OF THE UNITED STATES 
393 
inland for a mile the rock is on the surface, but for the most 
part it is covered with rich vegetable mold. The hammock sur- 
passes all others of Florida in the variety of its woods. The 
familiar wild mulberry, red bay, and liveoak are here. With 
them grow the wild fig or rubber tree, the gumbo-limbo, iron- 
wood, mastic, naked wood, crabwood, and many others. Scat- 
tered along the rock}’' bluff, washed by the crystal blue water of 
Biscayne, are great numbers of wild lemons, limes, and oranges, 
and over them all from tree to tree climbs the vivid green of a 
giant vining cactus. It is here, too, that the cocoanut palm 
sends up its giant plume-like fronds. The bamboo transplanted 
makes itself at home. The century-plant, reckless of weather, 
bears its giant bloom, and the queen of all the trees, the royal 
palm, graceful beyond description, adds her luxuriance to the 
tropical beauty of the scene. 
The rocky front of the inshore of bay Biscayne is bi’oken by 
the Miami and other rivers flowing out of the Everglades. A 
little north of the bay, into New River inlet, empties New river. 
Both of these glade rivers are singularly beautiful. Their waters, 
clear and limpid, are fringed on either shore by all the wild 
growths of the hammock, until they make their way through 
pine and prairie, reflecting every change of scene like mirrors. 
Through these rivers the Indians come to the frontier to sell 
their skins and venison. The distance from the coast to the 
glades is from 6 to 8 miles, under the overlooking branches of 
trees that are always green. The fall of the Miami river as it 
leaves the glade is about 10 feet in 900. Its mouth fringed with 
lordly cocoanuts, the Miami empties into the bay almost due 
west of cape Florida. The southern extremity of key Biscayne 
forms cape Florida, not far from which is the northern end of 
the Great Florida reef. 
South of cape Florida, here clustered and there widely se[)a- 
ratcd by the opal waters of the Southern ocean, lies the great 
system of the Florida keys, beginning with Sands key, passing 
Cards sound, Barnes sound, and the bay of Florida, until in 
the extreme south Key West sits in her isolation, a city t>f over 
20,000 inhabitants, cut off fn)in her sister cities and eompelled 
to be content with a mail twice a week. 'I'hese keys are a study 
in themselves. 'I'hey vary in size from a point of land to key 
Largo, wiiich is 2o miles long and from one-eighth of a mile to 
2 miles in width. 
This fringe of tlie continent forms a safe barrier against the 
sea, and in land-locked waters the voyage from Miami to Key 
