The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1940-01-22
NATURE NOTES
Reprinted From Port AlleganY (Penna.)
Reporter and Argus
BY J. c. GALLOWAY

Presented herewith is another
installment of Nature Notes" as
written by j. c. Galloway and
forwarded to his home town
newspaper in Port Allegheny,
Penna.
In the last installment, Mr..
Galloway was describing the
scene from atop the lighthouse.
He continues from that point:
West and south the city Dor
ders the sea, the great Casa Ma
rina hotel on the south shore
with small beach or two beside
it; and army reservation grounds
to the west of it; then eastward,
Rest Beach, for the public, and
we have completed the circle.
But now let us take a look at the
city itself, from this height. Key
West has never had a zoning sys-
tenn; and while old, has had oc
casional revivals of growth. The
oldest part of the city, evidently,
is this northwest section at our
feet, beyond which is the vacant
land of the navy reservation.
Here all the houses are old UNI
tainted wood, close together with
narrow streets. But there are
other sections similar and in be-
tween modern and more or less
luxurious residence districts and
often the houses are side by side
in striking contrast. But all are
half buried in greenery and flow
I erS.
"Seen enough? Well, lets go
down then; careful tho, you will
need the side rail on these rather
dark and wiSty stairs. Down
again, and our five-year-old vir-
tuoSo has picked up another
bunch of tourists and maybe will
get to sing CD his five songs this
time. Want to visit the Aqua
rum next? Everybody does. We
can drive the car right down this
/ foot-Walk through the lawn, and
park under the ~coconuts in the
side yard. This strange shrub on
the corner? Spectacular, isn't it,
with a Seven-foot mound of heavy
feathered leaves and upright
conical spires of yellow peas, the
buds at top round balls like
marbles. You never saw that be-
fore? Nor we, until we came to
this city. 1t is one of the trop-
ical cassias.
eff you are a tourist you will
pay fifteen cents at the door and
60 in. Here are some corals on
one side, some odd dried fish on
the other; and big pile of pink
conchs, for sale, facing you. Here
is an open patio; with shaded
walks on either side, the fish
tanks like show-windows along
the walls, open to the sky above
them; while down in the middle
of the patio also open to the sky
is a row of pools in which are
sea-turtles. and sometimes sharks
or other big fish.
Lets go around the walls and
see what's here. First comes a
school of yellow-tails, silver now,
but often rose colored with a yell
low band down sides and tail.
Next a tank of angel-fishes, yell
low and olive some of them, with
unbelievably luminous stripes on
the head; and here is a black
angel, made of dull silver bead
work; and various other brilliant
ly colored small fish from the
reefs swim among them. And
look here! Would you ever be-
lieve fish could look like these
parrotfishes? Nearly two feet
long, here is one with each big
scale half red and half green, and
half the colors in the paint-box
scattered over head and fins.
Odd, too, with his thick. round
beak. And watch him. as he
swims over to look at you and
rolls that fiery blue eye to cock
it at you! He has character, he |
has.
Here are the remoras, the
sharksuckers with the vacuum
cups on top their heads, sticking