{"1": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3617", "width": "2215", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "Class\\nBook.\\nCOPYRICHT DEPOSIT", "height": "3469", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3469", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3469", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "With the Compliments of J. W. P. Jenks.\\nHUNTING IN FLORIDA\\n1874.\\nM\\nCopyright, 1884. by J. W. P. Jenks. All rights rksetcved.\\nK\\n3 1!", "height": "3469", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3469", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "\\\\LMaru\\ney\\n1", "height": "3469", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3469", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3141", "width": "1185", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "\u00e2\u0080\u00a2\u00e2\u0080\u00a211\\nI 1 1 1\\nI ~M", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0010.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "HUNTING IN FLORIDA.\\nThough a native of Massachusetts, it was my fortune, at the\\nage of thirteen, to enjoy squirrel, opossum and fox hunting in\\ninterior Virginia; at nineteen, cleer, coon and bear chasing in\\nsouthwestern Georgia; at twenty-five, plover, duck and hawk\\nshooting in southeastern New England at forty, a sight of wild\\nchamois in the high Alps, and at fifty-five, a camp life of fifty\\nconsecutive days in the miasmatic swamps and everglades around\\nLake Okechobee in southern Florida. The object of this narrative\\nis to give a detailed account of this latter experience in the most\\nforbidding of all wild regions but to the naturalist a perfect\\nelysium.\\nThe mention of Florida suggests the invalid, but should not in\\nthe case of myself or my t ^ee companions, the one an experienced\\ncollector of forty, inured to all the hardships of camp life, and\\nrecognized by naturalists as Doctor P., and the other two, youths\\nof eighteen, inexperienced, but enthusiastic, whom we will call\\nErwin and Fred.\\nFor hunting-dress outfit, I was provided with a suit of sail-cloth,\\ncolored yellowish-brown or butternut, to resemble dead leaves, the\\nsack-coat prepared with ten pockets, besides one, full size of the\\nskirt, for large specimens, the pants with six pockets, two blue\\nflannel shirts, with inside pockets for watch, money and photo-\\ngraphs, all wrapped in oil silk bags, (carefully keeping paper money\\nfrom contact with the oil silk surface, by first enclosing it in an\\nenvelope,) military boots and brogans, and four pair of thick\\nwoolen socks. Any sort of vest is an incumbrance on hunting\\nexcursions. A huswife well provided with sewing materials, extra\\nbuttons, pieces of cloth in variety for mending garments aud\\ndressing wounds, was not omitted.", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0011.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "For obtaining game, and for camp constructing, I had a double-\\nbarreled breech-loader in the waist-belt on the left side, a large\\nsize revolver, and on the right side, a claw-hatchet with wrist-\\nstring in the handle sundry small traps, bunches of cord, insect-\\nnets, etc. At least one breech-loading rifle should be in every\\nhunting party.\\nFor preserving and transporting specimens, I found a tin knap-\\nsack, constructed with various apartments for alcoholic vials,\\nlunches, medicine-box and eggs, very convenient. At least ten\\ngallons of alcohol and twenty pounds of arsenic were provided,\\nbesides some hundreds of muslin bags of different sizes, for keep-\\ning specimens distinct when thrown into one large jar. Convenient\\ninstruments, in duplicate, for skinning birds and animals and for\\nblowing eggs, completed the general outfit.\\nTwo o clock P. M., January 29, 1874, found myself and party\\nsteaming out of the harbor of P., in southern New England,\\nbound direct to Savannah. A sudden fit of indigestion admonished\\nFred to seek cascading quarters, before we were fairly out of sight\\nof land, whither I followed him in a short time. The Doctor and\\nErwin proved invulnerable, and greatly enjoyed our distress.\\nHow singular that of all the ills that flesh is heir to, the most\\ndistressing never awakens a particle of sympathy from the uusuf-\\nfering, but rather mirth and cruel hectoring. Happily for Fred\\nand myself, we were booked for the same stateroom, to which\\nhaving retreated, through the live-long night and succeeding day\\nwe were as sympathizing as the Siamese twins. On the third day,\\nmy sea-sickness fled more suddenly than it came, on hearing the\\ncry on deck, Porpoises porpoises all round. Hastening up,\\nI found we were in a school of that species of Cetacea called\\nDelphiuus delphis and quite unlike the common porpoise: This\\nlatter is often seen entering bays and even ascending large rivers\\nfor miles while Delphiuus rarely approaches soundings. Looking\\nfrom the deck of the steamer, I had an excellent opportunity for\\nobserving their swift motions, and the upward and downward\\nmovement of the tail, in contrast with its horizontal movement in\\nfishes. At regular intervals they would rise to the surface to\\nbreathe through their single spiracle on the summit of the head\\nbut exhaliug and inhaling in au incredibly brief period of time.\\nThe hot air from the lungs, surcharged with moisture, is instantly", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0012.jp2"}, "13": {"fulltext": "condensed to vapor, giving- to the careless observer the appearance\\nof spouting water, which none of the Cetacea ever do. Celebrated\\nfor their swiftness, they played around the vessel, changing their\\nposition from side to side, by sometimes passing under the bows\\nand sometimes under the stern, but never disconcerted by the\\nspeed of the steamer, though plowing the waves at the rate of ten\\nknots per hour. Both jaws are armed with numerous conical\\nteeth, enabling them to feed upon the gregarious tribes of fishes.\\nRobert L. Pell says it commits great ravages among the enor-\\nmous shoals of flying fish (exocoetus volitans), inhabiting the\\ntemperate latitudes, and it is a very remarkable fact that he nec-\\nessarily seizes it as it endeavors to escape him, behind and were\\nit not for provident nature, he could not swallow it on account of\\nits wings. The moment, however, it enters his mouth, some internal\\nmanagement reverses the fish, and it passes down his throat head\\nfirst. This cetaceous animal much resembles the porpoise, but\\nhas a longer snout and more slender body. In this quotation\\nfrom the address of Mr. Pell, before the American Institute, May\\n17, 1858, we suspect either he, or the reporter, rather mixed ac-\\ncounts, by confounding the cetacean Delphinus with the scale-fish\\nCoryphsene, species of both genera being popularly called Dol-\\nphins, though the former is a mammal and the latter a true fish.\\nAccording to Captain Basil Hall, it is the Coryphaene that com-\\nmits great ravages among the flying tish, and an old whaler by\\nmy side fully confirms his account, but as confidently denies Mr.\\nPell s. Can any of nry readers testify to ever having seen any\\nspecies of porpoise pursue and feast upon flying-fish?\\nDelphinus delphis is regarded as the true Dolphin of the ancients,\\nto which the Greeks paid divine honors, placing its image in their\\ntemples, and impressing it on their coins, though never actually\\nimitating nature in their representations of it, but rather idealizing\\nit, as embodying physical and moral perfections beyond those of\\nthe human race.\\nAt noon, we passed Cape Hatteras with a perfectl} 7 calm sea,\\nvery unlike some of my former passings of it in a sailing vessel\\nin my youthful days. At 9 P. M. Sunday, we anchored in Tybee\\nSound, and at dawn proceeded up the Savannah River to the city.\\nWe conveyed our luggage across the city in a drenching rain, and\\nstarted at 5 P. M. in the cars for a night ride of two hundred and", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0013.jp2"}, "14": {"fulltext": "fifty miles to Jacksonville. The contrast between the station and\\ncar accommodations of southern New England and southern\\nGeorgia was painfully striking. Toward dawn our train passed\\nover the hard-fought battle-ground of Ohistee, where the Union\\ntroops were disastrously defeated in the late civil war. Antici-\\npating our arrival at the place, I had sought information among\\nthe passengers, and fortunately found one who was in the fight on\\nthe Southern side. To my eager inquiries, he pointed out the\\ngraves of the Union soldiers who fell in the battle and in the hasty\\nretreat of their comrades were left on the field, and I knew that\\nthere lay two of my former pupils whose lives had been laid upon\\nthe altar of their country. Another, who commanded a company\\nof cavalry in the fight, was taken captive on the retreat and\\nthrown into prison, escaping only to die in a few weeks of the\\ndisease contracted during his prison-life.\\nAt 10 a. m. arrived at Jacksonville four and one-half days\\nfrom snow and ice, to orange groves laden with fruit.\\nMaking inquiries for best route to Lake Okechobee, I found it\\nwas a terra incognita to even Floridians. The publisher of a\\nrecent map of the State pointed to it with the remark, It is said\\nto be there, but I have never met one who has seen it. Should\\nyou find it and return, having escaped its miasma and reptiles, do\\nnot fail to give me a call, and verify or correct my map for the\\nnext edition. The papers were teeming with sensational stories\\nabout the wonders of the lake beautiful islands, on which are\\ncastle ruins, grassy plains and nondescript animals, among which\\nlatter were, spiders of four pounds weight! I was also in-\\nformed of a party, just a day or two in advance of me, bound for\\nthe lake by a western approach to it. This information at once\\ndecided me in favor of an approach from the east, and with only\\ntwo days delay in Jacksonville, I found myself and party on the\\nlittle steamer Lollie Boy headed for Salt Lake, expecting to\\narrive there by 12 m. Saturday.\\nTo quote from the Floridian Peninsula: Such entire\\nignorance of a body of water with a superficies of twelve hundred\\nsquare miles, in the midst of a State settled nearly half a century\\nbefore any other in our Union, which had been governed for years\\nby Spanish, by English, and by Americans, well illustrates the\\nimpassable character of those vast swamps and dense cypresses", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0014.jp2"}, "15": {"fulltext": "known as the Everglades an impenetrability so complete as\\nalmost to justify the assertion of the State Engineer, so late as\\n1855: These lauds are now, and will continue to be, as much\\nunknown as the interior of Africa, or the mountain sources of the\\nAmazon! The sequel of my narrative will show how com-\\npletely two months more sufficed, through the perseverance of two\\nof my party, united to two others that subsequently joined them,\\ntogether with my own independent efforts, to dispel the vagueness\\nand even romance attending a knowledge of its existence.\\nThough the area of the single State of Florida compares with\\nthat of New England in the ratio of 59 to 62, three-fourths of its\\nsurface is much of the year uuder water and this fact will largely\\naccount for the ignorance concerning its physical features. None\\nbut wild Indians, cattle-rangers and naturalists can be expected\\nto wade through its swamps, risk its miasmata, and brave its dan-\\ngerous animals. From the first two, little information can be\\nexpected, and the latter have but recently been attracted to its\\nmore inaccessible regions.\\nThe St. John s is an anomaly among rivers. Its source or sources,\\nlike those of the Nile, are still unknown. It flows a little west of\\nnorth, till near its mouth, for at least three hundred miles, but\\nwith a change of level for that entire distance of uot more than\\nsix feet. Still it cannot be called a sluggish stream, which is all\\nthe more remarkable, when it is considered that not an eminence\\nin East Florida attains the height of two hundred feet; aud\\nwhere all the water comes from, to give for a hundred and lifty\\nmiles from its mouth an average breadth of about two miles, in\\napparent contradiction of all the hydraulic laws of physical geog-\\nraphy, is the never-ceasing wonder, as day and night one steams\\nover its ^surface. Ascending, the voyager traverses lake after\\nlake some extensive enough to give a water horizon, and fully\\njustifying the alleged meaning of the Indian name 11-la-ka, a\\nriver of many lakes though it may here be stated that an edu-\\ncated Choctaw chief defined the name as meaniug, it hath its\\nown waj T is alone contrary to every other; a signification quite\\nas pertinent to its physical character as the former. Its unnavi-\\ngable portion seems to issue from an immense prairie covered\\nwith long saw grass, a region neighbor to the everglade and cul-\\nminatino- hi it. The sreat rains of the summer are here collected", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0015.jp2"}, "16": {"fulltext": "as in a reservoir, till the low latitudinal water-shed is overflown,\\nand the sources of the northern flowing St. John s are confounded\\nwith that of the southern flowing Kissimniee. After the annual\\ngreat rain-fall is over, the running away of the waters reveals the\\nsubmerged dividing line, and leaves the streams distinct, with an\\neasterly and westerly water-shed of varying longitudinal width,\\nbut never extensive even in the driest seasons. Such an anoma-\\nlous condition was long suspected by those engineers who had\\napproximated the sources of both streams, but it was left to the\\nobservations of my part} 7 so far as I know, to confirm the view,\\nas will appear in the sequel.\\nNearing the wharf at Hibernia, a few miles above Jacksonville,\\nI was, most agreeably surprised to find my life-long friend, the\\nlate Professor Jeffries Wyman, at whose house, in Cambridge,\\nMassachusetts, I had dined a few days before, and whom I sup-\\nposed still in New England. Forced b} r chronic complaints, he\\nwas spending his twenty-third-winter, if I remember rightly, in\\nFlorida, and as the event proved his last. Mitigating his tenden-\\ncies to pulmonary disease by a southern winter, and to catarrhal\\nby a White Mountain autumn, he had for nearly a quarter of a\\ncentury alternated between the two extreme latitudes, and thus\\nprolonged a most useful life, till in the issue he left behind a rep-\\nutation that established him in the line of Comparative Anatomy\\nas the peer of Agassiz and Owen.\\nAt the moment of embarking on the little steamer, two ladies\\ncame on board whose ways at once suggested the school-marm.\\nWhen informed by the clerk that every stateroom was already\\nassigned, he was taken all aback by the reply, Oh, any of these\\ngentlemen will sleep on the saloon floor, just for one night. On\\nhearing this remark, my first impulse was to put myself outside\\nof that crowd at once. But observing that none of the younger\\npassengers responded favorably to the appeal, I volunteered the\\nhalf of my room, and induced the Doctor to give up the other\\nhalf. Without a single thank you in reply, we were speedily\\ndispossessed, and not possessed again, each day of the voyage\\nproving so charming to the ladies that they concluded tore-\\nmain aboard and return to Jacksonville with the boat. Gallantry\\nhowever had its reward, though at the expense of a hard couch\\nfor successive nights.", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0016.jp2"}, "17": {"fulltext": "The steamer stopping the second day for an hour at Volusia to\\nwood up, an opportunity was afforded for examining the shell\\nmound upon which the village is built. It is formed exclusively\\nof fresh-water species, mainly Ampullarias and Paludinas with\\nsome Unios, as are all the mounds upon the river from a few miles\\nabove its mouth, and has evidently resulted from being the dwel-\\nling-place of some of the earliest inhabitants during the successive\\nstages of its formation, and the casting away of the shells, after\\nextracting their contents for food. Professor Wyman, than whom\\nno archaeologist has given more attention to their investigation,\\nspeaks with great confidence of their pre-Indian origin. My brief\\nstay resulted iu unearthing a few pieces of pottery, at varying\\ndepths, and in determining the river line of the mound to be at\\nleast one hundred feet, with a height of six or eight feet, and of\\nan uncertain extent inland, owing to the forest growth on the\\ntop of it.\\nThe shell mounds of Florida, whether upon the coast or the\\nbanks of its rivers, and especially those abounding upon the St.\\nJohn s from near its source to its mouth, must not be confounded\\nwith the sand or burial mounds no less abundant, but scattered\\nall over the State, and giving no evidence of ever having been used\\nfor dwelling-places. In the fourth memoir of the Peabody Acad-\\nemy of Science, Vol. 1. 1875, Professor Wyman lias presented in\\na volume of about one hundred pages quarto, finely illustrated,\\nthe result of his researches and conclusions, in respect to forty-\\neight fresh-water shell mounds on the banks of the upper St.\\nJohn s, and to which the reader is referred for the most complete\\naccount hitherto published of these most interesting relics.\\nOur nights upon the St. John s were moonless, but the darkness\\ndid not prevent at least one side issue up a narrow creek, for an\\nhour, to leave provision stores and whiskey, at the camp of a\\nwoodman. As we threaded our way in the Cimmerian gloom with\\ninterlacing branches overhead, and sometimes sweeping the upper\\ndeck, the wild fowl were startled from their slumbers, and the\\nowls roused to a vigorous protest against the invasion of their do-\\nmains. But the lynx-eyed pilot, who successfully steered his way\\nalong the tortuous channel with not even the friendly glare of a\\nlantern at the bow, was to me the greatest wonder of the excur-\\nsion.", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0017.jp2"}, "18": {"fulltext": "8\\nAgain in the St. John s, we found ourselves at daylight nearing\\na bluff, where we left Professor Wyrnan and his annual camping\\ncompanion, G. A. Peabody, Esq., of Salem, Massachusetts. To\\ntheir great disgust, a squatter had taken possession of their old\\ncamping-site, and already erected a log-house in the orange-laden\\ngrove. Appearing at the door with rifle in hand, he saluted the\\noZd-comers with How d ye, gen lmen, come to squat here?\\nIn the afternoon another side issue to the left took us into Lake\\nBeresford to leave another squatter, who had migrated from\\nGeorgia, and at a venture was being landed in a swamp with a\\nwife and several children between the ages of two mouths and\\ntwelve years. As their scanty furniture was handed out and the\\nfamily left on the beach in the rain, with no shelter, and miles\\naway from any human sympathizers, three hearty cheers were\\ngiven by their departing fellow-passengers for the American pluck,\\nmale and female, that ever adapts itself to physical surroundings,\\nhowever forlorn the prospect.\\nOnce more on the St. John s, we found its breadth steadily nar-\\nrowing, till it was reduced to less than two hundred feet, an ad-\\nvantage to the hunters on board, of which they were not slow to\\navail themselves, in popping away at every alligator and large\\nbird that appeared at short or long range. Soon, however, the\\nbanks recede again and suddenly, as the steamer enters Lake\\nMonroe, an expanse of water covering an area of at least twenty\\nsquare miles. This crossed, the bluffs on either side are well-\\nstudded at advantageous points with shell mounds till the last\\ngreat lake upon the river is sailed over, and the region of water,\\nprairie and swamp is fully reached. At high water it makes little\\ndifference, in this region, whether the steamer keeps the channel\\nor not, her sailing course well illustrating the piinciple of cut-\\nting across lots. At half stage, as we found it, the channel was\\nsufficiently disclosed to be followed, and equally well illustrated\\nthe doubling track of a hare with the hounds close at his heels.\\nFor a bird to rise from one side with the intention of proceeding\\nbut a short distance up or down stream, and alighting on the other\\nside, and succeed twice in succession, would establish its claim to\\nsomething of intelligence considerably superior to instinct. At\\nlength, growing weary of the monotony, I proposed to the captain\\nto set me ashore and let me have a hunt of a hundred yards across", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0018.jp2"}, "19": {"fulltext": "the base of a peninsula, while the steamer was doubling it at fifty\\ntimes tbat distance. Will you risk the snakes, alligators and\\nquicksands, was the squelching reply.