386 
GEOGRAPHY OF THE SOUTHERN PENINSULA 
composed mostly of oyster shells and fringed on its western end 
with pine. Following this is the low hammock of deep, black, 
exhaustless soil, the growths of which are picturesque and trop- 
ical, and last the yellow pine or flat woods where the negro and 
the cracker find their liomes. Between the arms of the lagoon a 
channel 60 feet wide and 6 feet deep has recentl}' been dredged, 
with the result that one will be able this winter to enter the 
lagoon at St. Augustine in a naphtha launch or house-boat and 
sail all the way to bay Biscayne. Leaving St. Augustine, with its- 
old Spanish streets and frowning fortress of San IMarco, the voy- 
age lies 
“Thro’ leafey alleys of verdurous valleys” 
to Ormond on the Halifax. Further south lie Daytona and 
New Smyrna, the site of old indigo and cane fields, English 
failure and Minorcan misfortune ; next come Canaveral light and 
at length the broad pineai)})le fields of the Indian river; then 
the narrows of the Indian and Jupiter rivers to Jui)iter light. 
A canal }>a.sses into lake Worth, where nature and art have 
combined to ]>roduce tropical conditions. Thence it extends to 
New river and by succeeding reach of river and creek and canal 
into bay Biscayne ; thence south through bay Biscayne inside the 
keys, or outside the keys through Hawk channel to Key M'est. 
J'he products of the peninsula are so well known that I give 
them but a passing notice. The orange was for many years the 
chief object of labor and culture. In 1893-’94 the cro]i reached 
the enormous outi>ut of 5,500,000 boxes. Then frost killed to 
the roots 90 per cent of the trees. Sixty per cent of these grew 
again from the roots and some will bear this year. Three years 
hence the crop will probably aggregate 5,000,000 boxes. A 
country of one crop, however, is, like a man with a i>et virtue, of 
doul)tful character, and Florida has learned the lesson of the 
freeze to good effect. Next to the orange is the inneapple, of 
which this year })robably 80,000 crates have been shipped. 
Added to these, everything in the nature of fruit or vegetable 
that the temperate zone produces may be found ripening in our 
gardens for shipment to the north while the farms and gardens 
and orchards of that region are }'^et deep in the sleep of winter. 
The climate of the peninsula presents so many phases that 
only an exhaustive study can do it justice. The chief interest, 
however, centers in its winter conditions. The disposition to 
escape from the rigors of the northern winter is gradually in- 
creasing, and the number of people able to do so is likewise on 
