BISCAYNE BAY,

DADE CO., FLORIDA,

Between the 25th and 26th Degrees of Latitude.

INTRODUCTION.

THE information contained in the following pages has been carefully collected almost entirely by Mrs. JAMES E. WALKER, of Albany, N. Y. The facts stated are but a small portion of the large amount of material in her possession. The compiler has endeavored to give due credit to all by name whose statements are given, so that none may suppose he has either drawn upon the resources of his imagination or appropriated the ideas and language of others as his own.

HENRY E. PERRINE.

June, 1876.

In our northern States there are thousands of health and pleasure seekers who every fall eagerly hasten away from comfortable and luxurious homes to escape the rigors of approaching winter. Of late years the current of travel has been constantly increasing, being directed more and more toward that portion of our country which, beyond dispute, can now claim to be more healthful and free from disease than any other section of the Union. The statistics furnished by the Surgeon-General of the United States establish this fact. He says: “The diseases which result from malaria are of a much milder type in the Peninsula of Florida than in any other State in the Union. These records show that the rates of deaths to the number of cases of remittent fever has been much less than among the troops serving in any other portions of the United States. In the middle division of the United States, the proportion is one death to thirty-six cases; in the northern, one to fifty-two; in the southern, one to fifty-four; in Texas, one to seventy-eight; in California, one to one hundred and twenty-two; in New Mexico, one to one hundred and forty-eight; while in Florida, it is but one to two hundred and eighty-seven.” More will be said upon this subject further on. The facts compiled in this little pamphlet with great care, are not intended alone for the benefit of the invalid and mere seeker of pleasure. They are to attract the attention of the large number of people who for many years have been struggling in the various avenues of business, in our cities and large towns, men whose earnings, even if large in the aggregate, have been each year swallowed up by the increased cost of living in these later days. For those who would like a home in a more genial clime, where they can, by patient industry, within from two to six years, lay the sure foundation for a permanent income, where the expenses of living are not more than about one-fourth as great as in the north, these pages will surely be of interest and will repay them for the time consumed in their perusal. The peninsula of Florida extends abruptly from the main land of the continent, in a direction a little east of south. It is nearly 400 miles in length, and has an average width of 130 miles. Its formation is peculiar. Every other peninsula in the world owes its existence to a central mountain chain, which affords a stubborn resistance to the waves. Florida has no such elevations, and mainly a loose, low, sandy soil. It has another peculiarity. It is said, that at no other point in the world do the trade winds divide, as at Cape Sable. On the one hand, passing up the east coast to the Atlantic, and on the west into the Gulf of Mexico. This it is that produces that wonderful equability of climate, that puzzles a northern man to understand, why it should be so much cooler in summer than at the north. The base of all southern Florida is limestone, not tertiary, but modern and coralline. This it is that prevents all miasma, and this decomposed limestone with its admixture of vegetable mold, makes the best soil in the United States for the introduction of tropical plants. This it is, also, that causes the difference in fertility of this soil, as compared with the siliceous sand of the more northern part of the State. Biscayne Bay is located on the south-eastern coast of Florida, between the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth degrees of north latitude, below the frost line, and is included within the limits of Dade county. The following facts are quoted from the “Florida Settler and Immigrants’ Guide,” prepared by Dennis Eagan, Commissioner of Lands and Immigration: “The climate of Dade county is exceedingly agreeable and conducive to health. The thermometer throughout the year shows a temperature of about seventy-five degrees, the extremes being fifty-one and ninety-two degrees. It is never visited by frost, and the heat in midsummer is much less oppressive than at New York or places further north, being tempered by the influence of the Gulf Stream, which flows within a few miles of the coast. The water is pure and good. Many fine springs are found in different parts of the country; some of them mineral springs of considerable value. The everglades, which are within the limits of Dade county, simply consist of a shallow lake of vast extent—the water is from six inches to six feet in depth, and teems with aquatic and semiaquatic plants, which present to the eyes of the beholder a scene of perpetual verdure. Out of the surface of the lake rise innumerable small islands, which are covered over with a growth of cypress, sweet bay, crabwood, mastic, cocoa palms, cabbage palmetto, and live and water oaks. The waters abound in turtles, fish, etc. Around the margin of the everglades is a prairie, from half a mile to a mile in breadth;  * * *  this prairie comprises some of the richest land to be found in the United States, and has a productive capacity for every variety of vegetable life known in the tropics that is unsurpassed.  * * * *  Between the margin of the everglades and Biscayne Bay and Barnes Sound, there is a strip of land from three to fifteen miles in breadth. It is for the most part rocky pine land, and some portions have a considerable elevation above the level of the ocean. The deposits are oolitic and crystalline calcareous rock. In the vicinity of the bay the land is covered with an undergrowth of sago palm, called the coontie, probably from the Indian designation of the root. It yields an excellent article of starch, and also farina, which cannot be distinguished from Bermuda arrow root, except by the aid of the microscope. The soil is well adapted for the cultivation of sea island cotton, which is here perennial, and can be picked at almost all seasons of the year. Along the bay tobacco, equal to the best grown in Cuba, can be cultivated” (yielding from five to seven cuttings each year), “while every variety of tropical fruit can be grown successfully. The banana, plaintain, cocoanut, guava, sapadilla, pomegranate, mamma, tamarind, pine-apple, lime, lemon, and citron. Limes are so abundant in some places that they literally cover the ground. Grapes ripen in May. The finest varieties of fig are found in great abundance. The olive tree yields an oil equal to the best of Lucca. The castor oil plant is also very productive, and the Sisal hemp of commerce, from which the best of cordage is made, is wonderfully abundant. Sugar cane grows to a great height, and ratoons from seven to ten years. The tomato gets to be a stout bush, with hard, woody stalk, and bears continually.