palmetto and allied 

 vegetation which first secured a foothold in the sand, 

 died down and formed the beginning of the vegetable 

 mold, which has gradually increased in thickness by 

 the decay of many hundreds of generations of more 

 luxuriant plants. In this way this hammock, and all 

 others of a similar nature in East Florida, owe their 

 origin to the agencies of the ocean, the wind and de- 

 caying vegetation. 



March 18, 1899,. Beneath the bark of a fallen 

 and decaying pine I found 

 to-day two examples of that 

 curious little toothless frog, 

 Engystoma carolinense Hoi- 

 brook. When the loose bark 

 was pulled away they re- 

 mained squatted close to the 

 brown wood, which they re- 

 sembled so closely that had it not been for the pro- 

 tuberances which they formed, I might have passed 



