bridges. This point is known as Deep Cut, for the reason that 

 the banks marking the summit of the divide at this point are 

 fully one hundred feet above the water. Among the more strik- 

 ing forms collected were leaves of a Sabal-like palm, numerous 

 leaves of figs and laurels, a large Osnmnda, many twigs and some 

 cones of Sequoia, besides many other curious and interesting 

 relics of the vegetation which flourished in the swamps and on 

 the hillsides along this old coast when the climate was much 

 warmer than now, when man was hardly a promise, and the 

 dominant forms of life were huge reptiles like some of those 

 which have been so admirably restored during recent years by 

 well-known investigators at the American Museum of Natural 

 History. Edward W. Berry. 



THE COCO DE MER, OR DOUBLE COCOANUT. 



In the Indian Ocean several hundreds of miles to the eastward 

 of Zanzibar, and about four degrees south of the equator, is 

 a group of islands known as the Seychelles. These were dis- 

 covered by the Portuguese as early as 1 505 ; were occupied by 

 the French in 1743 ; siezed by the British in 1794, and formally 

 ceded to them in 1 814. Here at the time of the 1 French occupa- 

 tion in 1743 was discovered a beautiful palm, the fruit of which 

 had been known for many years, but the origin of which had 

 been one of the mysteries of those early times. As in those 

 times mysteries always gave rise to most fabulous tales, so was 



and given a worth far 

 in excess of its intrinsic value. It was known as coco de mer, 

 coco de Salomon, and coco des Maldives, this last name being 

 applied because so many of these nuts had been found floating 

 in the sea near the Maldive Islands. It was averred by these 

 ancient people that it was not a product of the earth but of the 