\\nLeaving the St. John s, a few miles of navigation through Snake\\nRiver, still more tortuous in its windings, and whose abrupt turn-\\nings often required the boat hands to jump ashore and push the\\nbow round with poles, brought us into Salt Lake, so called from\\nthe saline taste of its water, a phenomenon as yet unexplained.\\nOur voyage was terminated on the opposite side of the lake, by\\ngrounding the boat an eighth of a mile from the shore. A scow\\ncame off for us, having on it four cords of wood for the steamer.\\nAs our captain was supplied, he declined taking it, and so our\\nluggage to the amount of as much greater weight was piled on\\nthe wood, besides fifteen or twenty passengers, and the scow\\npushed off. Half-way to the shore it grounded, and then the\\nboatmen exclaimed, Why, here is just where it grounded going\\nout. A fair specimen of Cracker calculation, of which this\\nwas our first, but by no means our last lesson. With the ground-\\ning of the scow, a race commenced on the part of the mule and\\nox-teams waiting for us on shore, to see which should reach us\\nfirst to secure a load of goods and passengers for Sand Point, on\\nthe Atlantic coast, six miles distant. When they reached us the\\ncart-bodies were just even with the top of the water. For my\\nparty I selected a single mule team. For the bridle, a cord passed\\nthrough the mouth and over the top of the head. Another single\\ncord to the driver on the bare back, answered for a rein. A\\nleathern band supported the thills, and a collar made of straw,\\nwith wooden hames and short chains, completed the harness. Had\\nthe traces been of rawhide, the whole arrangement would have\\nbeen unique as a specimen of thriftlessness. Having packed on\\nour baggage of eight hundred pounds, with two of us on top to\\nbalance it, we started for the shore, apparently better able to\\ncarry the little mule than it to draw us. The intervening six\\nmiles gave us our first Florida lesson in walking. Midway we\\npassed a large sand burial mound, from the top of which Professor\\nWyinan had exhumed a skeletou buried only a foot deep, though\\nsix feet below pieces of charcoal and decayed bones were discov-\\nered.\\nWhile still in the woods, our teamster commenced unloading at\\n2", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0019.jp2"}, "20": {"fulltext": "10\\na hut constructed in part of logs, and in part of frame-work\\ncovered with boards split out by hand.\\nIs this Sand Point? I inquired.\\nThis is Sand Point.\\nBut where is the ocean?\\nA mile and a af, further on.\\nWere you not to take us to the ocean, where we could find a\\nsail-boat\\nYou bargained for Sand Point, and this house is where the\\nPost Office used to be. To go to the wharf will cost you a dollar\\nmore.\\nDid you not know when the bargain was made, that we ex-\\npected you to take us to the shore?\\nA bargain s a bargain, and if you want me to take you to the\\nshore, I will come to-morrow night or Monday morning, and do\\nit for another dollar.\\nHere, then, was our first lesson in Cracker honesty. The\\ncaptain of the boat having sent us ashore in the wilderness, fifteen\\nminutes before dinner, when our appetites were well whetted up\\nfor a bountiful repast, and which our walk of six miles had not\\nin the least diminished, we concluded to dismiss our honest team-\\nster and stop over Sunday at the hut yclept in the guide-book,\\nSand Point Hotel.\\nThe next day, inquiring for a church, was informed by mine\\nhost of a Sabbath School recently started in a school-house not\\nfar distant, he had hearn tell of, but had never seen. Thread-\\ning my way along a cow-path, I came upon the building, just as\\nthe school of six pupils and two teachers, one of whom was my\\nhonest teamster of the day before, was assembling. The floor\\nwas of rough boards, the apertures for light without glass, and\\nthe long benches without backs, but the Bible was in the building\\nand the tender youth were taught its sacred truths. Outside of\\nmy own tent it was my last recognized Sabbath for seven weeks.\\nSeeking negotiation for a sail-boat, to take us a hundred miles\\nfurther south by the Indian River to Fort Capron, the first boat-\\nman presenting himself was so under the influence of liquor that\\nhe was almost incoherent, though profuse in praises of his boat\\nand his skill in managing it and by way of recommending him-\\nself to us, declared he was the Indian River correspondent of", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0020.jp2"}, "21": {"fulltext": "11\\nThe Forest and Stream. Having declined his services, we\\nfortunately secured the best boatman and boat on the river.\\nBetime Monday morning, we had our luggage stowed upon the\\nsail-boat, and commenced a voyage of one hundred miles further\\nsouth upon the Indian River, a misnomer for an interior sea or\\nrather lagoon, running parallel with the Atlantic Ocean and con-\\nnecting with it b} 7 infrequent inlets. Its salt water abounds in\\ninnumerable varieties of fish, while the shores on either side are\\nno less attractive to the sportsman. In some places, the banks\\nrecede from each other four or five miles, in others not more than\\nfifty yards. Oyster-bed reefs obstruct navigation for vessels larger\\nthan common sail-boats, but channels might be easily dredged\\nacross them for the passage of a small steamer, and thus open this\\nmore auspicious region of Florida to the tourist and invalid.\\nAnxious to reach our most southern point of destination, we\\nrestrained ourselves from capturing either fish, reptile, bird or\\nmammal, though the temptation was constantly presented es-\\npecially when, to reef sail, we ran into the mouth of St. Sebastian\\nRiver, and saw upon the beach fresh tracks of deer, wild-cats, and\\npumas. At sundown we anchored hard by the hut of our boat-\\nman s brother-in-law, in which we found shelter and repose, though\\nnot upon beds of down, but rather of dried hides. The larder\\nfurnished venison steak and hominy for supper and breakfast, be-\\nsides the inevitable pork and yam of a cracker s repast.\\nThe western shore at this point preseuts geological features of\\nremarkable interest. That portion ordinarily washed by the waves\\npresents a bluff, six to eight feet in height, formed apparently of\\nfragments of shells cemented into firm rock by pressure or heat,\\nbut honey-combed with cylindrical orifices six to fifteen inches in\\ndiameter extending perpendicularly from the surface of the bluff\\nto a line corresponding with the level of the beach at low-water\\nmark. The appearance is as though a sudden overflow of the\\nwaves had deposited a mass of broken shells to the depth of ten\\nfeet, more or less, around the closely growing trunks of an exten-\\nsive grove of palmetto trees and then, the shelly mass having\\nconsolidated ere the trees had decayed, the moulds of the trunks\\nremain, a geological wonder. The same foundation structure is\\nsaid to extend inland beneath the soil to an unknown distance,\\nhaving been tested a half mile from the shore, and only kept de-", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0021.jp2"}, "22": {"fulltext": "12\\nnuded on and near the beach by the more powerful action of occa-\\nsional storms. The geologic explanation of this unique feature\\nis a desideratum.\\nBetween watching the looming of distant points ahead and\\nastern, the sailing of pelicans and the breaking of huge\\nsharks, at times almost under the bow of the boat, the hours of the\\nsecond day whiled away, till at 4 p. m. we landed at Fort Capron, the\\nprojected base of our swamp operations. Stepping from the boat, a\\nYankee explorer bound also to Lake Okechobee, grasped my hand,\\nand in a trice told me that he had brought out a sail-boat all the\\nway from New York City, with the intention of having it carried\\nacross the country, sixty miles, by an ox-team, to fort Bassinger,\\non Kissimee River, down which he proposed to navigate till it\\nshould usher him into the lake, and, moreover, he was only wait-\\ning to make up a party of four, having already secured one. Here\\nwas a dilemma. The addition of my party would make the num-\\nber six, while the utmost capacity of his boat would accommodate\\nbut four. It was, however, quickly decided that we should all go\\nto the river together, and then mature our plans according to cir-\\ncumstances. To secure the services of an ox-team and a driver,\\nthe Explorer and Erwin volunteered a tramp of ten miles to\\nthe cabin of a cracker who was understood to be able to fur-\\nnish the team. On their return the following day they reported\\nthemselves successful, and Saturday fixed upon as the date of our\\ndeparture, the cracker engaging to take the boat and all lug-\\ngage to the river at the point designated for forty dollars.\\nMeanwhile in-door accommodations were furnished us at Fort\\nCapron by mine host Judge P., to whom 1 had a letter of in-\\ntroduction from a former pupil. Erwin and Fred, at the sugges-\\ntion of Doct. P., commenced initiating themselves into camp-life,\\nby erecting their tents in the yard. I donned my hunting-suit and\\ncommenced collecting, not a little encouraged in that my first seven\\nshots were each successful in securing the game.\\nAs the day of our departure drew near, I was informed that we\\nshould pass through a settlement of outlaws, ten miles distant,\\nevery man of whom had left his native region for that region s\\ngood, and located himself outside of law and gospel just over\\nthe frontier line of civilization. The owner of our team was ac-\\ncounted a leader among them, and by way of cautioning me, my", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0022.jp2"}, "23": {"fulltext": "13\\ninformant related, under the promise of secrecy, the particulars of\\na murder, within three weeks, by two of the gang, of an honest,\\nindustrious German, who had made for himself a home just out-\\nside of their settlement. He, being a man of education and some\\ndegree of refinement, not affiliating with them, and withal being\\nenvied the possession of a better orange plantation than they had,\\nthough wholly the result of his owu industry, it was decided to get\\nrid of him on the damning charge of being a stealer and killer of\\ncattle. Among Floridian crackers this is a far more heinous\\ncrime than that of taking human life, and once fastened upon a\\nman, if only on suspiciou, immediately puts him out of the protec-\\ntion of such law as may exist. Finding their victim could not be\\ndriven away, their usual resort to treachery was adopted, and the\\ndeed committed to two desperate ruffians, one a young man of\\nnineteen, whom we will call Tom, and who will figure largely in\\nthe sequel of this narrative. To him, as the story was told me,\\nour team owner promised his daughter in marriage, if successful.\\nAt first, every effort was made to provoke a quarrel that should\\ngive some shadow of an excuse for the execution of their plot\\nbut the imperturbably good nature of the honest German would\\nnot beguile him into a dispute. At length under the pretense of\\ndesiring some orange-slips from his excellent grove, they called\\nat his cabin and asked for dinner. Both dinner and slips were\\ncheerfully given them, and then requesting their host to set them\\nacross the deep creek about a quarter of a mile from his house, he\\nwent with them for the purpose, but did not return. Soon after\\nleaving, his wife heard four gun and three pistol shots in quick\\nsuccession but surmising they were fired at game, waited till near\\ndark for her husband s return, and then repaired to the creek,\\nouly to be horrified with the sight of blood in the boat still securely\\nfastened on the other side. It was subsequently proven that the\\nassassins thought to cover up the evidence of their guilt by drag-\\nging the body a half mile below, and thrusting its dismembered\\nfragments into alligator holes. The wife, snatching up her young\\nchild, traversed the gloomy wilderness for ten miles, at the dead\\nof night to Fort Capron and reported the deed. The following\\nweek the sheriff of the county with a posse of ten men, started\\nfor the settlement with the intention of arresting the guilty par-\\nties. When within five miles of it he was met by a delegation in-", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0023.jp2"}, "24": {"fulltext": "14\\nforming him that his design was known, and the whole neighbor-\\nhood was assembled in one cabin with plenty of arms and pro-\\nvisions, and ready to endure a siege, but no one could be arrested\\nwhile a man or woman remained alive. Under these circumstances\\nand considering discretion the better part of valor, the sheriff\\nbeat a hasty retreat. Thus the matter stood two weeks subsequent,\\nas I was about to enter the community, my informant closing up\\nhis narration with the remark that he had felt it his duty to let me\\nknow the character of those to whom I was about to trust myself\\nand my party, but cautioned me on no account to breathe a sus-\\npicion of any one or reveal the secret to either of my companions,\\nlest it might be suspected by the outlaws that we had some knowl-\\nedge available to the government, and, on the principle that\\ndead men tell no tales find our last resting place in concealed\\nalligator holes, even if their cupidit}? should permit us to return\\nfrom the swamp after they had fleeced us to the extent we might\\npermit. Forewarned, forearmed, I the more persistently deter-\\nmined to penetrate the nrystery and walk the strand of Lake Oke-\\nchobee.\\nSaturday, punctually at 12 o clock, our teamster appeared with\\ntwo yoke of steers attached to a double set of shaky wheels. In\\nan hour or two the boat was launched upon the axles and loaded\\nwith our provisions of coffee, homin} 7 hard-tack and pork our\\nammunition, of powder and shot our preserving materials, of\\nsalt, arsenic and alcohol (the latter poisoned, lest the teamsters\\nshould be tempted to try the preserving of themselves with it)\\nour capturing apparatus, of fish-nets, insect-nets, etc., (guns, pis-\\ntols and hatchets are on such trips to be a constant appendage of\\nthe person) beside the camera and necessary chemicals of the\\nExplorer for procuring pictures of the ruins said to be in the\\nLake. When ready to start, I saw plainly that the weight was\\ntoo much for the wheels, and predicted a break-down, to which,\\nhowever, no other one of the party would listen.\\nThe cabin of the teamster lay upon the direct route to the lake,\\nten miles distant, where we expected to make our first encamp-\\nment. All went well till we entered the bordering swamp of Five\\nMile creek, when, after wading deeper and deeper for half a mile,\\nand the oxen were just ready to plunge in all over for a swim\\nacross the channel, crash went one of the wheels. There was no", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0024.jp2"}, "25": {"fulltext": "15\\nalternative but to wade back to dry land and camp without our\\ntent. Fortunately, our provisions and cooking utensils were on\\nthe top of the load, and, by judicious distribution of the weight,\\neasily borne back. From a stagnant pool near our camping place\\nwe obtained water for our coffee, after frightening away from the\\nmargin the lizards, etc., and then straining it to get rid of the\\nsmaller nuisances, both vegetable and animal. Rolled up in our\\nblankets, we composed ourselves to sleep with clouds of mosqui-\\ntoes settling down upon every exposed spot of flesh, and amid\\nthe hooting of owls and the howling of wild beasts, having just\\nbefore the break-down crossed the fresh track of a puma. To\\nrepair the damage there was no alternative but for the teamster\\nand his driver to push on with the oxen to his home and return\\nas soon as a new set of wheels could be procured. At noon, on\\nMonday, he reappeared with a stouter set, for which he had mean-\\nwhile made an entirely new axle. Transferring the load, the old\\nwheels were left in their tracks, where five weeks later they still\\nremained. Reaching the bank of the creek, it was found that\\nneither oxen nor wheels could touch bottom. To effect a cross-\\ning, the leading yoke was taken off, and swum over, and so placed\\non the opposite shore as to be quickly hitched on again. The\\ndriver stripped naked, as well as the Explorer and Erwin, the\\nformer to swim at the heads of the oxen at the risk of being gored\\nin their wild plunges, the other two to swim astern and guide the\\nboat against the current The moment the steers got foothold on\\nthe opposite bank, they refused to move, leaving the wheels sink-\\ning in the quicksands and the boat rising from the axles. It was\\na critical moment, but the leaders being hitched on and a simulta-\\nneous shout raised by all, a long pull and a strong pull alto-\\ngether landed the boat on the bank and relieved our anxiety.\\nFive miles further brought us to the clearing of our teamster.\\nSelecting a place for a camp, I went on alone to a well near the\\ncabin, and observed two men dressing a hog hung to the limb of\\na tree. Coming suddenly upon them around a corner of the cabin,\\nI noticed that the younger of the two instantly dropped his work\\nand rushed for the cabin door, out of which he soon issued with\\na double barreled gun in his hand, and stood defiant. Apparently\\nnot noticing him, I passed back to my companions, wondering at\\nhis behavior. Soon our Teamster took me aside and asked why I", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0025.jp2"}, "26": {"fulltext": "16\\nwore a pistol-belt with U. S. on the buckle. I told him I had\\nborrowed it from my cousin, who was color-bearer of his company\\nduring the late war. kk Then you are not a United States Mar-\\nshal? To me the idea was so ridiculous I could not restrain my\\nlaughter, and he returned to his cabin. Subsequently I learned\\nthat the young man was Tom, and the United States belt with\\nits pistol on one side and chtw-hatchet on the other, together with\\nthe gun in my hand, had aroused his suspicion that I had come\\nwith a posse in disguise for his arrest. The criminal doth fear\\neach bush an officer. Spreading our tent and smoking out the\\nmosquitoes with pine knots, Fred and myself slept soundly with\\nthe expectation of rising at daylight to renew our trip to the lake.\\nIn the morning we were told by our Teamster that the load was\\ntwice as heavy as he promised to carry, and he should go no fur-\\nther unless it was reduced one-third at least, and he was paid sixty\\ndollars instead of forty. Lesson second in Cracker honesty.\\nFred and myself volunteered to remain, while Doctor P. and Erwin\\ninsisted upon advancing. Assuring Erwin I should see the lake\\nbefore leaving Florida, if health permitted, he still chose to take\\nhis risk with the Explorer, alleging that he left New England with\\nthat sole object in view, and now saw no other certainty but to go\\nwith the boat. Poor fellow, he went on, and he saw the lake, and\\ncircumnavigated it, but while lying on his back most of the time\\nfor five weeks, shaking with fever and ague, hardly firing his gun\\nduring the whole trip. Of all this I was happily ignorant till I\\nfound him on my return from the swamps at Fort Capron, unable\\nto walk across the room.\\nJust before they were ready to start, the Teamster came to me\\nand said he had in the woods another pair of steers that six\\nmonths before had been yoked. These Tom would catch and with\\na light cart take the luggage of Fred and myself on the morrow,\\nand carry us too, except in the deepest wading-places. By fol-\\nlowing their wheel-tracks, and with a lighter load, we should easily\\novertake them. Besides, he had learned from a neighbor during\\nthe evening that Fort Bassinger was not more than ton miles from\\nthe lake moreover, this same neighbor had left a boat at the fort,\\nin which he would take Fred and myself to the lake and back to\\nthe fort in one day, while the oxen were resting. Then we would\\nreturn to his cabin together, and let the rest of the party pursue", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0026.jp2"}, "27": {"fulltext": "17\\ntheir plan of exploring the lake. For this service he must receive\\nfour dollars per day, including Tom s wages, who was at work for\\nhim. The plan seeming feasible, I concluded to adopt it, and\\nafter much persuasion obtained Tom s consent, who was not yet,\\nas I afterwards learned, entirely free from the suspicion of my\\nbeing a United States officer sent to arrest him.