TO THE OWL. 
BY OLIVER DON DAVIE, COLUMBUS, OHIO. 
Sad feathered hero of the night, 
All darkness is to thee but light, 
The marsh, the thicket is thy home, 
The gloomy void is all thine own, 
To spread the wings of flying pow r er 
And feast within the darkest hour. 
While far above where man can see 
In that vast boundless canopy, 
The greater ruler of the night, 
Arising with its glimmering light; 
Steals westward on the starry sky 
In hours that pass so swiftly by. 
Through days, weeks, months and years, 
The orbs revolving in their spheres ; 
Or when the moon is gone away 
Ere light has ushered in the day, 
Lo ! in the north is seen afar. 
The twinkling of the polar star; 
All this unseen by thy great sight 
And naught to thee, sad bird of night. 
But far on silent wing to roam, 
And seek recesses called thy home; 
Perhaps in some lone lofty tower, 
To mark the midnight dreary hour; 
Or when its curfew tolls aloud 
Some dark cavern is thy shroud, 
Where oft the winds and tempest rude 
Disturb thy peaceful solitude, 
Where trees oft beaten with the storm 
But rear their splintered naked form; 
There lend thy sighs to the passing gale. 
Where clouds o'erhang their misty veil ; 
Where ages past lie in decay", 
And things to come must pass away. 
A Naturalist in Florida— Cruise of 
the 4 4 Rose Bud." 
BY W. W. CALKINS, CHICAGO, ILL. 
[Paper No. 4.] 
On our return to Key West from Markesas 
trip, a day and a half was spent in packing 
and shipping home the collections made. 
This task completed and the wind being fair 
w r e again set sail for Tortugas, about seventy 
miles west. At six p. M. we anchored off 
Markesas for the night, the next morning 
opened dark and threatening with a regular 
"blow" in prospect. Between us and Tortu- 
gas lay a clear stretch of water forty miles in 
width. A portion of the time no land 
would be in sight, and as our master had 
never been so far west, and was not familiar 
with the course, there was some risk, should 
the weather be bad. However, the wind 
was right, so we determined to go. Marke- 
sas soon became a mere speck behind us. 
The wind freshened and towards noon a reg- 
ular gale was blowing, but the Rose Bud 
proved equal to the occasion, shipping but 
little water and riding the huge billows with 
apparent ease. Such was the height of these 
that when our vessel was in the trough of 
the sea, it looked as though we were about 
to be buried. It was grand though, and I 
can say truly that none of us felt any fear at 
this time because we had confidence in the 
Rose Bud, and suppose that we were getting 
nearer and nearer to our destination. Ac- 
cording to Captain Albury we should sight 
Tortugas Lighthouse about twelve o'clock. 
The hour came but no beacon appeared and 
a misty haze covered the horizon. We had 
steered the vessel, of course, by the charts 
and compass, but no allowance had been 
made for the drifting of our little craft under 
the united influence of the gale and the gulf 
stream; and it was found that we were ten 
miles off the proper course. Taking my 
glass, Albury climbed to the masthead and 
scanned the horizon, but it was almost one 
o'clock before he made out dimly Logger- 
head Key light at least twelve miles away. 
Our present course would have surely tak- 
en us to Cuba or beyond, or else the vessel 
would be recked on the reefs around Tortu- 
gas. The entrance to the harbor could only 
be gained by altering our course and head- 
ing the Rose Bud up sharply in the wind. 
This was no pleasant task in the state of the 
weather, but there was no alterative — we 
were between Scylla and Charybdis. With 
coolness and promptness our sailors, assisted 
by Bill the cook, brought the vessel to, but 
so suddenly that in doing it a tremendous 
wave washed the vessel from stem to stern. 
However, the hatches were down and every- 
thing tight. As the wave struck I stood by 
the mast, Dr. Brown sat on a box near by, 
absorbed in meditation. All the rest were 
on duty, none of us made any unnecessary 
remarks, but probably thought a great deal. 
The gallant Rose Bud staggered for a 
moment under the shock, then suddenly 
shaking of the mass of water, rose above 
them and shot forward like a thing of life. 
