CORAL REEFS 281 



TO DARWIN 



Tortugas, April 16, 1881. 



It is very natural you should be in my mind, as I am 

 in the midst of corals. I came down here about six 

 weeks ago to study the surface fauna of the Gulf 

 Stream. The Coast Survey placed a small launch at 

 my disposal to go out and scour the surface when the 

 weather is favorable. Unfortunately thus far I have 

 had little chance to accomplish what I started to do, as 

 I find is nearly always the case on the seashore — you 

 never can do what you wish, but have to be satisfied 

 with what turns up. Thus far I have only found the 

 more common things with which I was familiar from 

 my former Blake experience and from meeting them 

 late in the fall at Newport. 



I took advantage of bad weather to finish up a lot of 

 drawings and notes on Velella and Porpita, and have 

 some interesting things about the post-embryonic stages 

 of both, which I hope to publish next summer if I get 

 time to finish the drawings. The greater part of my 

 time I spend in running round inside the reef in the 

 launch and getting at the distribution of the different 

 genera of corals. The number of species here is not great, 

 so it makes their mapping out a simple matter. The Tor- 

 tugas being the very last of the Florida reefs I find much 

 that has not been noticed before and helps to explain, 

 somewhat differently from what was done by Father, the 

 formation of the reefs. On my way here I went across 

 the northern base of the Peninsula of Florida — from 

 Jacksonville to Cedar Keys, and found halfway across 

 a series of hammocks and old coral reefs, such as are 

 found in the Everglades at the southern extremity. In 