\\nAfter frivolous delays of several hours, Tom started for the\\nwoods and toward night drove into the enclosure a bunch of\\ncattle having one of the steers wanted. In singling this one out\\nwith the lasso, it leaped the fence and was quickly out of sight\\nagain. He must now go a mile and get a neighbor, who, by the\\nway, was his reputed companion-assassin, and the twain go two\\nmiles in another direction and borrow some dogs, with which to\\ncatch the runaway steer. About ten at night, they passed my\\ntent, Tom ahead on a horse, holding one end of a rope around\\nthe horns of the steer his companion on foot, holding on to a\\nrope around one hind leg of the animal, which had been caught\\nby the nose with bloodhounds. The next morning the woods were\\nagain scoured for the other steer, which was brought in similarly\\nabout noon. An inspection of the cart decided, in the mind of\\nTom, that the wheels were too weak, and he must borrow a pair\\nfrom a neighbor some eight miles away. This he would do next\\nday and be ready to start Friday morning, three days behind\\ntime. Yielding at length to my remonstrances, he started soon\\nafter dinner to exchange the wheels and break in the wild steers,\\nreturning past midnight. In the morning, the last caught steer\\nwas utterly exhausted, and the third day of delay must after all\\nbe spent in hunting up and breaking in another. Friday morning\\nwe started, the first essay of the wild creatures being to upset the\\nload in their zig-zagging through a right smart palmetery\\nrough palmetto-roots above ground.\\nThe log cabin of our Teamster was double, the two rooms being\\nconnected by a thoroughfare. But it was a palace in comparison\\nwith all the other residences in the settlement. A mile on our\\nway, we came to the cabin of Tom s companion-assassin, consist-\\ning of a single room made of logs loosely piled upon each other,\\nin which dwelt a family of four. A track of loosely scattered\\nfeathers leading from a sapling close by the cabin to the swamp\\nindicated where a wild cat had dragged away a hen the previous", "height": "3448", "width": "2018", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0027.jp2"}, "28": {"fulltext": "18\\nnight, snatching it from within two feet of the heads of the sleep-\\ning inmates. A mile further on we reached the shelter of Tom s\\nfather s family. It was a roof of palmetto leaves, supported on\\nposts, the four sides entirely open to the air. Here dwelt the\\nfather and mother, two grown-up sons, two grown-up daughters,\\nand four younger children. A short distance beyond we swam a\\ncreek, just narrow enough to save the cart from going to the bot-\\ntom before the steers gained footing on the other side. Hard by\\nwe passed the last evidence of l Cracker life, consisting of a\\nshelter of boughs in the form of one-half of an A tent, beneath\\nwhich a hermit had slept for live years. Soon, the trail pursued\\nthus far ended, and following the wheel-tracks of our predecessors\\nwe struck the Alligator Flats, aud during the rest of the day, mile\\nafter mile, waded axle-deep in the mud and water. Instead of\\nriding on the cart, as was promised us, we were in constant fear\\nof our oxen giving out from sheer weakness, so that Fred and\\nmyself carefully avoided adding even the weight of our guns to\\nthe load, though Tom did not hesitate to mount his burly form\\nupon the cart- tongue most of the time, pretending that he could\\ndiscern the guiding track beneath the water better by looking down\\nupon it. As the deadly poisonous moccasin-snake, more to be\\ndreaded than the terrible rattlesnake, abounded in the flats, and\\nfrequently rose up within six feet of us, throwing themselves into\\na striking attitude and displaying their crooked fangs in fearful\\nwarning, we plodded most of the time behind the cart, that the\\nsplashing of the oxen might frighten away the reptiles. At\\nlength, in the greater depth of the water and thickness of the\\ngrass, Tom declared himself unable to distinguish the cart-ruts,\\nand it became necessary for Fred and myself to go before and\\nindicate the guiding tracks by each taking one and beating it out\\nwith our feet. Thus we passed hour after hour constantly whip-\\nping the water with long sticks to frighten away the snakes, though\\noccasionally chilled with the sight of a moccasin gliding off a\\ntussock of grass and concealing himself, neither could tell where.\\nTowards sundown we came to a pine island a few feet in diameter,\\nwith just enough of dry land for our fire, aud Tom to lie down\\nbeside it. Beyond, being one stretch of water as far as the eye\\ncould reach, we haul up, turn the oxen out to feed, bake our yams,\\nbarbecue our meat, curl up on the top of our luggage in the cart\\nand go to sleep winking at the stars.", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0028.jp2"}, "29": {"fulltext": "19\\nThe next clay is but a repetition of the previous, only the wad-\\ning is deeper and the wriggling snakes ore more numerous. Fa-\\nmiliarity, however, breeds contempt, even in the matter of\\nexposure to the cold, clammy touch of a snake and danger from\\nits deadly fangs, as well as in dissimilar experiences of human\\nnature, a contempt leading Fred and myself to often ease our\\nblistered feet by throwing our high-topped boots upon the cart\\nand substituting brogans, or even going barefoot.\\nA distinguishing feature of these water-prairies is an occasional\\nstretch of cypress-clumps clusters of trees presenting beautiful\\nrounded outlines, very appropriately termed tk Blue Mountains.\\nTheir attraction, however, is entirely upon the outside, and in the\\nfar distance. Approached, their blending foliage separates to the\\nview and becomes scragged, while their bases are sunk in a most\\nforbidding morass. Through such a cypress-slue we forced\\nour way, and emerged upon a clear, open prairie, where we\\ncamped for the night. Crossing this, we found ourselves during\\nthe forenoon of the third day entering an old military trail and\\non solid ground. Surmising that we must be near the fort, Fred\\nat 11 o clock pushed forward, and I saw no more of him till sun-\\ndown, when he returned and reported an interminable prairie\\nthree hours in advance and no signs of the Kissimmee. Not much\\nlike overtaking the advance party, we thought but there was no\\nalternative, and while we were deliberating what was best to do\\non the morrow, the double-yoked team hove in sight on its return,\\nhaving that morning left the Explorer and his party at Fort\\nBassinger as agreed, but found the fort sixty miles from the lake,\\ninstead of ten. Nor was there any neighbor s boat at the deserted\\nfort, the Indians having probably stolen it, etc., etc. The truth\\nnow flashed upon my mind, and I needed no more proof that the\\nteamster s story was manufactured for the purpose of alluring\\nme on to secure his four dollars per day. Lesson third in\\nCracker honesty.\\nOur encampment for the night was near a ereek whose bed was\\ndry, but in which our Teamster affirmed lie had sometimes found\\nwater flowing south, and at other times north, according as the\\nregion on either side of the east and west trail had received more\\nabundant supplies of rain. A careful observation of the whole\\nregion fully convinced me that here we find in the wet season one", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0029.jp2"}, "30": {"fulltext": "20\\n(perhaps the most southern) of the many afflueuts of the mighty\\nSt. John s. So little, however, is the change of level that out of\\nthe same reservoir, and by the same channel, there heads, at\\ntimes, another creek taking a southward direction into St. Lucie\\nSound, and on the northwest border of the same reservoir is found\\nissuing at high water an affluent of the Kissiramee, by whose\\nchannel a portion of the waters of this same great central reservoir\\nfind their way into Lake Okechobee, from whose more exposed\\nsurface excessive evaporation is constantly going on. This opinion\\nis sustained by the rain charts of the Smithsonian Institute, which\\nshow that the peninsula of Florida is the region in which the\\nrain-fall is heaviest east of the Rock} Mountains, and further,\\nthat in the peninsula itself the curves of the greatest rain encroach\\nupon the head waters of the St. John s, though still more upon\\nthose of the rivers flowing south into Lake Okechobee, and west\\ninto the Gulf of Mexico.\\nFred and myself had hardly erected our tent when it began to\\ndrizzle, with indications of abuudant rain, but fortunately for us,\\nnot realized. Ere we slept, a brother of the Teamster appeared\\nfrom beyond the Kissimmee with his mother, wife and seven chil-\\ndren ranging in age from three weeks to twelve years, all riding in\\na cart drawn by a single yoke of oxen. Two of the older children\\nwere shaking with the fever and ague, to whom my prescriptions\\nof quinine brought speedy relief. The children found shelter dur-\\ning the night beneath the cart, while the adults lay down upon the\\ndamp ground, wrapped in blankets. Long before light we were\\ncooking our breakfast, preparatory to an early start, when a de-\\nmand was made upon our scanty store to feed the hungry mouths\\nof the new comers a hospitality we were poorly prepared to ex-\\ntend, but which it was not in our heart to refuse, especially when\\npleaded for by the wistful looks of the little innocents.\\nRelieving our jaded oxen, by transferring to our cart one yoke\\nfrom the teamster s unladened wheels, it fell to me to handle the\\nropes and goad. So long as I kept in the rear of another team\\nall went well but if I essayed to lead, my Yankee brogue was ut-\\nterly unrecognized by the half-tamed creatures. Halting at noon\\nbeside a forsaken log-house, T amused myself with catching liz-\\nards, treetoacls and ant-lions, while Fred left his dinner half-eaten\\nto bag a flock of Carolina parrots, the first aud only ones we met", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0030.jp2"}, "31": {"fulltext": "21\\nin Florida. True to their reputation, curiosity to know what had\\nhappened to a fallen companion seemed to keep them lingering\\naround till all were shot without the shooter hardly stirring from\\nhis first chosen position. There can be little doubt that this bird,\\nonce so abundant in all the Southern States, and even ranging into\\nNew York State, is fast becoming extinct east of the Mississippi\\nRiver. After dinner, while waiting for our lazy teamsters to\\nsnooze, I still further amused myself with skinning a sandhill\\ncrane, in the midst of which operation rapid stinging sensations\\nabout the naked ankle, caused an investigation, only to reveal a\\ncentipede or scorpion amusing himself with my nervous system.\\nThe application of hartshorn to the half-dozen punctures reduced\\nthe swelling, and in two or three days I was no longer reminded\\nof the insect that menaces with its head, but wounds with its tail.\\nThe monotony of the afternoon drive was varied about four\\no clock with the cry of turkeys ahead. Fred and Tom under-\\ntook the task of providing us with fowl for supper, and with such\\nsuccess as to bring in a bird apiece. Just as we were congratu-\\nlating ourselves on something better than hog and hominy, a party\\nof six more, parents and children all told, overtook us aud fas-\\ntened themselves upon our party. The cracker s coach the in-\\nevitable ox-cart bore four of them, while two rode ponies. Taught\\nby the experience of the morning, the dreams of Fred and myself\\nvanished, and we resigned ourselves to the thought of Utile more\\nthan sniffing the perfumes of the savory repast. The larder of\\nthe latest comers proved as lean as that of the earlier, and when\\nall had partaken sparingly of the supper, the teamster declared\\nthat such as had horses, including himself, must push on at mid-\\nnight, and leave the rest on short allowance, to reach his home by\\nsundown of the following day, as not more than a spoonful of\\nhominy to each was left. On further consultation it was decided\\nfor all to start at light and make a few miles before breakfast.\\nAfter a brief repast at the foot of a tree, our oxen were yoked and\\nall fell into line. A wild-cat springing out of the path was soon\\novertaken by the dog, but instead of being held by the dog, it\\nturned the scale and held the dog, till Tom came up and released\\nits victim by a charge of buckshot. Skinning the cat at our next\\nhalt, and throwing the carcass into the low scrub, I was surprised\\nto find both the Turkey Buzzard aud the Caracara eagle gathering", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0031.jp2"}, "32": {"fulltext": "00\\naround it, in large numbers, in less than twenty minutes, though\\nwhen tl\\\\rown away there was not a bird in sight.\\nBoth in going out towards the Kissimmee and in returning,\\nwherever the water had dried away upon the prairie, numerous\\nhillocks of freshly-formed pellets of sand, five or six inches in\\nheight were observed. Digging beneath the hillocks would inva-\\nriably discover a small cray-fish, that evidently maintained its\\nhome in the moist earth by keeping beneath the influence of\\ndrought.\\nAs we neared the home of the Teamster, Tom whispered in my\\near, u we are going to have a party at our house to-morrow night,\\nand as he said it, I observed a smile upon his countenance for the\\nfirst time since we had met.\\nExcursion No. 1 from our camping base on Ten Mile Creek\\nproving fruitless, so far as seeing Lake Okechobee was concerned,\\nand Fred being disinclined to spend any more time searching for\\nit, I undertook the matter alone, and bargained with the team-\\nster whom we will hereafter call Mr. J. to provide me with a\\nmule, and guide me at the beginning of the week to the Indian\\nvillage some forty miles distant, and reputed to be in the vicinity\\nof the lake.\\nOur provisions being exhausted and one kind of shot, it was\\nnecessary for Fred to go to Fort Capron to replenish our larder\\nand ammunition. We also hoped to receive letters, as we had\\nheard nothing from home to this time. Tom s services were again\\nsecured, but this time as driver of a mule cart, which could, how-\\never, only reach Hell s grocery, a mile short of the Post Office\\norocery, where our ammunition was stored. Under the disap-\\npointment of no letters for either of us, Fred undertook to carry\\nby a tangled foot-path to Bell s grocery two bags of shot, five\\npounds of coffee, and a handless jug containing two quarts of\\nsuo-ar syrup for hominy, neither grocer having any sugar. A boat\\nwas at hand, but the boatman must have a dollar and a half for\\nthe mile of sailing nor would he help carry the load on land for\\nless. Being Yankee pluck against Cracker generosity, the\\nformer triumphed, but a kind Providence threw a man in his way\\nsoon after starting\u00e2\u0080\u0094 probably one of the loungers about the gro-\\ncery who for fifty cents relieved Fred of a part of his load.\\nThis deposited in the cart, it started homewards, while Fred made", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0032.jp2"}, "33": {"fulltext": "23\\na detour of three miles to get at another grocery five pounds of\\nhominy and his single barreled gun he had Left there when first\\nstarting for the lake. In a little time the paper hominy-bag gave\\nway, and the contents commenced marking his truck. In this\\nexigency he remembered the big pocket in his hunting coat ex-\\ntending over the whole back, and designed as a receptacle for\\ngame. Into this goes the remnant of the bominy and is saved.\\nIn swimming Five Mile Creek the jug of syrup rolled out of the\\ncart and was left in the mud at the bottom. So all the delicacy\\nwe had for either coffee or hominy, we hadn t.\\nWhile Fred was gone I skinned a pair of coons, male and female,\\nboth secured at one shot. The male had marks of great age, and,\\njudging from his mutilated ears, must have been a hard fighting\\ncharacter in his youth. One bone had also been broken square\\noff, and no surgeon being at hand to reduce the fracture, it had\\nhealed with the two ends lapping, through contraction of the\\nmuscles.\\nAs suggested by Tom, towards sundown of the day following\\nour return I observed men, women and children gathering at the\\ncabin, mostly on foot, but some on horseback and others in ox.\\ncarts. At length a man rode up of graver mien and with horse\\nmore richly caparisoned than any other I had seen. Soon Mr. J*\\nbrought him to my tent, and taking me aside, said, tl This man is\\na justice of the peace, and has come sixty miles to marry Tom to\\nmy daughter to-night, but there is a hitch in the arrangement, as\\nthe last week s mail has failed to bring the license sent for. Now\\nwhat do you advise, as the justice cannot wait two weeks for\\nanother mail, and my neighbors for ten miles around are all\\ngathered to witness the ceremony? As the malfeasance would\\nbe wholly on the part of the justice, inasmuch as should he per-\\nform his part with their consent, they would be legally married to\\nall intent and purpose, it was finally decided that Mr. J. and Tom\\nshould give the justice a written obligation, with myself as witness,\\nto send him the certificate as soon as possible, which document\\nthey both signed by making their mark, after I had assured them\\nit was written correctly. Nothing further hindering, Tom and\\nhis bride took position on the platform connecting the two rooms\\nof the log cabin, while the justice pronounced them, without any\\nquestioning or pledging, husband and wife. Tom had exchanged", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0033.jp2"}, "34": {"fulltext": "24\\nhis teaming suit for a similar one, only more cleanly, and his bride\\ncontented herself with plain calico without ornaments of any kind,\\nbut with shoes and stockings the tirst time I had seen her wear\\nany. After the ceremony, the bride s mother and grandmother\\nstepped up and shook hands without kissing, and were followed\\nby her father without coat or vest, shoes or stockings, but with\\nshirt-sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and his pants to his knees.\\nAfter a long pause, I considered it my turn to shake hands with\\nthem, though, with all my knowledge of their antecedents, and at\\nhow fearful a price Tom had gained his bride, I could hardly bring\\nmy mind to congratulate them upon their union. The ice broken,\\nthere was a rush for handshaking, after which Mr. J. brought out\\na fiddle with two strings and called for dancing. Unable to aid\\nin this part of the festivity, I soon retired to my tent, though\\ndisturbed till daylight with the music and toe-tripping. There\\nmight have been some whiskey-drinking, but it was not apparent,\\nnor did I see any one inebriated, though Mr. J. s prolouged efforts\\nto extract music from the two-stringed fiddle had evidently over-\\ntaxed his nervous system and somewhat disguised him. During\\nthe forenoon the guests were scattered about the premises, sleeping\\noff the weariness of the night, and by sundown all had departed,\\nfeven the guests from beyond the Kissimmee. It was, however,\\ndiscovered that many equipments had changed hands, either in-\\ntentionally, on the principle that \u00e2\u0080\u00a2exchange is no robbery, or in\\nthe confusion of a half-wakeful condition. My own premises\\nwere undisturbed except by the wandering hogs, whose long snouts\\nthrust between my tent-coverings rooted me up, and interfered\\nwith my slumbers more than the squeaking of the fiddle.\\nWhile waiting for Mr. .1. and Tom to sleep off the weariness of\\nthe wedding festivities, Fred and myself busied ourselves in pre-\\nparing skins of such birds and animals as were vicinous to the\\ncamp, such as turkey-buzzards, brown-headed nut-hatch, hawks,\\nlizards and snakes. While skinning the coons a buzzard alighted\\non a branch within twenty feet and patiently watched the opera-\\ntion, expecting, no doubt, to feast upon the carcasses. His\\nsauciness tempted my gun beyond endurance, and an off-hand\\nshot quenched his appetite forever. Dropping into a mass of\\npalmetto scrub, I requested Fred, who was cooking our supper, to\\nbring him in, lest the hogs should appropriate him before I could", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0034.jp2"}, "35": {"fulltext": "25\\nleave my work conveniently. Ever accommodating and respectful,\\nhe essayed to fulfil my request, but quickly returned, blurting out\\nsnappishly between the retchings of his stomach, Go get the\\nstinking thing yourself! the first and only impatient expression\\nthat fell from his lips in all our trip. It was his first experience\\nof close proximity to the foul bird, while my childhood Virginia\\nexperience had made me familiar with its habits. Instantly sus-\\npecting the reason of his disgust, I forgave him in my heart his\\nunintentional disrespect, and laughingly rallying him on the weak-\\nness of his stomach, picked up the bird myself and put it in a safe\\nplace from the hogs, notwithstanding the unsavoriness of the\\nejectious from its nostrils.\\nThe wily tl Cracker, Mr. J., having by this time concluded he\\nhad found the goose that lays a golden egg, began to tell of\\nheronries a few miles away in different directions that would\\nfurnish us all the variety of birds and eggs we could desire. To\\ntest his word, Fred went with him the second day after the wed-\\nding to the nearest one, Mr. J. on horseback and Fred afoot.