122 THE YOUNG WRECKER,

CI-ALPTEIT 1 2MIV

FRED RANSOM DESCRIBES THE RFe-F AND

KEYS, IN ORDER THAT THE READER MAYMORE FULLY ENJOY THE ADVENTURES

WHICH ARE TO FOLLOW, AND ALSO AC-QUIRE SOME KNOWLEDGE WELL WORTH OB-

TAINING.

S I draw near those scenes in whichI was destined to spend severalmonths, it would be well, for the

sake of the better understanding ofwhat is to follow, and for that otgeneral information, if the readerwill fancy himself aboard of the

Flying Cloud, as she sails along the Keys,

and, meanwhile, learn something about the pre-sent formation of the Reef,-how it was made,and how the work still goes on under the chargeof little builders, to whom the task was com-mitted thousands and thousands of years ago bythe Great Architect of the Universe.

In general terms, the Florida Reef includesr~i ii

OR FRED RANSOM. 123

all the coral ledges and neighboring Keys: butto speak more precisely, the Florida Reef isone great ridge of coral, stretching contin-uously from a short distance north of CapeFlorida, to several miles beyond Key West.This is the Reef proper, the Reef which mustbe distinguished as such; for it is the onlything thereabouts really entitled to the name,for the reason that it is the only great coralbank lying under water. Except some patchesof coral sand, not comprising more than a fewsquare yards, it is entirely submerged, whereas,the Florida Keys form a long line of islands,covered with verdure, and many of them capa-ble of cultivation.

Commencing at Virginia Key, the northern-most island of the Florida Keys, and just aboveCape Florida (for the Cape is the southern endof Key Biscayne, the next Key to VirginiaKey), the Reef, except the few patches men-tioned, is a great submerged bank, which runsin a gradual curve to a point west of the Mar-quesas, where it stops abruptly, and forms,with the banks around the Marquesas, the mainentrance to the Reef-Channel and to the Harborof Key West. Commencing at the north again,the general trend of the Reef and Keys, forabout sixty miles, is S. S. W.; then, for aboutone hundred and forty miles, W. S. W.; and

124 THE YOUNG WRECKER,

then, between thirty and forty miles, includingthe Tortugas, the rest of the line takes adirection about W. N. W. The line of theReef and Keys curves so regularly, that itforms the segment of a circle with a diameterof about two hundred and forty miles.

Parallel to the great submerged coral bank,which I have said constitutes the Reef, andvarying in distance from two to five miles fromit, lie the Florida Keys, the appearance of whichhas been already described. The southernmostone is Sand Key, to which Captain Tuft tookme on the fishing excursion from Key West.The westernmost ones are a group named theTortugas, so called from the abundance of tur-tles found in the neighboring waters.*

The Reef is really the left bank of the straitsof Florida, through which the Gulf Streamflows into the Atlantic. It also forms a naturalbreakwater for the Florida Keys, throughouttheir whole extent; for the top of the Reef,being only a few feet under water, protects theKeys from the violence of the waves, andalthough there often is surf on their beaches,it is of a very different character from thatdriven in from an open sea. Ordinarily, the

* The name formerly used for turtle was tortoise, andthe word Tortugas is derived from the Spanish word forortoise-tortuga.

OR FRED RANSOM. 125

water of the channel between the Keys andBeef is not more agitated than usual in thelower parts of bays.

All that we see here, and all that lies beyond,for miles and miles further than any distancewhich you can actually conceive, although youmay know it to exist, is the work of littleanimals, a species of polyp, so minute and de-licate, that before one constructs its rock castle,a little pinch between the finger and thumbwould deprive it of existence. For thousandsupon thousands of years, they have gone onuntiringly constructing a great peninsula of acontinent.

What the present Reef is, the Keys oncewere. They were a coral Reef, commencing tothe northward, at the same point at which thepresent Reef begins, but extending further, andending in the group of Keys called the Tor-tugas. Now, still counting from the eastward,we come to the densely wooded shore of themain-land of Florida. This consists of a lineof hummocks, which are neither more nor lessthan an ancient line of Keys, situated on anancient line of Reef. Back of this main-shoreof low bluffs, and after penetrating the growthwhich covers a low strip of land called theIndian Hunting Grounds, we come to the firstof seven parallel lines of hummocks that have

126 THE YOUNG WRECKER,

already been discovered. These are all knownto be the successive lines that have in turnformed the Florida Reef. From Reefs, theybecame Keys, and from Keys, main-land. Thisis strange enough, but more wonders probablyremain than those which have been revealed;for there is reason to suppose that the wholepeninsula of Florida has been formed in thesame manner.*

Between the present Reef and Keys, thereis now a deep channel, but in the course oftime, the Reef will complete its growth, andthe channel between the present Reef and Keyswill fill up by the same process which is nowconnecting the present Keys with the main-land, and which has already been completedbetween the shore bluffs and the lines of hum-mocks in the interior.

