14 TEQUESTA


land prices throughout the rest of Florida were relatively depressed
due to the affects of the freeze. In May 1895, prices for bayfront
property were reported as "almost out of sight," but good lands for
agricultural purposes could still be found "from one to two miles back
from the bay," priced reasonably at $10 to $25 an acre.5
 The news of the railroad's extension was officially announced
on June 21, 1895, in the pages of Jacksonville's Florida Times-
Union: "It is now a certainty that the East Coast line will be ex-
tended to Bay Biscayne at an early date. A corps of engineers began
the survey this week. The distance is sixty-five miles, with no heavy
grading but few bridges."36 The following day, the paper reported
that "Contractor F.M. C.abott, with a large force of men, has com-
menced to grade."37 The land was graded by removing trees and
bushes in a strip 100 feet wide and smoothing over any uneven
places in the terrain. The track was then laid down the middle of this
strip.
 The railroad and canal companies owned, or had grants from
the state, for nearly sixty miles of the sixty-six-mile extension. For
the remaining six miles, they endeavored to persuade the property
owners to donate the right-of-way. J. R. Parrott, vice president and
general manager of the railroad company, in a newspaper interview
appearing in early July, threatened to halt construction of the exten-
sion if the railroad was forced to pay for a portion of the right-of-
way. "At present," Parrott announced, "the country is very sparsely
settled, and our only object in extending the line now would be be-
cause labor and material are so cheap."3" This was, again, due to the
freeze.
 The thirteen men of the Corps of Engineers, under supervision
of H. G. Ord, completed their survey and reached Miami on July 15.
They camped at the mouth of the Miami River on Tuttle's property.
While there, they also made a survey map of the 100 acres Tuttle
was to donate to Flagler, the site where the hotel was to be built.39
 The canal was completed and navigable between West Palm
Beach and New River, and on August 12, 1895, the canal company
placed one of its own steam-powered boats, the Hittie, on a tri-
weekly run between the two points. Construction of the next phase
of the canal, from Fort Lauderdale to Biscayne Bay, began at the
end of August with one dredge working south while the other the
Biscayne was towed to Biscayne Bay on the Atlantic Ocean side
to begin working northward to meet up with the former.40 By then,