  We present results on the evolution and clustering of Ly-alpha lines at low
z. The sample contains 1298 Ly-alpha lines from 165 quasar spectra mined from
the archives of the HST/FOS. Our sample extends to z=1.7, slightly higher than
the sample analyzed by the HST Quasar Absorption Line Key Project. We confirm
the Key Project result that the number density evolution of Ly-alpha lines at
low z can be described by a power law that is significantly flatter than that
found at high z. We find gamma=0.54+/-0.21 for lines with equivalent widths
greater than 0.24 A, and gamma=0.60+/-0.14 using a variable EQW threshold,
somewhat steeper than obtained previously. We find that the difference is
likely attributable to different coverage of the two samples. The results
concerning gamma are not significantly affected if one includes Ly-alpha lines
from metal systems. Object to object fluctuations in the number of lines
detected are small, indicating a high degree of uniformity in the IGM on large
scales. We find marginal evidence that weak and strong lines undergo different
evolution. We find weak clustering for Ly-alpha lines at Delta(V)<500 km/s,
weaker than earlier analysis by Ulmer of a subsample of the Key Project data.
We see no correlations for metal system-Ly-alpha forest or extensive metal
system-Ly-alpha forest combinations.
