46 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
going on in the Everglades by the action of rain water, and of the forma- 
tion of the huge šinks which characterize that part of the southern 
extremity of Florida. He has, I think, suggested the manner in which 
we may imagine the great sounds like Key Biscayne Bay and Card’s 
and Barnes Sounds to have originated. То this we must, I suppose, 
add the disintegrating effect of the action of the sea, as soon as a reach 
of any extent has been formed for the waves. With the prevailing 
northeasterly winds, the action of the sea must be very marked. 
The outlets of the northern part of Key Biscayne Bay (Plate XIII.) 
are numerous, many of them broad passages. There is a wide pass be- 
tween Soldier Key and the Ragged Keys, as well as passages between 
these keys and Sands and Elliott Keys. Оп each side of Soldier Key 
extends a broad sand bank, leaving ample room for the outlet of the 
waters of the western part of Key Biscayne Day east of Elliott Key. 
Between Soldier Key and Cape Florida there are no less than ten deep, 
narrow outs, kept open by the sweep of the tides, with from five to seven- 
teen feet of water. Still farther to the northward, Bear Cut, which sepa- 
rates Key Biscayne from Virginia Key, is a comparatively broad passage, 
over half a mile wide, with from five to seventeen feet of water. Оп the 
north side of Virginia Key a narrow passage affords the northernmost 
outlet of the waters of Key Biscayne Bay. 
The amount of the material which is brought by the outgoing currents 
on the outer banks of Key Biscayne Bay is seen not only in the sand 
bores to the northward of Soldier Key, towards Cape Florida, but also 
in the delta of Сазват”в Creek (Plate XIV.), a deep cut separating Elliott 
Key and Old Rhodes, which is the principal outlet of the southern part 
of Key Biscayne Bay. Through this cut pours all the material held in 
suspension or solution in the waters of the western part of Key Dis- 
cayne Bay. Тһе creek is no less than three fathoms deep in parts, and 
runs in a bed of its own making nearly two miles out at right angles to 
the trend of the keys. Тһе oreek occupies the eastern edge of a trian- 
gular bank ; the eastern slope of the bed of the ereek is very abrupt, 
falling in a short distance, varying not more than from 200 to 300 
feet, into ten feet of water, while its western slope runs very gently to 
the same depth on a slope a mile in width. Тһе current of the creek 
has excavated a narrow bed, from seven to eight feet below the general 
level of the sea face slope of the keys, with a channel of from twelve to 
eighteen feet of water. Тһе narrowness of the bank on the east side 18 
perhaps due to the damming up of the overflow on that side by the 
prevailing easterly winds. A similar deposit on a smaller scale is formed 
