Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/350

338 F L O F L abridgment of Don Quixote, which, though far from being a correct representation of the original, had great success. Florian was a professed imitator of Gessner, arid his style has all the artificial delicacy and sentimentality of the Gessnerian school. Perhaps the nearest example of the class in English literature is afforded by Wilson s Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life. He is least affected in his fables, his comedies, and some of his minor tales. Among the best of the fables arc reckoned " the Monkey showing the Magic Lantern," "the Blind Man and the Paralytic," and " the Monkeys and the Leopard"; and Les Deux Billets, Le Bon Pere, and Le Bon Menage are the best known of the comedies. In the latter he brought the arlequinades again into fashion, and raised them to a higher level. Florian s (Eavres Completes appeared at Paris in 16 vol umes, 1820; his (Euvres inedites in 4 volumes, 1824. Didot published an edition in 24 volumes, Briand another in 13, and Jauffret a third in 12. The editions of some of the more popular works are extremely numerous. See "Vie de Florian" prefixed to his (Euvrcs posthumcs ; A. J. N". de Kosny, Via de Florian, Paris, An V.; Jauit ret and Lacretelle, Elogc de Florian, 1812; Saiute-Beuve, Causcrics du lundi, t. iii. Plate II. FLORIDA, the most southern of the United States of America, is a large promontory extending southwards into the Atlantic ocean, its southern and western coasts forming in part the northern and eastern shore line of the Gulf of Mexico. The name of Florida was in the 16th and early part of the 17th century indefinitely applied to the territory now lying south of Virginia. By its charter the southern boundary of Carolina was fixed at the 29th parallel, thus including about one half of the present State of Florida. In 1738 the stipulated northern boundary of Florida was a line drawn due west from the mouth of the St John s River (called by the Spaniards San Juan) to the little river Vasisa, cutting off all upper or continental Florida. At the time of its cession by Spain to Great Britain in 1763, the territory of Florida extended as far west as the Mississippi river, including portions of the present States of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The present boundaries are comprised between 24 30 and 31 N. lat., and 80 and 87 45 W. long. Florida makes the southern boundary of the State of Georgia, and in part that of Alabama, from which it is separated on the north-west by the river Perdido. The Atlantic washes its eastern, and the Gulf of Mexico its southern and western coasts, constituting a sea-board of more than 1000 miles. On the south-east it is separated from the Bahamas by the Straits of Florida. It points towards Cuba on the south, Havana being about 110 miles from Key West. Its entire length from Perdido river to Cape Sable is about 700 miles, its mean breadth 90 miles. The estimated area of Florida is 59,268 square miles, or 37,931,520 acres, of which 2,373,541 acres were in 1870 included in farms. The population in 1870 was 187,748. The peninsula proper terminates on the south in Cape Sable ; but a remarkable chain of rocky islets, called the Florida Keys, begins at Cape Florida on the eastern shore, extends south-westerly nearly 200 miles in a direction generally conforming with that of the coast, and ends in the cluster of sand-heaped rocks known as the Tortugas, from the great number of turtle formerly frequenting them. South of the bank on which these Keys rise, and separated from them by a navigable channel, is the long, narrow, and dangerous coral ridge known as the Florida Reef. This group of keys and reefs is washed on the south by the constant current of the Gulf Stream. The most important of the keys is Key West, a nautical corruption of Cayo Hueso or Bone Key, which name originated in the great number of bones found on the island by the Spaniards, supposed to be those of the aboriginal inhabitants/ The island was long the haunt of smugglers and pirates, but is now a busy and thriving place, and one of the most im portant naval stations possessed by the United States, on account of its commanding situation at the entrance of the most frequented passage into the Gulf of Mexico, as well as its nearness to Havana, Kingston, and other important ports of the West Indies, belonging to European powers. The Gulf coast of the State is intersected by numerous bays, among which are Pensacola, Choctawhatchee, St Andrew s, Appalachicola, Appalachee, Tampa, Charlotte, Ponce de Leon or Chatham, and Florida Bays, the last lying between the Keys and mainland. The chief rivers are St John s, navigable about 100 miles for vessels of moderate draught, and emptying into the Atlantic after a northerly course of 300 miles ; Indian River, a long narrow lagoon on the eastern coast, which it is proposed to unite by a canal with the St John s ; the Suwanee and Ockloconee, which rise in Georgia and flow into the Gulf of Mexico ; the Appalachicola, formed by the Chattahootchee and Flint rivers, and emptying into the bay of the same name ; Choctawhatchee, Escambia, and Perdido, also flowing into the Gulf. The St Mary s makes for some distance the northern boundary of the State. Florida has also numerous lakes, some of which are navigable. Lake Okeechobee, in the Everglades, is about 40 miles long and 30 broad. Surface, and Soil. The surface is generally level, the greatest elevation being not more than 300 feet above the sea, although old maps represent it as mountainous. The most remarkable feature is the immense tract of marsh filled with islands in the southern part of the state, called the Everglades, and by the Indians "grass-water." Between the Suwanee and Chattahootchee the country is hilly ; tho western portion of the State is level. De Bow designates the lands as high-hummock, low-hummock, swamp, savanna, and pine. The soil is generally sandy, except in the hummocks, where it is intermixed with clay. These hummocks vary in extent from a few to thousands of acres, and are found in all parts of the State. They are usually covered with a heavy growth of red, live, and water oak, magnolia, pine, and dogwood. When cleared they afford desirable openings for cultivation. The savannas are rich alluvions on the margins of streams or lying in detached tracts, yielding largely, but requiring ditching and dyking in ordinary seasons. In the " barrens, " as the pine forests are called, the soil is very poor, and thickly overgrown with pine and cypress. The district comprised in the Everglades is impassable during the rainy season, from July to October. It is about 60 miles long by 60 broad, covering most of the territory south of Lake Okeechobee, or Big-water. The islands with which this vast swamp or lake ia studded vary from one-fourth of an acre to hundreds of acres in extent. They are generally covered with dense thickets of shrubbery or vines, occasionally with lofty pines and palmettos. The water is from 1 to 6 feet deep, the bottom being covered with a growth of rank grass. The vegetable deposit of the Everglades is considered well adapted to the cultivation of the banana and plantain. Another remarkable feature of Florida are the subterranean streams which undermine the rotten limestone formation, creating numerous cavities in the ground called "sinks." These are inverted conical hollows, or tunnels, varying in extent from a few yards to several acres, at the bottom of which running water often appears. A most remarkable spring, situated 12 miles from Tallahassee, has been sounded with 250 fathoms of line before finding bottom. The outflow forms a beautiful lake, transparent and cold as ice even in the hottest weather. The great sink of Alachua county is a subterranean passage by which the waters of tho Alachua savanna are supposed