\\nFive miles, most of the distance through water from ankle to\\nkuee-deep, brought them to the heronry. It was a cypress-slue\\nwith tall trees, twenty-five feet or more in height to the lowest\\nlimbs, and thick undergrowth of bushes, ten to twenty feet in\\nheight. Most of the nests were in the trees, though some were\\nin the tops of the bushes. By wading, in some places waist-deep,\\nand climbing the bushes, Fred was able to secure twenty-seven\\neggs of the Snake-bird and White Heron. The bushes and nests\\nwere dripping with the excrements of the birds, giving Fred a\\nsecond lesson in some of the unpleasant experiences of a naturalist.\\nStumbling ever an unseen slimy log, he dropped his gun, and in\\nrecovering that completed the drenching of all his garments. On\\nhis way out he had shot a Snake-bird and a White Heron, and\\nleft them to secure on his return. Arriving at the spot, a few\\nfeathers only were found a dozen or more buzzards on the trees\\ncontiguous explaining the absence of the bodies of the game.\\nNearing the camp, he secured for me a ground rattlesnake, a\\nspecies about two feet in length and much smaller than the diamond,\\nbut more venomous. One morning, shaking up my bed of pal-\\nmetto leaves, I noticed one of these reptiles crawling away from\\nmy couch. Wishing to secure one of the larger species, I offered", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0035.jp2"}, "36": {"fulltext": "26\\na ten-year-old son of a Cracker passing our camp a dollar if\\nhe would bring me one not less than four and a half feet in length.\\nIn less than fifteen minutes he returned, dragging at the end of a\\nstring fastened around his neck an adamanteus five and a half feet\\nin length and seven inches girth, with ten rattles. Between rat-\\ntlesnakes on the land and moccasins in the water, it became us to\\nbe ever on the alert.\\nWhile making arrangements for the lake, Indian Charley, son\\nof As-se-he-ho-lar or Osceola, the famous Seminole chieftain,\\nhappened to pass the camp. He wore a heavy turban on his\\nhead, a frock reaching half way to his knees, and moccasins on\\nhis feet. His skin had the genuine copper color of the wild In-\\ndian, and his hair hung over his shoulders in long, raven-black\\nlocks. He had a deer slung ou his back, with a bundle of tanned\\ndeer-skins for trading. I learned from Mr. J. that the Indians\\nfirst soak their deer-skins till the epidermis with the hair drops\\noff, and then pound them in a wooden mortar with the brains of\\nthe deer to tan the skins and make them pliable. Charley acted\\nvery stupid, pretending that he could not understand us. Further\\nacquaintance showed that this was only Indian caution before\\nstrangers, putting you off your guard till, by listening to your\\nremarks in apparent indifference, they have made up their mind\\nconcerning you, and then relaxing or maintaining their stolidity,\\naccording to the impression you have given them, a lesson in\\nhuman nature their more enlightened white brethren might learn\\nand practice with profit.\\nHaving become disgusted with our high-top boots and brogans\\nfor swamp travel, we importuned Charley to make each of us a\\npair of moccasins. Showing him paper money, he signified he\\nwould make a pair for a dollar, but would discount fifty per cent.\\nfor silver. Having, fortunately, the morning I sailed from the\\nNorth exchanged at a bank twenty- five dollars in paper currency\\nfor silver, paying nine per cent, for the difference, specie payment\\nnot having been resumed, I now had the best opportunity afforded\\nme for speculation 1 had ever experienced, a gain by the tinder s\\nown offer of forty-one per cent. and thus far I regard it as the\\nsilver-letter day of my life. The bargain struck, Charley unrolled\\nhis bundle of buckskins, measured my foot with a stick, and with\\nonly a knife and a bone awl, in half an hour made me a pair of", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0036.jp2"}, "37": {"fulltext": "27\\nmoccasins that did me excellent service for weeks afterward, and\\nare now deposited in the museum of Brown University as a sample\\nof utilitarianism respecting our pedal extremities ii were well a\\nmore boastful civilization should progress to, instead of torturing\\nnature with cramping shoes, in obedience to a slavish servility to\\nfashion and for the benefit of corn doctors.\\nI learn that Mr. J. has the credit of causing the hist Seminole\\nwar in 1857, by wantonly and purposely shooting an Indian\\nsquaw, that the remnant of the tribe left in the swamps around\\nLake Okechobee, after the removal of the greater part in 1843,\\nmight be more circumscribed in their already narrow limits guar-\\nanteed to them by a solemn treaty, and thus enable the constantly\\nencroaching frontier settlements of outlaws from northern Florida\\nand Georgia to enlarge their cattle ranches, the main dependence\\nof Cuba for beef I met many Crackers who participated in\\nthat war of intended extermination of the tribe, and it was their\\nuniversal testimony that the whites were, in every instance, the\\naggressors. One thing is certain the word of the Indian and his\\ngeneral adherence to the golden rule were far more to be depended\\nupon than the majority of the whites whom I met in that locality.\\nDaylight Monday morning found me mounted upon a mule,\\nstarting again for Lake Okechobee in company with Mr. J. Guided\\nacross the country by my pocket compass and map. and disregard-\\ning turkeys, deer and game of all kinds, about sundown we turned\\nour creatures loose, kindled a fire, cooked our supper, and lay\\ndown to sleep at the foot of a tall pine. The night was clear but\\nmoonless, and I slept soundly despite the mosquitoes, till the un-\\nearthly hooting of a large owl right over my head awakened me.\\nTo raise my gun without raising myself and drop him at my feet,\\nwas the work of a moment, and to drop to sleep again was the\\nwork of another moment. In the morning I found the bird within\\nthree feet of me, and was severely reproved by my companion for\\nnot throwing it into the bushes when it fell, fearing it might have\\nattracted the varmint to us. Within half a mile of our camp\\nwe struck the trail that led us in an hour to an Indian lodge\\nsimply a roof-shelter of palmetto-leaves, supported by four posts,\\nwith the sides wholly exposed to the winds. A platform of rails\\nbut two feet high, covered with deer-skins, formed the couch. Out-\\nside upou the ground was a lire with sweet potatoes and a corn-", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0037.jp2"}, "38": {"fulltext": "28\\ncake baking in the ashes. Upon a log near the fire sat a squaw\\nnursing a papoose, while a boy and girl of ten or twelve, entirely\\nnaked, were swinging a younger child in a hammock. As we\\ncame in sight, the paterfamilias, known among the Crackers\\nas Tommy Tiger, planted himself in front of the lodge, with folded\\narms, standing full six feet two, clothed only in a frock reaching\\nhalf-way to the knees. To Mr. J. s Good Morning, Tommy,\\nnot a word of reply or movement of a muscle. \u00e2\u0096\u00a0Yank, Oke-\\nchobee, here night, you guide, silver, was uttered by Mr. J.\\npartly by words, but more by signs. A shake of the head only in\\nreply. Where s Chief Tustenuggee? A wave of the arm by\\nTommy signified he was way off hunting. 1 then broke in, Me\\nYank, Okechobee, one day, silver, suiting my action to my word,\\nby displaying a handful of the shining halves and quarters. His\\ne} T es sparkled, and turning upon his heels without a sign struck\\na bee-line for the woods. He s gone for his pony, said the\\nguide. Observing a child enter a swamp, we followed, and cross-\\ning a creek on narrow footlogs, came out upon a hummock of pine\\nland, where we found half a dozen more lodges, and plenty of women\\nand children, but no men. The women were grubbing the ground\\npreparatory to planting corn. The children were amusing them-\\nselves with their bows and arrows.\\nThese Indians to the number of about forty families are a rem-\\nnant of the Seminoles left in the Everglades at the close of the war\\nof 1857. They are not recognized by the Government and main-\\ntain their original habits of living by hunting and fishing in a\\ntribal relation electing and deposing at pleasure their chief, whose\\nword is absolute. No missionary labor has been dispensed among\\nthem, nor do they seemingly need it more than the neighboring\\nwhites. Their singular custom of loading down the female chil-\\ndren with glass beads necklaces obtained originally from the\\nSpaniards and passing down the generations as heir-looms, must\\nhave some ph} T siological significance, which, in* my ignorance of\\ntheir language I could not discover. A single necklace is put on\\nat birth and additions made from time to time, till I counted over\\na hundred around the neck of a maiden of eighteen or twenty, the\\nwhole weighing not less than twenty-five pounds. A very aged\\nsquaw tottered around beneath a similar burden, and from her\\nerect form, I inferred the object of wearing them might be to\\ndevelop and preserve physical symmetry.", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0038.jp2"}, "39": {"fulltext": "29\\nOn the border of the creek I found an outcrop of coral rock\\ngreatly worn and decayed, with north and south strike. This find\\nstrongly countenances the correctness of Mr. C. J. Maynard s\\nconclusions respecting the geological process of land-making\\nby which the peninsula of Florida lias been formed. Simply pre-\\nmising that the theory requires there to have been in geologic ages\\npast, a more or less extensive ridge of rocks along what is now\\nthe western coast, as a foundation for coral-building, I will quote\\nat length from the Sportsman, in which paper Mr. Maynard\\nfirst published his views in 1874.\\nAges ago these breakers which roll upon this eastern sandy\\nbeach, dashed on the rocks of Western Florida, more than a hun-\\ndred miles away. Then it was that the little polyp, living far\\ndown beneath the sea, began to abstract lime from the surround-\\ning waters and build a line of coral reef, just like the one which\\nnow lies along the Florida Keys. When the coral rock had risen\\nto the surface of the water the action of the waves continually\\ncast sand and shells over it, gradually filling the space between it\\nand the shore. These accumulations arose more rapidly immedi-\\nately behind the reef and soon overtopped it, rising above the\\nsurface in a long ridge. This grew wider and wider, and finally\\nbecame covered with vegetation, presenting the appearance of a\\nveritable beach ridge like the one on which we stood.\\nThe waves with their ceaseless motion ground and beat mil-\\nlions of shells to pieces, just as they are now beating and grinding\\nthem. The wind swept the lighter fragments into the lagoon\\nwhich was now formed beyond, while the waves during storms\\nrushed over the ridge and carried with them the larger shells.\\nThe sand being heavier, settled down, and the shells gradually\\naccumulated over it until the lagoon was filled and dry land was\\nformed, which was soon covered with vegetable mold upon which\\ngrew the luxuriant vegetation of the South.\\nThus it was that a great level plaiu was formed, with enor-\\nmous depressions, in which fresh water collected. These hollows\\nthen formed swamps, which overflowed, and the water striviug to\\nescape to the sea marked out the river beds. It can now be un-\\nderstood how it is that the foundation of Florida is composed of\\nlime rock. This immense bed of loose fragments of shell became\\ncemented together by pressure with the help of water, and now\\nforms the underlying strata just below the surface of the soil.", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0039.jp2"}, "40": {"fulltext": "80\\nThis in general is the plan of the formation of Florida. Two\\nof these parti} filled lagoons are now to be seen on the eastern\\ncoast: Indian River which, as it has a supply of fresh water\\ncontinually sweeping through it from the swamps at the north,\\nwill probably always remain much as it is at present; Mosquito\\nlagoon which, as the shelly beach on the western side indicates,\\nis now slowly filling and before many seasons have passed will be\\nsolid land. The water of this lagoon is very salt. The tide ebbs\\nand flows but a short distauce from the inlet, which is shallow and\\nnarrow, while on account of constant evaporation, the waters of\\nthe southern end of the lagoon sometimes contain twenty-five per\\ncent, more salt than that of the neighboring ocean. Where the\\nbeach ridge is narrow the coral reef can be seen just below the\\nsurface of the water. The beach ridge is twenty-five feet higher\\nthan the surface of the ocean yet, during storms, the waves dash\\nover the top.\\nAccording to this theory the St. John s flows in the latest formed\\nlagoon west of the Indian River, while the southern terminus of\\nthe peninsula must once have been north of Lake Okechobee, and\\nhave been continued southerly by successive reefs curving to the\\nsouthwest.\\nIn about half an hour Indian Tommy returned bestride a pony\\nwithout saddle or bridle. Girting on a blanket, with stirrups of\\ndeerskin and a bridle corresponding, and binding on his mocca-\\nsins, with a few sweet potatoes tucked into the bosom of his frock,\\nhe mounted and started for the woods in a bridle-path without a\\nsign of any kind indicating his intentions. We mounted aud fol-\\nlowed in true Indian file at a stiff trot for au hour, without a back-\\nward look from our guide. Coming to a creek bordered on either\\nside for fifty feet with thick underbrush, he dismounted and\\nsounded the quagmire with a large stick, till, finding a fording-\\nplace, he led his pou} T b} 7 the thong reins, across the slough. We\\nfollowed his example, but when we emerged from the thicket, he\\nwas trotting at double speed, full quarter of a mile distant. At\\nthe end of another hour, he suddenly dismounted, hung all his\\nhorse equipments upon a branch, turned the pony loose, and sat\\ndown composedly to eating his potatoes. Imitating him we built\\na fire, boiled our coffee, broiled our venison, and at one o clock\\nsignified that we were at his service. Immediately he struck into", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0040.jp2"}, "41": {"fulltext": "31\\na blind trail in the nnburnt grass, that terminated in quarter of an\\nhour in a cane-brake. Signifying to one of us to follow a few\\nfeet to the right of him, and to the other a few feet to the left, he\\nplunged into the morass parting the cane with his hands. In half\\nan hour the water was nearing my waist, when we came upon four\\ncanoes hollowed from logs. Tommy selected the best, and mo-\\ntioning to us to get in, with some difficulty we succeeded, lying\\nclose in the bottom. He then went still further into the cane, till\\nlost to view, but soon returned with a long pole and a paddle.\\nBounding into the canoe like a cat, he poled us along for an hour,\\nwhen we entered a cypress-swamp, with open water among the\\nhuge trunks, though greatly impeded by cypress-knees from be-\\nneath, and bramble growth from above. For once, his Indian\\nkeenness was at fault, and after fruitless efforts for an hour, to\\npenetrate the cypress slough, we worked our way back to where\\nwe entered, when Tommy started off waist deep in the water,\\nprospecting. When a hundred feet away a low chuckle reached\\nour ears. He has found it, exclaimed my companion, and\\nspeedily he appeared with an approximation to a smile upon his\\ncountenance, the first I had noticed. Poling the canoe through\\nthe cane and saw-grass to the spot, I noticed a twig broken half\\noff, two feet above the water and bent to the left; also tiags, a\\nsure indication of a sluggish current or channel. Fifty feet fur-\\nther on a twig was broken similarly, but bent to the right. Though\\nin a creek, no current was perceptible, and often a thick curtain\\nof brambles had to be lifted by Tommy s pole while we dragged\\nourselves beneath. In other places logs impeded our track, which\\nwe sometimes crawled under, and at other times hauled the canoe\\nover, Tommy, giant that he was, depressing the bow, or elevating\\nthe stern. After toiling another hour in forcing our way through\\nthe cypress and disturbing not a few gators, moc sius and such\\nlike varmin, as my cracker companion called them, we found our-\\nselves suddenly debouching on the lake, with only a water-horizon\\nin front, ami limitless hanks on the right and left. The problem\\nis solved there is a Lake Okechobee, ami even my cracker guide,\\nwho had been live years searching for it, is obliged to give up his\\ndoubts and confess that I had enabled him to find it. Before\\nlanding we paddled out from the shore for a quarter of a mile.\\nSounding with a pole, we found it eight feet deep, and were as-", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0041.jp2"}, "42": {"fulltext": "sured by Tommy it was nowhere deeper than that. Its shallow-\\nness permits light winds to stir up the bottom and hence its des-\\ntitution of fish, the line sand being troublesome to their gills. My\\nfirst impulse, as I stepped from the canoe, was to climb the tallest\\ntree and see if I could discover the boat or camp of the explorer\\nand his party. Seeing nothing of them, I contented myself with\\ncutting my name in the bark of a huge box tree, in hopes, if they\\nhad not already passed this point in their circumnavigation of the\\nlake, they might find it. and thus Erwin know ere we met, how well\\nI had fulfilled my promise to see the lake before leaving Florida.\\nTwo weeks later they passed the point, but not near enough to\\ndiscover signs of occupation. It is now known as the result of\\ntheir exploration, that the lake is about forty-five miles in length,\\nfrom north to south, and thirty in width from east to west near\\nthe center. With the exception of two small islands on the\\nsouthwest border, it is an unbroken expanse of water, terminating\\nat the south in the Everglades, through which without creek or\\nriver, the accumulated drainage of thousands of square miles of\\nterritory slowly percolates by millions of channels with countless\\nramifications, to the ocean and the gulf. Convinced that the\\nshores of the lake, where I examined it, were utterly barren of\\nanimated natural history, and warned by the low descending sun,\\nI gave orders for our return.\\nHaving gratified my curiosity as to the existence of the lake, I\\nmore carefully inspected the skirting cypress slough on my return,\\nand was amazed at the gigantic ferns and flaming epiphytic air-\\nplants. Overarching vines and Spanish moss festooned the trees,\\nwhile variegated leaves of beautiful lilies tinted the waters. But\\nhideous snakes and repulsive alligators alone represented the ani-\\nmal kingdom to enjoy these rare charms of the vegetable leading\\nme often to ask, Why does the Creator so frequently display his\\nselectest skill in places inaccessible to mortal man?\\nReached the hiding place of the canoes at sundown and the\\nhalting place at dusk to find our horses all right. It being too\\nlate to go further, we built our camp tire, and sharing our supply\\nwith Tommy, 1 lay down to sleep, with a known murderer and\\noutlaw on one side and a wild Indian on the other, iu a wilderness\\nat least fifty miles distant from any semblance of civilization. It\\nwas impossible to prevent intrusive thoughts of suspicion that my", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0042.jp2"}, "43": {"fulltext": "33\\nwatch and silver might prove a stronger temptation than their\\nhonesty could bear especially when I awoke about midnight and\\nfound Tommy stepping noiselessly near my head. Instinctively\\none hand grasped my pistol and the other searched for my hatchet,\\ntill I discovered his intentions were only to recruit the fire. To\\nthwart the clouds of mosquitoes that settled down upon every ex-\\nposed part of my body, and even pierced readily through my sail-\\ncloth pants and blue flannel shirt, as soon as Tommy lay down I\\nparted the fire and laid myself down between the two heaps, that\\nthe wind might blow the pine-knot smoke across my face. As a re-\\nsult from the gathering of the soot upon my hair and beard, I was,\\nin the morning, far more of an Indian, in appearance than Tom-\\nmy, to his great amusement the second time I had seen anything\\nlike a relaxing of his facial muscles.\\nObserving numerous stumps of large trees, that had evidently\\nbeen cut by a civilized axe, I learned from Tommy that we were\\nencamped upon the site of General Taylor s great battle with the\\nIndians in 1837, when he was most disastrously defeated. Tommy\\nexplained in his pantomimic way how the soldiers fled in their\\nretreat, and also how the Indians scattered, in the final issue of\\nthe war, to the swamps we had just penetrated.