154 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



sometimes sweep across the keys and to some 

 extent portions of the mainland of Lower Florida, 

 and it is at such times that most of the tropical 

 seeds are distributed over the land. Some years 

 ago, while one of these storms raged, the sea was 

 driven over the southeast coast of the State imtil 

 it covered all or the greater part of Elliott's and 

 Largo keys.- This wave passed inland until a 

 considerable area of the Homestead country was 

 under water. Two men in boats were driven far 

 in the mainland; one immediately pushed out on 

 the retreating tide, the other delayed until after 

 the water subsided, his launch grounded, and he 

 never could float it again. 



In his West Indian Hurricanes Garriott gives 

 an account of a storm accompanied by a tidal 

 wave that is in point. He says (page 49) : "In 

 the month of September of the year 1759 a heavy 

 gale of wind from the northeast so greatly impeded 

 the current of the Gulf Stream that the water 

 forced, at the same time, in the Gulf of Mexico 

 by the trade winds, rose to such a height that not 

 only the Tortugas and other islands disappeared, 

 but the highest trees were covered on the Peninsula 

 of Larga, and at this time (so says Wm. Gerard de 