You may ask what the limit of this Reefextension is to be. The answer is very simple.The Reef-building polyps cannot build in waterexceeding fifteen fathoms in depth, and not farfrom the present Reef, the Gulf Stream rollsits almost unfathomable waters.

* For the fact as to the number of lines of ancient Reefdiscovered on the main-land of Florida, as well as forseveral other facts included in this chapter, I am indebtedto Professor Agassiz's work entitled, "Methods of Study inNatural History."

OR FRED RANSOM. 127

Without doubt, in picturing to yourselvesthe corals, you have always imagined them tobe either like those delicate red or roseate onesused for trinkets, or like those whose exquisitewhiteness and antlered gracefulness render themconspicuous in parlor or cabinet. The corals,however, are of many colors, and of variouskinds of entirely different structure.

The corals build Reefs only in tropical cli-mates. The Reef is a wall of lime-stone formedby the animals from the lime which exists in astate of suspension in the salt water. Thesepolyps have the power of assimilating the lime,-that is, the animals convert the lime to thepurposes of their existence. Digestion, for in-stance, is the process of assimilating food, andalthough lime does not become the food of thesepolyps, but, on the contrary, their dwellings,yet in thus appropriating this substance to thepurposes of their existence, they perform oneof the acts called assimilation.

The direction of a line of Reef conforms tothe shore off which it is situated. If the shoreis straight or curved, so, also, in the samedegree, will be the Reef. Sometimes, as in thePacific, it has surrounded an island, which, bythe sinking of the ocean bottom, has disap-peared below the surface, while, at the sametime, the Reef has grown until it reached

128 THE YOUNG WRECKER,

nearly to the surface, and then, graduallycollecting a soil upon which a dense vegetationhas sprung up, it has been transformed into averdant ring of land surrounding a lake in mid-ocean.

Now that you have learned where the coralschoose the sites for the construction of theirhomes, it is time for you to become acquaintedwith the mode in which they proceed. The foun-dations of a Reef are laid broadly and stronglyby a kind of coral which constructs huge knobsof many feet in diameter. These, the sailorson the Reef, call " coral heads." The presentReef is about seventy feet in height, and thewhole base of it is composed of "coral heads."When in the commencement of a Reef, these"heads " have multiplied and grown in height,until the water has become as shallow as sixfathoms in depth, the condition of their pros-perity, which requires a certain pressure ofwater, ceases, and with it ceases their furtherdevelopment. They give place to another kindof coral, which, in time, gives place to another,and another, until just below the surface ofthe sea, the top of a Reef is crowned and va-riegated with a delicate growth of fragilecorals, corallines, sea-fans, &c.

The Reef is now finished, and forms a solidwall of lime-stone, abrupt on the seaward side,

OR FRED RANSOM. 129

and sloping gently landward. Now anotherprocess completes the sea-wall. The action ofthe waves on the Reef has detached greatmasses of coral, broken them into fragments,and ground them into sand. This sand, andmaterials composed of shells, decaying animalmatter, timber and mud from the main-land,are gradually collected among the light coralson the summit of the Reef, until, at last, atolerably secure soil begins to appear abovethe surface of the sea. On this, the wavessoon wash up the same material that com-menced to form the land, and it is renderedstill more secure. Vegetation is now the onlything needed, and it comes by accident: thatis, if aught can be accident that so resemblesdesign.

The greatest resource which these spotshave, is in the mangrove tree, with whichnearly all the Keys are more or less covered.In the condition of little stalks with roots atthe end, the mangrove seeds float in greatnumbers around the Reef and Keys, and are,of course, deposited wherever the waves carrythem. No sooner do they obtain a foothold,than they begin to sprout rapidly, for saltwater does not impede their growth. As theyshoot up, they throw oat numerous roots, notonly below, but above, so that the stem is

130 THE YOUNG WRECKER,

surrounded by a gnarled, fantastic enclosure,over which it is difficult to clamber. In thisuncouth basket-work, which looks like a night-mare of rustic arbor furniture, all sorts ofmaterials collect, and the permanence of thenew-born Key is tolerably well assured.

We now come to the process by which aReef becomes, first, the shore of the main-land,and, afterwards, hummocks in the interior.While the Reef is being built, the channelbetween the Keys (or former Reef) and themain-land has been gradually filling up withmud-flats, and by the time the Reef is com-pleted, and another one commenced outside(for the latter does not commence until theother is finished), the channel between theReef and Keys begins to fill up, whilethat between the Keys and main-land willhave closed, thus making the Keys part of themain-land.

You do not, of course, imagine that, while Iwas sailing along the Reef, I gleaned all theinformation which I have imparted. All I sawwas, on one hand, a long stretch of greenislands, and on the other, the great ocean, withthe surf dashing, in places, on the interveningReef. What I have told you was learnedwhere most information is gained-from books.Thln, too, my life on the coast, during the

OR FRED RANSOM. 131

following months, made me very familiar withthat region.

Now you will more readily comprehend, andtherefore more fully enjoy the adventures to benarrated.