\\nBut where are our horses? Tommy climbed the tallest tree,\\nbut could see nothing of them. Descending, he took a circuit,\\ntill, discovering their tracks, he darted off in a tangent, returning\\nin a couple of hours, driving them before him. Having Tommy\\nto feed, we were on short allowance for breakfast, but on reaching\\nTommy s lodge at noon, he brought out sweet potatoes and coru-\\nbread in abundance, with jerked venison, and, as a luxury, he\\ndrew into a broken gourd some honey from a bottle made of the\\nskin of the leg of a deer, stripped off whole and plugged up at\\nthe ankle end with a wooden stopper. We all clipped our bread\\ntogether into the gourd, with a good relish so readily does real\\nhunger do away with squeamishness. After lunching, I offered\\nthe promised silver. Tommy held his open palm towards me, but\\nturned his face from me. I dropped into his palm one, two, three,\\nfour half-dollars, when he closed it, tucked the silver away in his\\nfrock, and started off, without any more of a farewell than of a\\nwelcome the day before.\\nFor fifty years an Indian relic constructed of a dozen box-", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0043.jp2"}, "44": {"fulltext": "34\\ntortoise shells, bound together by deer-skin thongs, each one\\npartially filled with wild beans, had lain in a physician s office in\\nProvidence, R. I., with the tradition that it came from the Semi-\\nnoles, though nothing more could be said about it when it was\\npresented to the museum of Brown University. At my first sight\\nof the Indian lodges, I was gratified to observe the same article\\nsuspended under the roof of each one. As Tommy turned to leave\\nme, I signified my desire to purchase a pair of them. At first he\\nflatly refused, but as I urged, he commenced a dialogue with his\\nsquaw and aged mother, which ended in his holding up one finger\\nfor one, and two for two, meaning a dollar for one, and two dollars\\nfor a pair. I readily took a pair, and then desired him to put\\nthem on, and show me how to use them. At that he straightened\\nup to his full height of six feet two, folded his arms and looked\\ndown upon me with such a withering frown as completely cowed\\nme. Mr. J. instantly grasped his pistol, so threatening was his\\nscowl. But Tommy quickly recollected himself, pocketed the\\ninsult aud contemptuously pointing to his wife with the exclama-\\ntion, Squaw dance, turned upon his heel and left me. I at\\nonce saw my mistake, and how grievously I had insulted him by\\nintimating that he, a brave, should demean himself to put on an\\narticle which, I afterwards learned, was worn only by the squaws\\nas a musical accompaniment to their green-corn dances. Going\\nover to her, I held out a silver quarter, when she readily bound\\nthem below the knee, and gave me a specimen of a Seminole reel.\\nMy return to Fred s camp was devoid of interest, except that\\nmy Cracker companion got out of tobacco from sharing with\\nTommy (who, in his turn, shared with all his picaninnies except\\nthe papoose in the hammock) and soon became very cross, often\\nputting his horse into a gallop and getting far ahead of me, it\\nbeing almost impossible for me with stick and spur to urge my\\nmule out of a slow trot. The second day he became more inso-\\nlent, and insisted finally upon breaking camp at 10 o clock at\\nnight, to reach home at midnight, saying his horse would know\\nthe way home in the darkest night. Knowing what he might be\\nif the lion within him was aroused, I carefully avoided irritating\\nhim, and let him have his own way. When about two miles from\\nhome, he wanted me to let him have my pistol to fire off, as a\\nsignal to his family that he was coming pretending that he al-", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0044.jp2"}, "45": {"fulltext": "35\\nways did so when he returned home. Asking him why he did not\\nuse his own, he said, mine spoke loudest. As I handed it to\\nhim with my left hand, I cocked my double barreled gun with my\\nright, and fell back a little into the darkuess. He fired two shots\\nin quick succession, and said he would fire two more half a mile\\nfurther on, and did so, and then returned me the pistol and some-\\nwhat relieved my anxiety. Just upon that, a year-old colt belong-\\ning to him galloped up, and, though doing nothing out of the way,\\nhe commenced venting his spite upon it by filling the air with his\\ncurses. At length, determined to hurt something, he dismounted\\nand commenced belaboring the colt with a large club, but in the\\ndarkness gave his own horse a thwack that sent him flying and\\nlanded his saddle-bags in the bushes. The faithful beast, how-\\never, returned at his call, and after a long search the saddle-bags\\nwere replaced, and we arrived at his cabin to find Fred all right\\nin his tent, but greatly rejoiced at my return. I have no reason\\nto think Mr. J. designed harm, but to this day his conduct is\\nutterly unaccountable to me.\\nDuring my absence Fred tented alone, employing the first day\\nin household matters, cleaning his gun, sharpening his hatchet\\nand skinning-knives, shooting a couple of birds in the vicinity of\\nthe camp, trying his hand at baking bread in a borrowed Dutch\\noven, and retiring at sundown but the wandering hogs so dis-\\nturbed him he rose soon after midnight and built a rousing fire.\\nThis brought from the cabin a Mr. N., the eccentric character of\\nthe settlement, a squatter and bachelor, whose homestead, three\\nmiles distant in the woods, consisted of a mule cart, beneath which\\nhe slept in his blanket on the bare ground, and whose personal\\nproperty comprised the one suit of clothes he wore and the mule\\nI rode to the lake, with dilapidated saddle, bridle and saddle-bags.\\nLending a hand to the squatters occasionally, he earned a preca-\\nrious subsistence, spending what little money he could get hold of\\nfor whiskey. Obeying the caution I had impressed upon me by\\nJudge P., at my introduction to Cracker life, I carefully avoided\\ninquiring into the antecedents of any one, but Mr. N. must have\\nseen better days at some period in his life, for he would entertain\\nus with Methodist songs from memory (as he could not read or\\nwrite) by the hour together, the only recognition of Christianity\\nI found in all this benighted region. Though at least three-score-", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0045.jp2"}, "46": {"fulltext": "36\\nand-ten, he assured me he intended to marry ere long and, when\\nI interposed the objection of his want of a suitable lodging place,\\nhe quickly replied, Any woman who didn t love him enough to\\nsleep with him under his cart, wasn t worthy of him. My more\\nextended acquaintance with Crackers of the feminine gender\\nconvinced me he would not find much trouble in pairing himself,\\nif he should seriously pop the question.\\nWhile I was absent a Cracker boy stimulated Fred s gastro-\\nnomic propensities by the offer of some eggs, which luxury called\\nto mind the sugar syrup in the bottom of Five Mile Creek. The\\ntemptation to try for it was too strong to resist so, putting all\\nhis provisions inside of Mr. J. s fence for fear of the hogs, leav-\\ning both ends of the tent open for them to walk through, rolling\\nup all the clothing with the carpet-bag knapsack containing our\\narsenic into a bundle and putting it on the table I had extemporized\\nfor skinning purposes, he took his gun and trudged to the creek,\\nand was delighted to see the jug sitting bolt upright on the bottom,\\nbut too deep down to reach with arm or stick, Though the water\\nwas very cold, in a trice, stripping and diving for it, he was\\noverjoye d to find the water had not leaked in to dilute it. And\\nso the luxury we hadn t, we had. Securing a couple of herons,\\nand this time firml} retaining hold of the coveted jug, he retraced\\nhis steps to the camp with beatific visions, which were destined\\nto be dashed to the ground as he came in sight of it. The table\\nlay flat and everything was scattered around, with the hogs making\\nmerry with all the women in the cabin three hundred feet distant\\nhad not saved, as they heard the table fall. Fortunately, both\\nfor ourselves and the hogs directly, and indirectly for our contin-\\nuance on good terms with the Crackers in the settlement for\\nthe hogs were common property the women saved the arsenic\\nbefore the creatures had penetrated to it. Having righted things\\nand carefully potted two bones of a deer for soup the next morn-\\ning, securing the cover beyond the possibility of a hog s snout\\nreaching the meat, he lay down to sleep. By 4 o clock in the\\nmorning the hogs routed him out, but the pot containing the soup\\nmeat was seemingly untouched. All preparations being made, the\\npot was opened, when, lo, one of the two bones was missing\\nThough every necessary caution had been taken against the inser-\\ntion of a hog s snout, none had been taken against a coon s snout", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0046.jp2"}, "47": {"fulltext": "3?\\nor a possum s paw. Spending his third day alone in skinning\\nbirds and contriving better arrangements for protection against\\nthe hogs and varmint he laid down to sleep at dark, only to\\nbe aroused by my return at midnight. Little sleep, however, had\\neither of us, so annoying were the hogs, and we decided to quit\\nthat locality as speedily as possible.\\nHaving accomplished the desideratum of the trip, in seeing the\\nlake and disabusing naturalists of its pretentions as an elysium\\nfor them, we were all at sea as to future plans, for the second\\nobject of our trip was still in abeyance, the securing of specimens\\nof rare birds and their eggs, and a study of them in their native\\nhaunts. Our wily Cracker, ever on the alert to make money\\nout of us, honestly or dishonestly, suggested our camping for a\\nfew days at a heronry a day s tramp into the heart of Alpati-\\nokee Swamp, known only to himself and the Indians, but impen-\\netrable, except by a boat, on account of the deep water and the\\ncypress-knees. He also informed us that, three miles down the\\ncreek near which we were encamped, there was a flat-bottomed\\nboat just adapted to our need, which the owner would sell at a\\nreasonable price. So Tom was despatched with the oxen to bring\\nit. Towards night he returned, saying it had lain upon the bank\\nso long, drying in the sun, that he could thrust his hand between\\nevery plank. Suggesting to him that we would take it to pieces\\nand re-nail and re-caulk it, I went back with him, and bringing it\\nto the camp, we set about the operation. As there were neither\\nsawn boards nor nails in all the settlement, we worked very care-\\nfully to save what we had. For caulking we used the lace fibre\\nof the palmetto leaf besmeared with tar, which we tried out of\\nthe pine knots by smothering them in an oven made in the ground.\\nWhen finished, we had a scow twelve feet in length, four feet\\nwide, turned up two feet at each end, with a gunwale of eight\\ninches, the frail bark that subsequent experience proved was to\\nsave us many times from the jaws of alligators and a watery\\ngrave. Having bargained with Mr. J. to take us with his ox-team\\nto the heronry, and return for us in ten days, at so much a day,\\nwe had our luggage all ready for him to load into the scow soon\\nafter daylight, and requested him to drive about a hundred yards\\nto our camp for it. As the heronry was beyond his house from\\nthe camp, he refused to come or even to lend us the least assist-", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0047.jp2"}, "48": {"fulltext": "38\\nance in getting our heavy packs to the team, saying he bargained\\nto start from his house. As before suggested, we knew it was\\nwell not to arouse the tiger in him, and so we toted them ourselves\\nto the scow, he grumbling all the time that we were delaying him.\\nAbout 9 o clock we got off, but were ourselves delayed by our\\nteamster s insisting upon a long tarry at each Cracker s hut we\\npassed within the first five miles. By careful balancing of our\\nload, we managed to ford almost to swimming Ten Mile Creek,\\nand keep our powder dry, and soon after entered the Flats, show-\\ning only a water-horizon with an occasional island a few feet in\\ndiameter, on which from one to half a dozen tall pines were grow-\\ning, with a thick growth of underbrush, excellent rendezvous\\nfor panthers, wild-cats, possums and land snakes, wild turkey\\nroosting in the trees. To wade knee-deep was the work of the\\nday, carefully avoiding the dreaded moccasin, which, lurking in\\nthe tussocks of grass, strike their envenomed fangs deep into\\nthe leg ere the traveller is aware of their presence. Plodding\\non wearily after the cart, as the safer position through the fright\\nto the snakes occasioned by the paddling of the oxen, we came\\nto a grassy plain a mile in width, from which the clrying-up waters\\nhad receded, but revealing midway across it a creek near waist-\\ndeep with perpendicular sides. But my spade soon changed their\\nsteepness to a slope, and the faithful oxen, accustomed to rushing\\nthrough a stream, landed all safe on the other side. Two or three\\nsuch, but with sloping banks, we met in the course of the day,\\nand one altogether too deep to wade conveniently but to my\\nrequest that we ride over, our teamster on the cart only replied\\nby pouring out a volley of oaths, and urging the cattle across\\nbefore we could come up with him. Thus alternating between\\nstrips of marsh and wide wastes of water, we at length discerned\\non the horizon a cypress-clump towering up like a blue moun-\\ntain. That is the heronry, exclaimed our guide, but there\\nis no camping place nearer than this-island clump of palmettos\\nnear by. But how far is the heronry from here? Perhaps\\nfour miles. And do you expect us to wade this long distance\\ntwice a day for ten days and carry our game? Certainly.\\nThen take us right back to your house. After much persuasion\\nhe was induced to go on and run the risk of finding a nearer\\ncamping island. At length we found one less than fifty feet across", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0048.jp2"}, "49": {"fulltext": "39\\nwith considerable dead wood upon it, which our teamster said was\\nnot over a mile distaut from the heronry, and was absolutely the\\nnearest spot of dry land to it. Careful observation afterwards\\nproved it to be not less than two miles. Cutting a path through the\\ndense palmetto scrub bordering the island, we unloaded our traps\\nfrom the scow, and left Fred to put things to rights for a ten days\\ncamp-keeping, with the caution to be careful about setting the\\ndry leaves afire, while the teamster and myself hastened on to\\nlaunch the scow near the heronry. This effected, we noticed a\\nfine camping island not more than a quarter of a mile distant\\nbut it was too late, as all our luggage was two miles back. Near-\\ning the camp on our return, Fred was seen repeatedly hurrying\\nout into the water and back again, as though in trouble. It\\nseems, notwithstanding our precaution, the fire had got the upper\\nhand of him and was spreading, and he was lugging the powder\\nand provisions out of the way of danger to an extemporized\\nplatform of sticks he had constructed in the water. Further ex-\\namination proved the soil to be peaty, and suggested the danger\\nof subterranean combustion, and such a possible thinning of the\\ncrust as to refuse to bear our weight some night, with the result\\nof tumbling us, powder and all, into a mass of smouldering em-\\nbers. To avoid this, we encircled our hearth with a trench and\\ndaily supplied it plentifully with water. To obtain filtered water\\nfor culinary purposes, we dug a shallow well a few feet within the\\nmargin of the island on the opposite side from our entrance, which\\nsoon filled with water percolating through the peaty soil. This,\\nstrained from the insects and small lizards continually tumbling\\ninto the well, served our purpose satisfactorily. Having thor-\\noughly beaten the ground within and around our tent, to frighten\\naway any ground rattlesnakes, scorpions and such like vermin as\\nmay have been lurking beneath the leaves, we commended our-\\nselves to the care of Him who never slumbers nor sleeps, and lay\\ndown to rest at dusk. Excessive fatigue quickly invited sleep,\\nbut, the nights being moonless, for how long time we were uncon-\\nscious I cannot say, when we were awakened by such deep bel-\\nlowings within a few feet as made me think at first some bulls of\\nthe cattle herds ranging all over the country had come in to camp\\nnear us. It was our first experience of the full-toned bellowing\\nof alligators so near us, and it was a question whether our savory", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0049.jp2"}, "50": {"fulltext": "40\\nviands of our evening repast might not be attracting them to our\\nlimited quarters. The thought was not pleasant, nor made less\\nso by the sudden chiming in of the most horrible throttling sounds\\nthat ever grated upon human ear. I have not been unaccustomed\\nfrom my youth to the death-rattle of the dying bedside, or the\\ngasping groans of the earlier slaughter-houses but in this medley\\nof sounds that filled our ears, there was a perfect nondescript\\nanomaly to me. Later experience leads me to suppose it was the\\ndragging under of a large bird, perhaps the Water Ibis, by an\\nalligator, as there was much splashing of water commingled with\\nthe shrieks and gurglings. But tired nature would assert herself,\\nthough only to be disturbed again by the distinct, but stealthy,\\ntread of some animal close to our canvas. Is it a panther, is it\\na wild-cat, is it a coon, is it a possum, we whispered to each\\nother. At length it approached my head and tapped the canvas\\nwithin six inches of my face with its paw. I tapped back, when\\nit bounded away, but with so light a bound that I was convinced\\nit was not larger than a wild-cat or a coon, and felt no further\\nalarm. Waking at daylight, we found abundant tracks of a wild-\\ncat in the soft mud on the margin of our island and a flock of\\nturkey-buzzards roosting directly over our heads, both indications\\nof marauders warning us to put our things in order for safety\\nbefore starting for the heronry.\\nStrapping on my tin knapsack containing our lunch, with gun\\nin left hand and a palmetto stick seven feet long in right, with\\nwhich to slap the water to frighten away the moccasins, and in\\nour high-topped boots, we started, Fred carrying his gun, two tin\\npans and a tin cup, and a board for the purpose of making a seat\\nacross the top of our scow. We had hardly left the camp when\\nthe water poured into our knee-top boots, adding greatly to the\\nweight we had to carry. Frequently my slapping the water would\\nscare up a moccasin, which, striking an attitude for striking,\\nwould await our nearer approach with threatening fangs. Dis-\\nabled by a blow of the stick, I was on the alert for another.\\nCarefully taking our bearings that we might not get lost on our\\nreturn, we came in sight of the gunwale of our scow just peeping\\nabove the water, it having sunk during the night. Cautiously\\napproaching it, lest it might shelter underneath the dreaded reptile,\\nI aided Fred into it to bail it out, while I proceeded to cut away", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0050.jp2"}, "51": {"fulltext": "41\\nthe marginal underbrush and make a path for pushing the scow\\ninto deep water. On starting, I had forgotten to take my stick,\\nin my enthusiasm at the sight of the flocks of Spoonbills and\\nHerons flyiug over the swamp but ere I had taken ten steps,\\npausing in the water half knee-deep to watch their movements, I\\nlooked down and saw just beneath the surface the largest moccasin,\\nI had hitherto seen, crawling between my legs. Instantly becom-\\ning motionless and telling Fred to keep quiet, I watched it drag\\nits slow length along, till its tail was a foot to the rear of me,\\nand then showed it to Fred, whose blanched countenance would\\nhardly permit him to exclaim, Are you bitten? I think I could\\nsketch the markings on that snake s back with accuracy to-day,\\nten years after the occurrence, for I am sure I seemed to have\\nample time to examine them before the end of that tail showed\\nitself.\\nAnticipating some trouble with the scow, for some of the boards\\nI used in repairing it were not straight-edged, I had prepared my-\\nself with palmetto lace, and with my hatchet and knife re-caulked\\nit, so that, should we bail it every few minutes we deemed it\\nmight be safe, and so pushed it through my path into deep water.\\nNow for the results of all our toil, expense and danger, and,\\nthanks to a kind providence, they are speedily realized. Hardly\\nafloat and a roseate spoonbill rose from its nest and perched be-\\nside it. Fred shot her while I poled the scow in all haste, as, the\\nmoment it struck the water, watchful alligators made for it on\\nevery side. We triumphed and secured it, and then Fred climbed\\nto the nest amid the filthy branches while I kept the scow imme-\\ndiately under him, lest, falling from a dead limb into the water,\\nhe should himself be gobbled up by the alligators, who were watch-\\ning the operation to the number of at least half a dozen. Three\\neggs were secured and identified. Bailing out our frail scow, I\\npushed it among the cypress knees, both excited to the highest\\npitch, as the birds kept rising from their nests, and, circling in\\nthe gleaming sunlight displayed their roseate hues to the best ad-\\nvantage. Soon another falls a victim to Fred s unerring aim, but\\nalas, drops right into an alligator s mouth, who goes to the bot-\\ntom with it in a trice. Fred, lay low and I ll have that bird\\nyet. Nonsense, it s down the alligator s maw by this time.