The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1951-06-07

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dog. Their pocket size. in fact
is their greatest appeal. THAI
such handsome and delicate lii.
lie creatures should be cruelty
and needlessly killed. sometimes
with hand ak as they bravely
attempt to escape the hounds by
swimming, is enough to stir the
most dlstlnterested citizen TO ac-
ton By comparison, the 800.
pound Whitehall bucks OF the
northern forests are not only
giants fully six times as large as
the biggest Key Deer, hut one
feels that they are stronger, more
capable animals, better able to
take care of themselves. The lit
Tie does are proportionateIy
smaller, and one individual that
had been killed by a car on the
! Overseas Highway. on Big Pine
Key weighed only 80 pounds,
phich is probably close to aver
age for adult females. | helped
Jack Watson, Of the us Fish and
Wildlife Service, skin this speci-
men. and she was an old deer
with broWn-stained, well-worn
teeth. She had an overall length
Of only 38 inches and measured
"a inches high at the shoulder.
There are several possible ex-
plantations as to how these pygmy
deer happen to occur in this iso-
lated spot. The most convincing
is the theory that they went
there with the original fauna of
the postglacial period, perhaps as
normal-sized deer, evolving to
their present size and character
IN that insular environment. Dur
ing the Pleistocene period, the
melting ice of the several inter
glacial stages raised the water
level of the oceans, bays and
CULTS. 1t is believed that during
the last or Peorian interglacial
stage, the so-called Pamlico Sea
covered southern Florida up to
about the present 25-foot con
tour. This means that all of
southern Florida AS we know it
today was under water as far UP
the peninsula as the Caloosahat-
chez basin.
During the last or Wisconsin
glacial period which followed
there was a drastic lowering of
water levels, perhaps TO as much
as 20 feet or more below present
levels. AS result, there was a
long passage of time during which
the Florida mainland of today
was joined to the entire string of
keys by land bridge Florida
Bay was a dry lowland, traced
with irregular estuaries. Deer
passed easily from the mainland
to almost any point on the keys.
AS the water level gradually re-
turned to the present shore line.
deer and other animals were
probably cut off and eventually
isolated.
There are marked differences
between the Upper and Lower
( Keys. The former-the keys
closest 10 the mainland were
once living coral reef, and the
present heights of land were
once two fathoms OF more be-
/ meath the sea. The limestone
/ formation of these keys is unique.
and other tropical hardwoods.
/ Much of the hammock, however,
/ has long since been destroyed to
make room for plantations of
/ pinearples, tomatoes, and other
crops, and is still giving way to
provide space for tourist cabins,
lunch stands, and winter cot
tages,
The Lower Keys, from Big
Pine to the MarquesaS, are built
on a formation Of Miami oblite.
/ This is identical with that which
extends beneath Florida Bay and
across a portion of Monroe County
on the mainland, across all OF
Dade County and a portion of
( Broward These keys are simply
the higher areas of land that re-
mained above the sea after the
4 fluctuating levels began to rise
toward their present height On
them only limited patches of
/ hardwood hammock remain, most
/ of the larger keys being covered
with slash pine and palmetto.
The isolation of the Upper and
/ Lower Keys from the mainland
and from each other is fairly APP.
parent. The flora of the upper
group is chiefly Bahaman, while
that of the lower group has much
In common with the mainland in
the pinelands around Homestead
and Florida City. although West
Indian and particularly Cuban
plants arc not uncommon. Once
The sea shut off escape routes
from these two regions, each de-
yelored its own peculiar charac-
tcristics. Deer trapped on the
Lower Keys were cut off by Ba-
lhia Honda Channel and by the
wide stretch of open water lying
between the Bahia Honda group
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