After this we experienced some rough seas, 
but in about an hour were in the open chan- 
nel leading to the harbor. The vessel was 
not kept strictly in this as we had no pilot 
and could not always discern it. The last 
quarter was run over shallows, where the 
next day when the gale subsided, huge 
boulders of coral rock appeared above the 
surface in about tw© feet of water. At two 
o'clock w T e anchored under the walls of Fort 
Jefferson quite satisfied with the trip. We 
found here a half dozen soldiers, the Light- 
house keepers and a few stray fishermen. 
These were the only inhabitants of Garden 
Key, Fort Jefferson covers the whole of it, 
and contains an area of fifteen acres. 
The walls are built of brick and extend en- 
tirely around the Key in the form of a hexa- 
gon. They are 50 feet in height and pierced 
for three hundred guns, I think there were 
that number mounted when we were there, 
the bull clogs of war pointed to every part of 
the compass. A deep moat surrounds the 
fortress, this is eighty feet in width, and 
across it on the eastern side is the only en- 
trance by means of a drawbridge. An im- 
mense iron gate closes this. The old light- 
house stands within the walls. Here also are 
large brick buildings for soldiers' quarters, 
in the open parade ground are a few stunted 
specimens of Mangrove trees and a green of 
Bermuda grass. 
Massena the light keeper, cultivates a few 
roses which trail over his cottage, otherwise 
3*7 
everything is bare. There are six other keys 
in the group, all smaller than the Garden 
Key and in times of storms subject to over- 
flow. They are of coral origin and the last 
link in the long chain extending southwards 
from the mainland at Key Biscayne. Being 
completely isolated, they present a novel and 
forlorn aspect. Uncle Sam has spent mil- 
lions here, but wherefore I can not see. Ex- 
cept as a station for the storage of military 
ornaments or a harbor of refuge. Tortugas 
has no importance, during the rebellion 
several thousand prisoners were confined in 
Fort Jefferson, among them Mudd and 
Spangler. I was told that a few of the pris- 
oners escaped, but none of these were ever 
heard of afterwards, and it is supposed that 
they perished while attempting to reach the 
main land in a small boat. No garrison is 
kept here now beyond a few soldiers under 
the command of a non-commissionecl officer, 
who looks after the government property. 
There is no regular communication with the 
north of Key West. But fishing vessels 
come there, and occasionally travellers like 
ourselves drop down on the solitary inhabi- 
tants. I venture to say, however, that very 
few appear here on the same business that 
brought my party. 
During our visit I saw enough to satisfy 
myself that a naturalist might spend some 
weeks with profit. The Keys are simply ex- 
tinct coral reefs, they are surrounded by liv- 
ing reefs of the wonderful coral builders, in 
a former paper I gave a list of the species 
that do the w T ork of making continents, and 
which are found here in abundance. What 
are known in cabinets as "finger corals" 
seem to be the most prolific, and flourish in 
water from three to fifteen feet deep. The 
large brain corals and the Astreas grow in 
masses, the smaller kind are found in shal- 
low water, and a number of specimens were 
taken from the walls of the Fort, which the 
lighthouse keeper claimed were from two to 
six years old, these belong to the Astrea 
group and measured from one to three 
inches long and an inch in thickness, of 
course the coral polype must be supplied 
with pure sea water or it can not work or 
live. 
The rate of growth depends much on the 
surroundings and no certain standard can 
be given. The species found here might be 
studied for months with advantage. We 
had no time for this, but collected a large 
quantity of specimens. A number of rare 
shells were also obtained, and some fine sea 
urchins of several species not easily found 
elsewhere. We also secured several cuttle 
fish (octopus) one of these I brought up with 
a boathook in a mass of finger coral to which 
it was clinging, it measured two feet across 
the extended arms, and now adorns my cab- 
inet. 
Having spent several days here, Dr. Brown 
and myself returned to Key West with Maj- 
or Smith on his supply schooner, which 
chanced to arrive. Dr. Velie remained and 
loaded the Rose Bud with corals, he then 
joined us. Over thirty barrels of corals were 
shipped to the Chicago Academy, as the re- 
sults of this expedition, besidesseveral bar- 
rels of shells. We then refitted the vessel 
and made another cruise among the Keys 
and to Cape Sable. 