\\nWe 11 see, I replied, and pushing the scow over the spot of", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0051.jp2"}, "52": {"fulltext": "42\\nengulfment, I could plainly see about six feet deep the pink hues\\nof the spoonbill as it was held down by the alligator. Two or\\nthree thrusts of my pole so astonished the brute that he let go the\\nbird, and it now graces the Museum of Brown University. Be-\\nside the spoonbills, there were by the hundreds, the different spe-\\ncies of Egrets, Herons and Ibises. Having identified the eggs of\\nthe different nests by carefully noting what birds flew from them,\\nand secured about fifty in all, beside as many birds as we thought\\nwe could skin before dark, we left our scow in the marsh outside\\nand returned to camp carrying our load of about fifty pounds\\neach, wading every step of the two miles with our boots full of\\nwater.\\nThe next day being Sunday was spent in camp, cooking and\\nwishing we might hear from home, as no letter had yet reached\\nus. About two o clock Mr. J. rode into camp, horseback, with\\nletters for both of us, and saying he had a good chance to trade\\nwith the Indians if he had silver. So 1 accommodated him with\\n$15 and engaged him to come for us in nine days. Wandering to\\nthe further side of our fifty foot island for meditation, the thought\\nsuddenly struck me, what should either of us do if the other should\\nperchance be killed Until that moment such a possibility had\\nnot occurred to me, and I felt the cold shudder creeping over me,\\ntill I had worked out a plan that seemed feasible for preserving\\nthe remains in such an exigency. My plan was to sew up the\\nbody in our stout tent-cloth and my india-rubber blanket, and sus-\\npending it in a tree, the survivor find his way back to Mr. J. s as\\nbest he might. In case of severe indisposition or maiming only,\\nthe problem was less easily solved, as the indisposed or injured\\ncould not be left alone. Considering all the risks I began to re-\\ngret there was not a third member of the party, and I resolved\\nthen and there that I would run no such risk again.\\nOn our third return to the cypress-slue, while Fred was bailing\\nout the scow, I was attracted towards the margin in an effort to\\nget within gunshot of a spoonbill circling over head. Was it in-\\ndirect vision, or was it God s overruling providence that caused\\nme as I raised my gun to fire, to look down instead of up, to see\\nthat 1 was within a gun s length of the snout of a ten-foot alliga-\\ntor half concealed in the water, but whose jaws were slowly open-\\ning to close about my limbs with a snap defying any mechanical", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0052.jp2"}, "53": {"fulltext": "43\\nmotion for quickness. To pour the contents of three chambers of\\nbuck-shot into his side just back of the fore-leg was the work of\\na moment. As he rolled over on his side we left him for dead,\\nbut returning to the spot three hours later he was gone.\\nWe often found on the same tree eight or ten different kinds of\\nnests, and observed that no nest was ever left vacant when undis-\\nturbed one mate instantly takiug the place of the other as a regu-\\nlar system of robbery was constantly carried on between the rapa-\\ncious hawks and crows, and the inoffensive herons. The slue was\\nnot very extensive, and after robbiug the lower nests from ten to\\ntwenty feet in height and shooting the owners, we turned our at-\\ntention to those nests from thirty to forty feet in height. On the\\nfourth day Fred s shoulder became so lame from climbing he\\ncould hardly raise his arm and was forced to exchange work with\\nme. Unfortunately we had no climbing irons, but fastening my\\nclaw-hatchet securely to my wrist and carefully testing the\\nstrength of every limb with a pull upon it before trusting my\\nweight to it, I succeeded in mounting higher than I had ever done\\non trees, since the venturesome period of childhood. It was not\\na pleasant sight in my elevated position to see a dozen heads of\\nalligators with pop-out eyes watching all my movements, and I\\nknew that a treacherous branch might furnish them with a feast.\\nMerely throwing down a stick would start them out of their lurk-\\ning places, and bring into display their activity in the water, as\\nwell as their flexibility iu winding in and out among the half con-\\ncealed cypress-knees. The climber let the eggs and young birds\\ndown by a string in a handkerchief to the one remaining in\\nthe scow.\\nOne of the Crackers in the settlement happening to be at Fort\\nCapron when the semi-weekly mail arrived by sailboat from Jack-\\nsonville, he undertook to bring our second batch of letters to us\\nwith a package of my photos for which 1 gave a sitting the morn-\\ning before I sailed from the north. But after searching for us\\ntwo days he gave it up, and delivered the letters to Mr. .1. to bring\\nto us when he should send for us. Another Cracker learning that\\nwe had taken a scow to the heronry laid in with Mr. J. to direct\\nhim to it that he might avail himself of our means of navigating\\nthe slue to secure Egret plumes, which were in great demand for\\nladies bonnets. When half way back to our camp on the fifth", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0053.jp2"}, "54": {"fulltext": "44\\nday, we found him wading towards us. Joyfully welcoming him\\nhe returned to our camp, but as our tent was hardly large enough\\nfor Fred and myself, he slept outside rolled up in his blankets.\\nWe frequently saw deer feeding in the open water-prairie, but\\nas there was no cover for still hunting were unable to secure any.\\nOur constant firing had either killed off or frightened away the\\nmore timid spoonbills, so that Fred and the Cracker decided to\\ntake night and morning rations and spend the sixth night in the\\nheronry to secure Egrets as they should come in at night from\\ntheir feeding grounds or go forth in the morning thus leaving me\\nalone at the camp for that night. It was a new experience for\\nme, although I had become accustomed to our nightly serenade\\nmedley of alligator bellowing, wild cat yawling, frog peeping,\\nturkey gobbling, heron screaming, owl hooting and every other\\nkind of unearthly sound pertaining to a wilderness swamp. The\\ndeath rattlings of alligator or wild cat victims were frequently\\nrepeated on every side of me, and about midnight I was aroused\\nby a second visit from our prowler of the first night. Again he\\ntapped the canvass over my head as though clawing it, and bound-\\ned away with a heavy tread as I tapped back. Determined to\\nidentify the creature and, if possible, secure it for the Museum, I\\nhastily lit my dark lantern, and lifting the side of my tent saw a\\nlittle way off in the darkness two eyes gleaming upon me. Fear-\\ning to shoot my gun lest I should alarm my companions two miles\\ndistant, I fired my pistol at the eyes, with only the effect of elicit-\\ning a yell and a bound into the thicket. I was soon asleep again,\\nnot waking till long after sunrise. Fred and the Cracker returned\\ntowards night well laden with birds and plumes. Our provisions\\ngrowing short we sent the Cracker into the settlement on the\\nmorning of the ninth day to hasten Mr. J. s coming for us, as we\\nhad only flour enough left for one meal, nine eggs and a little\\ncoffee. Our spoonbill carcasses being all gone, we were forced to\\neke out our larder with white ibises. About noon the next day\\nTom arrived with the team, and after loading on to the axles the\\nscow, we filled it with our luggage and started for civilization,\\nsuch as it was. While on the island Fred was stung twice by\\nscorpions, but our bottle of hartshorn brought quick relief. About\\ndark some of Tom s family met him and they held a long con-\\nsultation apart from us. As yet Tom had no reason to suppose I", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0054.jp2"}, "55": {"fulltext": "45\\nknew anything about his being one of the murderers of Mr. Lang,\\nbut I saw from their countenances there was trouble brewing for\\nthem. When he returned to the team, I put on as cheerful a\\ncountenance as possible and commenced joking him, but he had\\nno heart for my jesting, and I left him to his forebodings which\\nwere not unfounded, as the sequel will show.\\nOnce more encamped on the old spot, we hoped, as we bunked\\nfor the night, the thievish hogs had forgotten us during our ten\\ndays absence, but were wofully mistaken, as our frequent alterna-\\ntions of shoo, shoo, and snatches only of dozing without real\\nsleep proved. While breakfasting we were planning how to pro-\\nvide the grub necessary for carrying out a plan proposed by our\\nCracker visitor at the rookery for the next ten days, to the effect\\nthat we should proceed to a locality on the coast called Fort Pierce,\\nfour miles south of Fort Capron, where he had a boat, and camp-\\ning there let him supply us with shore birds and fish in such num-\\nbers that we would be kept skinning and preserving all the time\\ntill we were ready to say halt. This plan would cut us loose\\nfrom Mr. J., who, subsequent experience showed, was not quite\\nready to let the goose that was laying the golden egg for him,\\nfly away. So he and our new parasite, whom we will hereafter\\ncall Jim, came to our camp with many protestations of interest in\\nour success, and proposed a postponement of the ten days shore\\nhunting and fishing for a ten days trip, more or less, to another\\nrookery two days distant, much larger than the one we had just\\nleft, and bordered by a pine hummock affording good camping\\nground immediately upon its shore. As it was yet early in the\\nseason for gathering some kinds of eggs, we snapped at the bait\\nand sending off Tom ten miles to Fort Capron for replenishing\\nour larder, spent the day in recaulking our scow, and packing the\\nmaterial we had left to dry in the loft of Mr. J. s log stable. Ver-\\nmin of some kind, despite the arsenic, had ruined my rattlesnake s\\nskin, leaving me only the head and rattles. The mammal and bird\\nskins were on the eve of moulding from the excessive dampness\\nof the nights, and it was becoming a serious question whether we\\nhad not better get out of so swampy a region, to save what we\\nhad already secured at so great an expense of fatigue and money.\\nTo leave a cherished plan unaccomplished had not been the expe-\\nrience of my life of nearly three-score years, and I also felt some", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0055.jp2"}, "56": {"fulltext": "46\\nresponsibility in reference to introducing my young companion of\\nless than a score to such an unfortunate future. After another\\nsleepless night through the unwelcome visitations of our porcine\\ntormentors, we repacked the scow placed upon the ox-team axles,\\nand bade a final adieu to the settlement on ten-mile creek, with no\\nregret, though in Mrs. J. we had found a true-hearted woman,\\nwho, alone of all we had met in the settlement, had manifested\\ntoward us the least spark of unselfishness.\\nIn the outgoing of this trip, Mr. J. s little son of ten years\\naccompanied us, and enlivened the monotony of the tramp by his\\ncheerful and unsophisticated nature, often plying me with questions\\nconcerning Yankeeland that made me grieve to think so bright a\\nlad was being raised under such outlaw influences. An incidental\\nremark, as we were fording a deep stream, whose quicksand bottom\\nthreatened to sink oxen and load out of sight, that in my country\\nI had often driven oxen with a load of wood across a pond without\\nsinking an inch, so taxed his credulity that he called upon my\\ncompanion for confirmation of the statement. He had never seen\\na flake of snow or a film of ice, and no kind of illustration at our\\ncommand could make him comprehend the fact. Dressed only\\nin shirt and trousers, he scrambled around in the briars and $aw-\\ngrass with naked feet as fearless of harm as though rattlesnakes\\nand moccasins were as unknown in that region as snow and ice.\\nCamping soon after dark, we were too tired to unload our tent,\\nand each chose his own place and lay down upon a bed of palmetto\\nleaves and went to sleep counting the stars. Our little cheer-\\nfulness went searching in the dark for water, and just on the\\nbrink of a pool felt a ground rattlesnake wriggling about his naked\\nankles. Nimbly jumping aside, he captured the reptile and\\nbrought it to me as a trophy. At early dawn, we were off, and\\nsoon after sunrise crossed fresh tracks of deer, and not much\\nfurther a panther s tracks. The panther should be hunted only\\nwith dogs, that his attention may be verted from the hunter\\nwhile he is drawing sufficiently near to make sure of a deadly aim.\\nIn the course of the day we arrived at the rookery, and for once\\nrealized all the expectations raised by our Cracker guides. It\\nwas a cypress-slue of ten or twelve acres, with the exception of\\nthe end nearest us of about two acres of clear water, the whole\\nencircled with a margin of dense undergrowth twenty-five or thirty", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0056.jp2"}, "57": {"fulltext": "47\\nfeet in thickness. So matted was the marginal growth it was\\nimpervious to the gaze beyond eight or ten feet, but ou climbing\\na tall tree and looking over the underbrush, the clear water fur-\\nnished to the sight a unique aquarium that no other State than\\nFlorida, I imagine, can furnish. I counted one hundred alligators,\\nfrom three to twelve feet in length, leisurely swimming in all\\ndirections in the two-acre space, and ceased counting. Some were\\ndragging long rushes in their mouths across the water, evidently\\nto construct their nests, which are built on the margin above the\\nwater. The alligator lays from fifty to seventy eggs in alternate\\nlayers of reeds and eggs, and then leaves the mass of rubbish to\\nputrefy and heat the eggs for incubation. Instinct brings the\\nmother to the spot at the right time to tear open the pile and\\nrelease the chicks on their first peeping.\\nSelecting a place for our camp just far enough from the swampy\\nundergrowth to feel safe from the visits of alligators, in two hours\\nwe had a path cut through the undergrowth with a corduroy bottom\\nlaid, along which to push our scow for launching in the clear water.\\nMr. J. and his son returning with the team, this time we had with\\nus Jim, an experienced hunter and boatman. Our experience in\\nthe first rookery led us to provide a boat-hook for this, beside\\npoles and paddles. Our boat launched, we essayed to cross the\\nclear water to the cypress-slue, above which we could see hundreds\\nof Spooubils, White Ibises and Egrets sailing, while others were\\ndiving in and out among the branches. So far as Crackers or\\nIndians knew, we were likewise the first ever to launch a boat of\\nany kind upon these waters, as well as at the first rookery. To\\nthe alligators, our invasion of their hitherto undisturbed domain\\nmust have been something akin to the astonishment of the natives\\nwhen the vessels of Columbus hove in sight. Fearless, they swam\\nup to the gunwale as to a floating log, and but for the thumping\\nof their snouts with our poles, they would evidently have boarded\\nus and taken possession of our frail batteaux. A few charges\\nof shot so educated them, however, that on the second or third\\nday they were ready to give us a wide berth as we issued among\\nthem. As we boated among the cypress-knees, they were still\\nmore numerous and audacious, so that we found it almost impos-\\nsible to secure a single bird we had shot, a half-dozen at a time\\nspringing from their lurking-places the moment the bird touched", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0057.jp2"}, "58": {"fulltext": "48\\nthe water. Another set of nest- robbers than ourselves we found\\nin the slue. The fish-crows by the hundreds were perched near\\nthe nests of the curlews and herons, just out of the reach of their\\nlong necks but the moment a bird left the nest, either to exchange\\nplaces with its mate or because frightened by the crack of our\\nguns, these crows, so intent upon their plunder as to be themselves\\nunterrified, would dart upon a nest, and, if the egg was small\\nenough, fly away with it in its bill, or if large, pierce it with its\\nbill and fly off with the contents dripping away through the air.\\nForced thus to change our tactics, either to secure birds or eggs,\\nwe made it a rule each morning to first shoot a number of crows\\nas they flew out and in, and by occasionally getting ahead of the\\nalligators secure a portion of them. Placing these upon the\\nslanting bow of the scow, if our shot dropped a Spooubill or other\\nbird, we would throw a dead crow in front of the nearest alligator\\nmaking for our game, and thus manage, by giving away sometimes\\ntwo or three crows, to secure one Spoonbill.\\nIn crossing the open water on our camp-ward trips, as we came\\nout of the slue, our guide Jim was very expert in often hitching\\nthe boat-hook over the shoulder of a huge alligator headed the\\nright way, and making him in his fright drag us across the pond,\\ntill, nearing the shore, he would let go by thrusting the hook\\nforward and then, giving our steed a punch in the side, dismiss\\nhim. In a few days we had secured all the Spoonbills, Egrets,\\nIbises and Snake-birds and their eggs we could well care for, and\\nbegan to think of leaving the interesting place. Our provisions,\\ntoo. were giving out, so I told Jim he must take our breech-loading\\nrifle and go out and get us some venison hams. In about fifteen\\nminutes after leaving us, we heard three shots in quick succession,\\nand in a few moments more he came in with the request that we\\ngo out and help him bring in the hams. Repairing to the spot,\\nwe found a buck and a doe lying as they fell, about ten feet apart,\\nthe third, a doe, running off with a broken shoulder, but found\\nthe next day a few hundred feet away, dead. Securing our hams,\\nand a portion of the liver of each, we had jerked venison for\\ndays to come. In one of the livers I found the parasite fluke,\\nalways to be searched for in the hepatic system of herbivorous\\nanimals.\\nTowards night of the sixth day Tom appeared with the oxen", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0058.jp2"}, "59": {"fulltext": "4.9\\nand axles. Quickly converting our scow into a wagon-body, we\\nprepared to bid farewell to cypress-slues and gator swamps, well\\npleased with our experience in seeing wild beasts and birds in\\ntheir wild haunts. A day s tramping across pine hummocks and\\nwallowing through intervening sloughs, brought us out upon an\\nold army trail leading from Fort Capron on the Atlantic coast to\\nFort Bassinger on the Kissimmee. Following this with the forests\\non fire on both sides and trees falling across it, which had to be\\ncut away, we camped at midnight for four hours by simply halting\\nand lying down on the ground and sleeping as best we might.\\nResuming our march by earliest dawn, we soon found our way\\nimpeded by thick undergrowth and crosswise logs, which had to\\nbe cut away for the team. The last six miles being across a sandy\\nhummock, with the thermometer at 100\u00c2\u00b0, for six hours man and\\nbeast suffered exceedingly from thirst, and I began to long for\\nthe knee-deep morass, as more desirable. Towards night we\\nreached Ft. Capron, and as I drew near was espied by Judge P.,\\nwho had so kindly warned me, as I was about to leave for Oke-\\nchobee, of the danger of trusting myself to the outlaws, who alone\\ninhabited the region beside Indians. The instant he recognized\\nme he rushed out of his house and clasped me around the neck,\\ndeclaring he was never before so relieved in his mind, for he had\\nabout concluded his worst fears for our welfare had beeu realized.