FLORIDA DAYS.


in a shell so small and exquisitely frail that
the faintest pressure would grind it to dust;
yet, washed up in these ledges, and pounded
by the -waves, and smothered by sand grinding
down into every crevice, the shells have been
cemented together until they have hardened
into a composite that is cut and quarried like
rock. For miles along the island these ledges
run, crumbling beneath the fierce white fingers
of the waves, and then renewed again and again.
 Coquina this shell-stone is called, and blocks
of it were hewed here once by convicts brought
from Spain. One wonders if these fierce, un-
happy men, working in chain-gangs, and ferry-
i2g the sparkling heaps over to the
shore to grow into walls and
gateways and the great bas-


'~~i65~~