182 AGE OF CORAL REEFS. 
bay and inlet of our Southern coasts, from hav- 
ing been engaged in the extensive researches 
undertaken by Dr. Bache, and carried out under 
his guidance. Many even of the pilots of our 
Southern fleets are men who have been employed 
upon this work, and owe their knowledge of the 
coast to their former occupation. Itis a singular 
fact, that at this very time, when the whole coun- 
try feels its obligation to the men who have 
devoted so many years of their lives to these 
investigations, 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 reference to their practical useful- 
ness, 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 
comprehensiveness 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 