\\nAt Judge P. s I found Doct. P. and Erwin who had returned\\nbut the day before from their circumnavigation of the lake, having\\nhad a very sorry and to Erwiu at least a very unprofitable time,\\nfor he had suffered most of the time from chills and fever which\\nhad now assumed a bilious form, aud had so reduced his strength\\nthat he was unable to leave his bed. At first sight of him, I saw\\nthat, if I would take him home alive, I must change my role aud\\nturn nurse. Therefore I chose a camping-place not far away on\\nthe left bank of a stream about one-eighth of a mile above its d6-\\nbouche into Iudian River. Just across the stream a stalwart negro\\nby the name of Trott had recently squatted, having a reputed\\nlawful wife and a concubine, whose incessant quarreling made\\nday discordant and night hideous except when the lord of the\\nharem interfered and for the time turned one or the other out of\\nthe one-room shanty, as his fancy dictated. He was a native of\\nthe West Indies and had served on a man-of-war in varied ca-\\n7", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0059.jp2"}, "60": {"fulltext": "50\\npacity, till he had acquired more or less skill as a navigator. His\\nstrength was fully equal to that of two ordinary men, and if pro-\\nvoked would have been a dangerous man to deal with. As soon\\nas possible I sent by boat for a hermit doctor across the Indian\\nRiver, whose prescriptions dispelled the bilious tendency and gave\\nme encouragement that in eight or ten days I might commence my\\nhomeward journey. Subsequent acquaintance with this physician\\nrevealed a singular history. Originally from Vermont, where he\\nhad long time practiced medicine, he acted as Surgeon during the\\nwar in a western regiment, but instead of returning to his home\\nat the close of the war, drifted to this frontier land, and doubtless\\nunder an assumed name commenced a hermit s life on the sandy\\nisland nearly opposite Fort Capron, whiling away his time in fish-\\ning and coralling green turtles for the Savannah market. At this\\ntime he had coralled about fifty, weighing from forty to a hundred\\nand twenty-five pounds. I bought of him the largest as a speci-\\nmen for Brown University Museum. Two mouths later, he em-\\nbarked on a sloop commanded by the negro, to take his turtles to\\nSavannah, and was wrecked and drowned on the coast near Fer-\\nnandina.*\\nOur camping-place for the week proved beset with mosquitoes\\nand fleas beyond anything we had experienced in the wilderness,\\nutterly banishing sleep till after midnight, and sheer exhaustion\\ncompelled it. We could in a measure relieve ourselves from the\\nmosquitoes by filling our little tent, as we lay down, with the dense\\nsmoke of fat pine knots. But, for the fleas there was no relief,\\noften observing them to jump from our blankets in swarms as we\\nhung them out to dry in the morning. A second trip would sug-\\ngest a bountiful supply of oil of pennyroyal with which to perfume\\nour garments, and which is said to be flea-expelling. At this stage\\nof our trip we began to suffer from the stinging bites of the black\\ngnats, an insect so small as hardly to be detected with the naked\\neye, but whose bite sends a thrill through the nervous system alto-\\ngether disproportionate to its size. To this annoyance, unlike\\n\u00e2\u0099\u00a6Schooner Rover, for Savannah, ran ashore off Doboy on the 9th inst., and went to pieces\\nin fifteen minutes. Capt. Trott, wife and child (colored), Dr. Garfield, a passenger, and two\\ncolored men got into the boat which was swamped and all drowned except the captain, who\\nreturned to the wreck, where two other passengers and the balance of the crew remained.\\nThey floated on a raft to St. Catherine s Island, where they were taken off by steamer Car.\\nrie and brought to Savannah, Saturday morning. They were four days without food.", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0060.jp2"}, "61": {"fulltext": "51\\nthat of the fleas if one is provided with essence of pennyroyal,\\nthere is no remedy.\\nA heavy rain for three days and nights kept us under shelter\\nmost of the time, blowiug the great quantity of eggs we had\\nbrought from the cypress-slues our boatman Jim meanwhile\\nmaking a fish-net of stout twine to use for seining the carp and\\nsmall fish that abounded in the stream near whose mouth we were\\nencamped. When finished we set it a little way up the creek, ex-\\npecting in the morning to find a variety enclosed in its meshes.\\nBut instead, an alligator, or perhaps an otter, swam through it\\nand tore it to shreds, thus in one moment ruining our boatman s\\nwork of two days.\\nThe chuck-wills-widow, the analogue of our northern whip-poor-\\nwill, enlivened the nights with its plaintive note. To obtain one,\\nas they are utterly secluded during the day, Jim fastened my dark\\nlantern to the top of his head and going towards the sound, soon\\ndetected the bird in the cimmerean darkness, by the shine of its\\neyes, and secured it, though badly mutilated by the shot, as he\\nwas unable to judge of his distance from it. As soon as the\\nnorther of three days had blowed out, Fred spent a day across the\\nIndian River shooting terns, skimmers and oyster-catchers, which\\nrose from the water in flocks of thousands, while I prepared my\\nlarge turtle for preservation, poisoning the carcass and salting the\\nmeat for our larder. The following day, I hired the stalwart ne-\\ngro to accompany Jim and myself in a large boat to the Indian\\nRiver Inlet, hoping to secure a saw-fish. These fish come in from\\nthe ocean through the inlet to prey upon the schools of fish that\\nabound in Indian River. Swimming close to the bottom, when\\nthey perceive a school above, they quickly elevate their toothed\\nupper jaw and whirling it about in the school, mangle and kill\\nmany to be eaten at their leisure. Our boat being provided with\\na coil of rope about a hundred feet in length, attached to a har-\\npoon, we paddled gently where the water was about five feet deep,\\ntill discerning our game on the bottom, about twelve feet in length,\\nJim drove the harpoon completely through its body. Instantly\\nthe fish started for the ocean through the inlet, drawing out the\\nline over the gunwale so rapidly as to make it smoke. The line\\nhaving been made fast to the bow-post, when the end was reached,\\nboat and all followed for half a mile with a velocity so great that", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0061.jp2"}, "62": {"fulltext": "52\\nI quickly drew my hatchet from my belt and stood ready to cut\\nthe rope, if the bow gave indicatious of going under as the fish\\nwent into deeper water. At length he was wearied with the ex-\\nertion, and slacked up, when we began to play the creature, till\\nworrying him on to a shoal place, I had a fine exhibition of the\\nway he gyrates his saw when mutilating his prey. At length\\nseizing a favorable moment as his head was raised out of the\\nwater, I planted a rifle-ball just midway between the eyes, when a\\nquiver ran through his frame and he was dead. None judged him\\nto weigh less than 800 pounds. Towing him across the river to\\nour camp, it was the work of an entire day to skin and pack the\\nspecimen for transportation.\\nWhile at this camp one of the better class of citizens privately\\ninterviewed me to learn what might have learned during my\\nforty days of intimacy with the murderers of Mr. Lang, saying,\\nhe had in his pocket a warrant received by the last mail from the\\nGovernor of the State for the arrest of Mr. J. and Tom and a\\nneighbor of theirs, who were understood to be the guilty parties\\nand suggested that, if I would leave interrogatories with a Notary\\nPublic before going out of the State, it might further the ends\\nof justice. Replying, that I had carefully avoided any allusion\\nto the murder myself, yet Mr. J., in our long tramps alone, had\\nseemed to find relief in freeing his mind to me of his own accord,\\nand had revealed enough to satisfy me who were the guilty par-\\nties, yet I could not betray confidence unless subpoenaed from\\nMassachusetts as a hearsay witness. I have learned from news-\\npapers that soon after I left the region a determined sheriff went\\ninto the settlement with a posse, and shot Mr. J. dead in his\\ntracks while resisting arrest, but brought Tom to trial, who was,\\nfor the want of positive evidence, convicted only of manslaughter,\\nand died within a year in the State prison.\\nIn nine days Erwin was strong enough to be conveyed to a\\ncouch prepared for him in a small sail-boat, and we started north-\\nward. It was our intention to start by 1 o clock at the latest,\\nand were ourselves all ready, but Jim s laziness delayed us till 5.\\nHad we not had a superabundance of experience already in the\\nthriftlessness of the Crackers, we should have gone crazy at the\\nneedless delay. The greatest boasters of what they can do, but\\nthe poorest performers of what they promise, they are unique in", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0062.jp2"}, "63": {"fulltext": "53\\ntheir characteristics, and to the enterprising Yankee a marvel of\\nincongruities. When the Anthropologist has satisfactorily traced\\nthe Hottentot and the North American Indian to their origin, he\\nmay turn his attention to the origin of the Florida Cracker and he\\nwill find a much harder problem to solve. I have been a far\\nmore patient man since my trip to Florida than before, two\\nmonths experience in Crackerdom doing more for me in the culti-\\nvation of that grace than a half century previously.\\nWith a favoring breeze we made twelve miles by 10 o clock, and\\ncamped on the west shore of Indian River on the sand, making\\nErwin as soft a couch of leaves as possible beneath our mosquito-\\nbars, while Fred and myself lay dowu by the fire. By 3 o clock\\nthe mosquitoes and sand-fleas got the mastery of us and banished\\nall sleep thereafter. For fresh water we dug a hole about ten feet\\nfrom the shore, which soon filled with water percolating the sand,\\nthe cohesive attraction of the sand retaining the salt. Breakfast-\\ning upon broiled turtle steak, we reached a Brown Pelican rookery\\non an island of eight or ten acres in extent. Our large boat\\ngrounding about a mile distant, we all went overboard but Erwin\\nand pushed it for half a mile. Then anchoring and pushing our\\nsmall row-boat a quarter of a mile further, we left it and waded\\nas much more, to behold the greatest curiosity of the kind I had\\never dreamed of. The island was mostly covered with Mangrove\\ntrees, a kind of Banyan, whose limbs turn down from the height\\nof eighteen or twenty feet and take root, thus forming an unin-\\nterrupted canopy over a large part of the island. An acre, more\\nor less, was covered with a clump of taller trees, in whifh Blue\\nHerons were nesting. Hoping these might prove to be Wurde-\\nmann, I first gave my attention to them, but through the failure\\nof Fred s gun to fire, as the bird rose from its nest, lost my chance,\\nto my great disappointment. Having secured the eggs, we turned\\ntowards the pelicans. The Mangrove is a slowly decaying tree,\\nand, though at some time this grove must have been thrifty\\nprobably before the pelicans took possession of it now eveiy tree\\nwas barren of leaves and life. As we drew near, every branch\\nseemed covered with nests as closely as they could be packed,\\nindeed, so near oftentimes that a bird sitting on its own could\\neasily dip its bill into the nest of its neighbor. On one tree, not\\ntwenty feet high or more than six or eight feet broad, I counted", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0063.jp2"}, "64": {"fulltext": "54\\ntwenty-two nests, all occupied. Acres of the ground also were\\nso thickly covered that it was easy to step from nest to nest across\\na full acre. In one nest there might be three or four eggs in no\\ninstance more, and in its neighbor, youug ones in different stages\\nof growth. To these last the old birds were continually coming\\nwith fish in their pouches, which they disgorge into the capacious\\nmaws of the young by both dropping the lower mandible, and the\\nparent bird apparently contracting its pouch from the bottom so\\nas to empty its contents into the pouch of its young. How won-\\nderful the instinct that could find its own nest among so many\\nthousand, and also adapt its selection of fish from day to day to\\nthe varying size of its young, for I saw the old feeding young\\nnearly as large as themselves, as well as those just hatched.\\nRather than climb the filthy trees, we took our eggs from those\\nnests on the ground, gathering a water-pail full in a few minutes,\\nalways selecting the freshly laid ones, and might easily have\\ngathered barrels of them. Securing eggs and studying their\\nhabits, we commenced securing birds. It was an easy matter to\\nget three or four in a range and drop most or all at a shot. At\\nevery crack of the gun thousands would rise from the trees dark-\\nening the sun, but soon settle down again. After a while our\\ncontinual firing so disconcerted them that they settled down by\\nthousands on the water around the island, forming semi-circular\\nranks, with two or three feet between, as though platooned under\\nleaders. For my own use, I brought away eighteen birds, repre-\\nsenting a series in every stage of plumage, from a fledgling just\\nescaping from the egg to the mature bird.\\nFearing to leave Erwin longer in the broiling sun, we left the\\nfascinating spot, and camped on a sand-bar at the mouth of St.\\nSebastian River, intending to spend at least three days in camp,\\nas famous large alligators are found in the brackish water at the\\nmouth of the stream. On a hummock within a mile a Squatter\\nhad succeeded in cultivating, with great success, a plantation of\\noranges, bananas, mangoes, etc. Not to be hindered in skinning\\nmy pelicans, I hired the Squatter s son to watch the mouth of the\\nriver for a large alligator. About 1 o clock he came running to\\nthe camp, saying, the biggest gator he ever saw was coming\\ndown the river. Calling Fred and Jim, and snatching up our\\nguns and rifle, we ran to the end of the sand-bar, two or three", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0064.jp2"}, "65": {"fulltext": "55\\nhundred feet away, and sure enough, judging from the distance\\nbetween his snout and his eyes, he must have been at least fifteen\\nfeet in length. Just as we were launching the row-boat, to make\\nsure of him, a scream from the camp hurried us back, to find\\nErwin was suddenly attacked with the severest chill I had yet\\nseen him have. Greatly alarmed, I ordered all things packed as\\nquickly as possible, and in an hour we were under sail with a stiff\\nbreeze, towing me in the row-boat that I might continue skinning\\nmy pelicans, as there was not room in the sail-boat with Erwin\\nstretched at full length. The wind increasing, in less than an\\nhour the tow-line broke, and before the sail-boat could be turned\\nabout, I was a full half-mile astern, without paddle or oar. Re-\\ncovered at last, darkness set in and we camped on a sand-bar.\\nRain setting in, Fred and Jim were well soaked in the course of\\nthe night, while I watched with Erwin in the tent without a wiuk\\nof sleep. Next day the wind was dead ahead, and we were com-\\npelled to remain at camp till 4 o clock P. M., when we started,\\nand by 8 had reached Eau Gallie, where we had passed a night as\\nwe went out. Here I got Erwin into the shelter of a log hut, and\\nas only thirty-five miles remained to Sand Point, I planned to send\\nhim on the morrow by another boat to that place, where he could\\nhave good nursing and a good bed, till Fred and I should arrive\\nby the way of Banana River, a route twenty miles longer, but on\\nwhich we hoped to get White Pelicans and shore birds but on\\nawaking, a rainless Norther was blowing so furiously our boatman\\ndared not go on. Wind-bound, I tried to think how I could turn\\nthe day to some account, having had to throw away all but four\\nof my series of pelicans, on account of the hot sun ruining them\\nbefore I could skin them, through my hasty departure from St.\\nSebastian. Learning that there was an Indian Mound over across\\nthe Indian River, three or four miles distant, I requested Jim to\\ntake me over in a boat, but he declined, saying, no boat could\\nlive in such a sea. Another Cracker was willing to risk it for a\\ndollar and a half. As the wind blew fortunately for crossing,\\nthough dangerously, I took my spade and trowel, and forbidding\\nFred to risk the voyage with me, I crossed over, the partially\\ndecked bow going under several times, but skilful management\\ncarried us across safely, though well drenched with the spray.\\nAscending the mound, about thirty feet in height, and well wooded", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0065.jp2"}, "66": {"fulltext": "56\\nwith wild orange growth, I succeeded in exhuming a perfect skel-\\neton, having its knees bent to its chin, and facing the south, thus\\nfulfilling at the last chance one of the things I promised Prof.\\nJeffries Wyman I would try to do. It is an ill wind that blows\\nnobody any good, but Erwin s sickness seriously interfered with\\nmy finishing up Florida according to my plans but as I could not\\nsee how I was responsible, I knew it was all right, and according\\nto the plans of my Heavenly Father, who is too wise to err and\\ntoo good to be unkind.\\nThe Norther blowed out during the night and we started about\\neight for Sand Point direct, giving up for his sake Banana Eiver\\nand the white pelicans. Before starting, I gave Erwin a morphine\\npill to alleviate the pain in his left side, the second time I had\\nopened my medicine case during the trip the first being as stated\\nin the earlier part of the narrative, to give one of my phials of\\nquinine to a man on Ten Mile Creek who camped near me one\\nnight with his wife and seven small children, two of them very\\nsick with fever. We parted in the morning, but he sent me word\\nby a cow-boy two weeks afterwards that my quinine saved the\\nlives of his children.\\nHaving failed to secure a Wurdemann Heron at the Pelican\\nrookery, I kept on the lookout for one, and during this day s sail\\nespied a nest on the right bank, on a tall pine, which Jim declared\\nbelonged to a Wurdemann. Sending him ashore with the rifle,\\nhe brought me one of the old birds and a half-fledged young he\\nfound under the nest. This specimen differs materially from the\\nbook measurements of the Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias,\\nbut so little in plumage that I was still in doubt, and obliged to\\nwait till I reached Washington to discuss the matter with Prof.\\nBaird and test the find. Night overtaking us ten miles from Sand\\nPoint, we were forced to camp again on the sand just opposite the\\nlower end of Merritt s Island. Pitching my tent on the windward\\nside of a rousing fire, and making as nice a bed of palmetto leaves\\nfor Erwin inside as I could, I gave the tent up to him and was\\ngratified to learn in the morning that he had slept well. To quote\\nfrom a letter to my wife written on the sail-boat after leaving this\\ncamp this encouraged me to hope that after a sail of two hours\\nI might yet have the gratification I had been all the week antici-\\npating of having a quiet Sabbath at Sand Point, and revisiting", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0066.jp2"}, "67": {"fulltext": "57\\nthat Sabbath School in the pine woods, whose acquaintance I had\\nmade on my outward trip, but the wind was contrary, and so we\\nadd another day of holy time to the last seven Sabbaths unrecog-\\nnized entirely as such, except in our tent, and two of those neces-\\nsarily spent in travelling with an ox-team in Okechobee swamps,\\nas the journal of my sojourn in the wilderness will explain. This\\njournal, by the way, is wholly in my mind, as, till leaving Fort\\nCapron last Monday, I have had no possible opportunity for\\nwriting except the few postals I have forwarded. Now I hope to\\nsend a postal almost daily, from the time I leave Jacksonville, and\\na letter weekly, giving daily particulars. This will keep you post-\\ned on my movements as you could not have been while I was out\\nof civilization, among murderers and ex-Ku-Kluxans, for at this\\ndistance I dare write so, while had I written out my experience in\\nthe wilderness, and it had fallen into the hands of the wretches\\nprowling through that region, it might have cost me my life. Yet\\nI was well treated by every one, though I had to bear the most\\noutrageous language respecting the Yanks. I must confess I\\nfelt safer in having my revolver under my head and our guns be-\\ntween us as we slept in the tent, according to Cromwell s injunc-\\ntion to l trust in God and keep our powder dry. /always\\nsleep the foreside of the tent, as Fred is a sound sleeper,\\nwhile usually wake at the tread of a possum within ten feet of\\nme still, into such a wild region you must go if you would study\\nnature first hand instead of second. Hence the reason so few\\nnaturalists do anything more than study books and take the ob-\\nservations of others and use them second-handed. To a great\\nextent I have done so, but always to my great dissatisfaction, you\\nknow. I now feel as though I had a right to speak and lecture\\non some subjects pertaining to Natural History, ex-cathedra\\nauthoritatively. I cannot but feel greatly pleased with my expe-\\nrience for the last two months as well as grateful, I trust, for\\nGod s preserving care. We are just landing at Sand Point, at 11\\no clock, A. M.