
RAMBLES IN FLORIDA. 451 
The small hillocks of sand, of which we have seen at least 
a hundred since we left Tampa, are made by a species of 
Gopher (Geomys pinetus Raf.). The people call them Sala- 
manders. The propriety of the name is not perceptible. 
Three or four species of Geomys are found in the Pacific 
States.* 
We have arrived at the edge of the timber; the road 
no farther winds beneath the shade of the forest, but lies 
broadly open to a burning sun. It follows for a short dis- 
tance through a sedgy meli with a rank growth upon either 
side and terminates at a cluster of cabins, biih stand upon 
the sandy margin of the bay. 
The small rudely thatched buildings, are occupied by a 
number of workmen engaged in the manufacture of salt. 
Their apparatus is of the simplest description. It consists 
of a few kettles, or evaporators, made by cutting in halves, 
longitudinally, the shells or outer eylinders of pue steam 
boilers, which are rudely set in masonry of stone and mud. 
Into these kettles the salt water is- pumped by hand from 
a well-hole, a large pit dug in the sand, into which the water 
seeps, or flows. The evaporation is produced by means of a 
fire under the kettles; the inflammable pitch-pine making an 
admirable fuel for this purpose. The thatched cabinsf of the 
salt makers were quite a novelty to us. They are fifteen to 
e iit 





Increase is owing to two causes: the game-laws of - State protect them during th 
breeding season, and the penses settlement of the agricultural lands, leads to the - 
termination of those animals th prey upon them. 
* The Gophers make sad d in the suburbs of San Francisco, by cutting off the 
Toots of rare plants in the flower beds, or by 
market Sewing As they work underground, ‘they are not easily detected, tho ugh mer- 
sly 


Gilles upon some occasions by the gardeners, who frequently use a trap to 
m Hen ie Gophers have a pouch in each cheek, in which they can carry food 
burr 
an artic sh entitled “ nga gon — published in the “ Overland Monthly,” 
Yol. Itt, p. 129, the writer , * On account of the great number of Gophers in that 
tate, an the gts use Hoe dir skins for money, a Floridian is called a “ Gopher.” 
Ja an who Luge se ie or acts in an ded manner, is 

which are seen by the traveller 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. III. 58 

