54 FLORIDA REEFS. 



owe their knowledge of the coast to their former occupation. It is a singu- 

 lar fact, that at this very time, when the whole country feels its obligation 

 to the men who have devoted so many years of their lives to these investi- 

 gations, a proposition should have been brought forward in Congress for the 

 suspension of the Coast Survey on economical grounds. Happily, the 

 almost unanimous rejection of this proposition has shown the appreciation 

 in which the work is held by our national legislature. Even without refer- 

 ence to their practical usefulness, it is a sad sign, when, in the hour of her 

 distress, a nation sacrifices first her intellectual institutions. Then, more 

 than ever, when she needs all the culture, all the wisdom, all the compre- 

 hensiveness of her best intellects, should she foster the institutions that 

 have fostered them, and in which they have been trained to do good service 

 to their country in her time of need. 



Several of the Florida keys, such as Key West and Indian Key, are 

 already large, inhabited islands, several miles in extent. The interval 

 between them and the main-land is gradually filling up, by a process similar 

 to that by which the islands themselves were formed. The gentle landward 

 slope of the reef, and the channel between it and the shore, are covered 

 with a growth of the more branching lighter corals, such as Sea-Fans, Coral- 

 lines, &c., answering the same purpose as the intricate roots of the mangrove- 

 tree. All the debris of the reef, as well as the sand and mud washed from 

 the shore, collect in this net-work of coral growth within the channel, and 

 soon transform it into a continuous mass, with a certain degree of consistence 

 and solidity. This forms the foundation of the mud-flats which are now 

 rapidly filling the channel, and must eventually connect the keys of Florida 

 with the present shore of the peninsula. 



Outside the keys, but not separated from them by so great a distance as 

 that which intervenes between them and the main-land, there stretches 

 beneath the water another reef, abrupt, like the first, on its seaward side, 

 but sloping gently toward the inner reef, and divided from it by a channel. 

 This outer reef and channel are, however, in a much less advanced state 

 than the preceding ones. Only here and there a sand-flat large enough to 

 afford a foundation for a beacon, or a lighthouse, shows that this reef also is 

 gradually coming to the surface, and that a series of islands corresponding 

 to the keys must eventually be formed upon its summit. 



Some of my readers may ask why the reef does not rise evenly to the 

 level of the sea, and form a continuous line of land, instead of here and 



