FLORIDA.


who may visit it will not wonder at finding first on this list
Santa Rosa Island. Upon its beach, mid-day, in its over-
flowing brilliancy, makes the beholder feel as if, according
to Milton, 'another morn had risen on mid-noon.' The
sunset comes with a splendor and glory unknown to more
northern climes. Santa Rosa Island is a sand-key of
the Gulf, forty miles long, and varying in breadth from a


Ruins or FowR McRH, wrmr ForT PCioC nm THm DwruAcz.


fifth of a mile to over a mile across; it is the breakwater
of Pensacola Harbor, and receives the shock of the rolling
seas of the Gulf of Mexico, which often break against it in
fury, while the waters of the bay within are still as a mill-
pond, and scarce a ripple washes the beach of the city front,
seven miles away, though the water at the city is as salt as
that n the center of the Gulf. The sea-beach of the island
is a gently sloping expanse of white sand, back and forth