\\nLearning that a man living a mile in the interior had a spring\\nsulky, I sent a lad for it to convey Erwin to a suitable lodging-\\nplace for the night, and on the next day to the steamer at Lake\\nHarney, twenty-two miles distant, on which we proposed to sail\\ndown the St. John s to Jacksonville. Having thus disposed of", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0067.jp2"}, "68": {"fulltext": "58\\nmy sick companion, with gratitude for his convalescence, I chose\\na suitable camping-place for the afternoon and night, and, leaving\\nFred and our guide to take our luggage ashore, went myself in\\nsearch of a suitable team to transfer us on the morrow to Lake\\nHarney. Having secured a mule team, I hastened back to find\\nthe last package just piled in a piazza of a store, when a furious\\nthunder shower broke upon us. During my absence the mail-boat\\nhad come up from Ft. Capron, bringing Dr. P. with three other\\npassengers. It being Sunday, the proprietor of the store was\\nabsent, leaving for twelve men and all their luggage only the\\npiazza, six feet by twenty, for shelter. Feeling it was more im-\\nportant to preserve dry our luggage than ourselves, we gave to it\\nthe benefit of our blankets and overcoats and took our own chance\\nunsheltered for the most part, with the probability of lying down\\nat night drenched to the skin. Toward evening the rain ceased,\\nand the proprietor of the store returning, he kindly offered us all\\nlodging on his attic floor. My rubber blanket served to soften\\nthe, couch of hard pine, and either it or fatigue induced sound\\nsleep, to find, on awaking in the morning, a cloudless sky. After\\ncooking and eating our breakfast of coffee, pork and hard-tack, I\\ncommenced packing the cart, while Fred skinned three Shoveler\\nducks and a woodpecker he had shot before breakfast. This\\ndone, he lent his aid to the packing, but was soon interrupted at\\nseeing a monstrous black hog run off with one of his duck-skins.\\nGiving chase, he overtook it in a boggy swamp, but had hardly\\ndeposited the skin in a safe place, when the same or another hog\\nseized another duck-skin, and in a trice chawed off one leg, thus\\nspoiling it as a specimen for mounting. Will hog tribulations\\nnever cease, thought I. Our things packed, my final experience\\nin Cracker honesty was realized. Jim demurred to my con-\\nstruction of the bargain I had made with him two weeks before,\\nto take us to Sand Point in his sail-boat and there leave us, at so\\nmuch per day, more or less number of days. He made out almost\\nas large a bill for extras as the bargain called for, when there\\nwere to be no extras of any kind, unless providential ones, and\\nsuch he could not say there had been. After an hour of abuse,\\nwith charges of Yankee meanness and some threatening of legal\\nredress, he calmed down and took his pay at my first calculation.\\nI then donated him my camp cooking utensils that had cost me", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0068.jp2"}, "69": {"fulltext": "59\\nabout five dollars and were uninjured, supposing I could not\\npossibly have any further use for them.\\nAt 3 P. M. we bade farewell to Indian River, having a boy of\\ntwelve for our teamster, who proved to be no exception to an adult\\nCracker s thriftlessness, for when we camped at dark in the\\nwoods, he had no cooking apparatus. However, boiling our coffee\\nin a lard can and our eggs in a peach can, and after drinking the\\ncoffee, our hominy in the lard can for breakfast in the morning, as\\nit could be handled cold, we lay down on the ground and looking\\nsky-ward went to sleep, as often before, counting the stars. Ris-\\ning at 3.30 in the morning, I ended my camping career of fifty-one\\nnights, and exchanged my butternut hunting-dress and blue-flannel\\nshirt for broadcloth and linen, and donned my beaver in place of\\nthe worn-out straw-hat which I left sticking upon a stake.\\nAt 9 A. M. we reached the steamer Volusia, gratified to find\\nErwin comfortably established on board, and at 2 P. M. sailed\\naway from Crackerdom down the St. John s. Sharing a state-\\nroom with Capt. B. previous and subsequent to the war, light-\\nhouse keeper at Cape Canaveral I learned from him some inter-\\nesting particulars of his experience during the war. On the\\nsecession of Florida he was ordered by the State authority to put\\nout his light. He obeyed, and more. In the darkness of the\\nnight and the retiracy of the surroundings, he took down the lan-\\ntern and everything movable, and transferred all by a mule-cart to\\na lonely spot four miles distant, and safely hiding them, kept the\\nsecret during the war. At its close, when a U. S. vessel came\\ndown the coast to re-light the lanterns, he was inquired of for the\\nequipments. Leading the officer to the hiding-place, he brought\\nall out to light uninjured, and for his discretion, was recommended\\nby the officer as a suitable person to continue in charge of the\\nLight, and was successful in receiving the appointment from\\nWashington. He also informed me that early in the war Jefferson\\nDavis and his Cabinet entrusted him with keeping concealed in\\nthe inlet near the Cape, as large a vessel as possible, to take any\\nof them, in case of disaster, to Nassau, under British dominion,\\nbeing assured, if once there, they would be protected according\\nto the Mason and Slidell precedent. During the last year of the\\nwar the Union gun-boats found their way into the Indian Rivei\\nand captured the vessel, with much other contraband material", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0069.jp2"}, "70": {"fulltext": "60\\nthat had been accumulating as the safest place on the coast. On\\nthe surrender of Lee, and the separation of Davis and his Cabinet,\\nat their last meeting in the second story of the bank buildiug at\\nWashington, Wilkes County, Georgia, each strove to reach, by\\ndifferent routes, the rendezvous in charge of Capt. B., to make\\nhis escape to Nassau. Mr. Davis taking his family, who had\\nbeen boarding for some time four miles out of Washington fol-\\nlowed the route leading through Taliafero County, and passing\\nacross the very plantation where I spent the year 1841 teaching a\\nprivate school, was captured a few miles further south. Breck-\\nenridge alone found his way unmolested to the appointed rendez-\\nvous, and was enabled to escape to Nassau by Capt. B. s furnishing\\nhim with an open row-boat of large size, which he had fitted with\\na jury-mast, Capt. B. showing me a gold dollar hanging at his\\nwatch-chain, which he said Mr. Breckenridge gave him as he\\nstepped aboard the boat, as the only remuneration he could offer\\nhim for his kindness.\\nOn our second day s sail down the river, at a wooding-up place,\\nCapt. B. drew my attention to a woman standing in a doorway,\\nwith a child in her arms, and said, That is the wife of Mr. Lang,\\nthat was murdered a few weeks ago in the neighborhood of ten-\\nmile creek you have just escaped from. As the boat was about\\nto start, I failed of an opportunity to learn definite particulars\\nfrom her of the terrible tragedy, but this seems the proper place\\nin my narrative to give the denouement. Less than a year after-\\nwards I found the following in the Boston Transcript, but by\\nwhom written I know not, nor, through correspondence with true\\nmen in the vicinity of Fort Capron, have I been able to obtain\\nother than conflicting accounts of the arrests and trials.\\nNow that spiritualism is being brought so prominently for-\\nward, it is interesting to learn, from the Chicago Tribune, that an\\ningenious attorney in Florida was the first person to discover a\\npractical value in it. His client, Tom Drawdy, was accused of\\nmurdering one Lang, and the jury was composed of eight colored\\nand four ignorant white men. There was no doubt of the murder\\nthere was no flaw in the evidence. But the counsel found one.\\nHe maintained that no proof of Lang s death had been given, and,\\nin all probability, he was still hiding to obtain revenge. This made\\na commotion, but the main argument was yet to come. The gen-\\ntlemen of the jury had heard that spirits were very common all", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0070.jp2"}, "71": {"fulltext": "61\\nover the North that some had even been heard of in St. Augus-\\ntine. Supposing the jury brought in a verdict of guilty and hanged\\nan innocent man, what could they expect but that his spirit would\\nhaunt them through life, appearing with staring eyes and clammy\\ntongue, the death damp on his hands and the horrors of the tomb\\nround about him? Of course they must take the responsibility,\\nand they did, by acquitting Tom Drawdy forthwith. Here, there-\\nfore, is the first authenticated instance of the practical value of\\nspiritualism, and it may be added that that value was of a dubious\\nsort.\\nJUSTICE IN THE SOUTH.\\nTo the Editor of the Transcript: In the Transcript of the 14th\\ninst. was an account of the trial of a man in Florida for murder,\\nwho was acquitted in the face of the evidence, by a spiritualistic\\ndodge. I was in east Florida last winter, near the scene of this\\ncrime, and as the affair illustrates the life and manners of mauy\\nSouthern States, I will give the story as I heard it.\\nLang, the victim, was an honest, industrious German, who had\\nmade for himself a home on the Indian River, where he was living\\nwith his wife. He was a man of education and a naturalist. His\\nneighbors were Floridians, usually called Crackers; ignorant\\nand lazy, and hating Yankees. They envied Mr. Lang the pos-\\nsession of a better plantation than they had, the result of his own\\nindustry, and determined to drive him away. So they got up a\\nstory that he had stolen cattle. As in the West the charge of\\nbeing a horse thief is the most fatal that can be brought against a\\nman, so in Florida, where cattle and hogs constitute the sole prop-\\nerty of most of the Crackers, to charge a man with killing his\\nneighbor s cattle is to put him out of the protection of such law\\nas may exist.\\nFindiug that they could not drive Lang away, they hired the\\nDrawdys, a desperate family of ruffians, to kill him, and the deed\\nwas performed with the treachery belonging to that class. Two\\nof them went to Lang s house and asked for dinner it was given\\nthem, and they requested their host to set them across the river in\\nhis boat. He went with them for the purpose, but did not return.\\nHis wife heard a shot tired soon after the party left the house, and\\nas her husband did not return she went to look for him. The boat\\nwas found on the other side of the river with stains of blood upon\\nit, but nothing was ever seen of Lang. The people in the neigh-\\nborhood took no steps to bring the murderers to justice, and Mrs.\\nLang applied to the Governor of the State, who sent a posse from\\nTallahasse, who it appears arrested the men about three months\\nafter the murder was committed. It seems they have escaped\\npunishment, as they have many times before for lesser crimes.", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0071.jp2"}, "72": {"fulltext": "62\\nWithout affirming or denying the truth of these statements in\\ntheir fullest extent, I am assured from all I can learn that Mr. J.,\\nthe father-in-law and reputed instigator of the murder, was shot\\ndead in his tracks by the sheriff while resisting arrest, as he had\\nassured me he would be, rather than be arrested that Tom died in\\nthe State s prison not long after incarceration, and that his col-\\nleague in the murderous affair was shot by the guard for insubor-\\ndination in the chain-gang;.\\nLeaving the steamer at Tocoi I proceeded by a mule railroad to\\nthe old town of St. Augustine, bidding good-bye to my compan-\\nions Fred and Erwin, who continued on to Jacksonville and thence\\nto New England by steamer. My familiarity with quaint old\\ntowns in Europe, hundreds of years ante-dating the settlement of\\nSt. Augustine, prevented my realizing the novel sensation so gen-\\nerally depicted by tourists on first beholding its dilapidated walls\\nand coquina-stone Castle. A walk before breakfast on the long\\nsea-wall and a ramble around the Fort through its moat, and\\nacross the draw-bridge, with a hasty inspection of the Cemetery\\nand the Old Cathedral and Square, satisfied my curiosity, and I\\nspent the forenoon, as the mule-car did not return to Tocoi till 1\\nP. M., in searching for objects of natural history in the suburban\\nlagoons. Taking the Pilatka steamer for Jacksonville at Tocoi\\nI re-admired the remarkable river whose very source I had found\\nnear Fort Drum at the northern boundary of Alpatiokee Flats, and\\nhad jumped across, but now widening to two miles in extent.\\nConversing with a stranger on board, about three o clock of the\\nsecond day, and enquiring for Jacksonville time, he displayed an\\nold-fashioned silver moveable-cased watch, remarking, it was the\\nbest time-keeper on board, though a relic of his grandfather s day.\\nTelling him I could match it as a time-keeper, I felt in my pants\\nwatch pocket for a silvei -edged lepine watch that I had owned for\\nmore than thirty years, and which, then an old watch, was given\\nto me by a watch-repairer to replace one I had left with him to\\nrepair, but, through careless exposure at his window had, during\\nhis temporary absence from the room, been grabbed by a sneak-\\nthief with half a dozen others on the same rack, and successfully\\nsecured. But lo the pocket was empty. I recalled changing my\\ndouble-time lever-watch the second morning before at St. Augus-\\ntine from my money-belt where I had securely carried it through", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0072.jp2"}, "73": {"fulltext": "63\\nall my swamp experience, to my vest watch-pocket, and putting\\nthe old lepine without a chain into my pants pocket. A little re-\\nflection convinced me that it had slipped out while gathering\\nspecimens in the suburbs of St. Augustine. So soon, therefore,\\nas I arrived at Jacksonville, I wrote to the postmaster at St. Au-\\ngustine, explaining my loss and requesting him to send his clerk\\nto certain points in the lagoon I designated, offering him a reward\\nof five dollars if he should be successful in finding it and would\\nsend it to my home address in Massachusetts by mail, carelessly\\nneglecting to mention the numbers on the case and the works of\\nthe watch for identification, though I had them with me in my\\npocket-book, and also at my home. On arriving at my home a\\nmonth later, almost immediately my wife handed me a letter from\\nthe postmaster for explanation. He sent his clerk as requested,\\nbut he found nothing. During the evening, however, he overheard\\na negro man say his son had found a watch that day in the moat\\nof the castle and obtained his consent to give it to him if I would\\nsend on the numbers of my lost watch and the five dollai-s reward\\nif the numbers I should send identified it. Remembering my tramp\\nthrough the moat I hesitated not to send the money with the num-\\nbers, and in due time received my watch in. good order.\\nAt Jacksonville I disabused the minds of those who had told\\nme when I started up the St. John s, that after a residence of\\nyears in Florida they had concluded that Lake Okechobee was a\\nmyth, and advised them to look out for the report of the explor-\\ning party who had circumnavigated it. Shipping home my col-\\nlection of beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, etc., by the shortest route,\\nI made a detour from Jacksonville to the south-west and north-\\neast sections of Georgia between which I had spent the years from\\n38 to 42 as teacher. The little frontier village of 38 in the\\nLower Creek Indian Country of hardly more than forty log houses,\\nwhere, at the age of nineteen, I made my debut as Principal of a\\nschool in which I had pupils in a, b, c, as well as in advanced\\nLatin and Greek, sending two of the latter class to college at the\\nend of my first year of instruction, had become a municipality of\\nfive thousand inhabitants. The Creeks had, after hard fighting,\\nbeen removed west of the Mississippi within five years of my loca-\\ntion in the hamlet, and, with the exception of a few individuals,\\nthe character of the people partook of the worst elements of a", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0073.jp2"}, "74": {"fulltext": "64\\nfrontier settlement. Seventy miles distant from any stage route,\\nmy only way of reaching it at that time was by an old negro and\\nhis mule-cart, making the journey in two days and camping at the\\nfoot of a pine tree at night. My mail came once a week on horse-\\nback, the original star route I imagine, and all the appointments\\npertaining to civilization were of the most primitive stamp, such\\nas New England had outgrown a hundred years before. A conch-\\nshell blown at the Court House in the centre of the village square,\\nfor it was the shire hamlet of the county, notified me on the morn-\\ning of my first Sunday that a strolling Methodist preacher would\\nhold services in the Court House at 11 o clock. Repairing from\\nmy room just outside the village to the place of worship, I passed\\nin the open square two faro tables where peripatetic professional\\ngamblers were fleecing a much larger gathering than I found in-\\nside the Court House. The preacher had his own bible and hymn\\nbook and led all the services, giving out each hymn line by line,\\nand starting the tune himself, at each break. During the first\\nprayer, I heard just outside a sudden out-burst of loud talking\\nmingled with fearful oaths, which made me open my eyes, but\\nseeing neither minister nor worshippers in the least disturbed, I\\ncomposed myself and concluded there was no disrespect intended\\nfor us. Before the sermon was half through the outside rabble\\nhad matured a plan for a horse-race, which was kept up with the\\nusual accompaniment of swearing and disputing till long after\\nour services were ended. Longer experience in the community\\ntaught me that the occasional religious services enjoyed by a\\nmoiety of the citizens was not objected to by the gamblers and\\nhorse-racers, so long as they were not interfered with in their\\nmode of enjoying the Sabbath. Enquiring for some of my old\\npupils of thirty-six years before, I found the war had spared a\\nfew, but not one of half a dozen or more that I met recognized\\nme, so changed was I from an almost beardless youth of nineteen\\nto an old man of fifty-five.\\nIn northeast Georgia, where, for nearly a year, I was both\\ninstructor and colleague of an aged minister in 1841, 1 was equally\\nunrecognized by all who had known me in either capacity. It\\nwas in this region that I attained my majority and cast my first\\nvote, on which was the name of Alexander H. Stephens, in his\\nfirst candidacy for Congress. The intimacy we formed during the", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0074.jp2"}, "75": {"fulltext": "65\\nyear I dwelt in his vicinity was never broken, but renewed from\\ntime to time, as circumstances brought us together, the last time\\nbut a few months before his decease in 1882.\\nDesirous of visiting the site of my last school-house in Georgia,\\nI left the cars at a station within seven miles of it, and borrowing\\na horse from one of my old pupils, now a lawyer of middle age,\\nI essayed to find it. My route required me to cross the same\\nstream twice. At the first crossing I forded the stream by gath-\\nering my limbs crosswise upon the pommel of the saddle, but\\nfound the second, by my recollection of its bed, more than swim-\\nming to my horse, with too swift a current to think of stemming,\\nand so turned aside for the night to stop with the father of my\\npupil, who with his wife still occupied the same plantation of\\n3,800 acres I used to visit in 41. True Southern hospitality\\nwelcomed me as of yore, though despoiled of everything but the\\nnaked land by the exigencies of the war. Talking over the sit-\\nuation with the old gentleman, he related the following war inci-\\ndents One morning one of his many negroes accosted him,\\nMassa, we s all free. Ah, how so? Massa Lincoln says\\nso. Surprised at the statement, and knowing the blacks always\\nhad information of important movements at the North sometimes\\ndays in advance of the whites, the master mounted his horse and\\ngalloped to town, six miles, to learn that no one there knew what\\nthe statement meant. In the afternoon news came by the mail\\nfrom Augusta of Lincoln s Proclamation freeing the slaves, and\\nthe master galloped back to his plantation to inform his negroes\\nthat Massa Lincoln s saying so had nothing to do with their free-\\ndom, as they were all under Jefferson Davis, and ordered them\\nto their work as usual. Two years subsequently the master was\\nagain surprised by the same old negro saying one morning,\\nMassa, now we s free for sartin. Ah, how s that? Lee s\\nsurrendered Richmond, and Jeff Davis has fled Again gallop-\\ning to town, no such news had reached there, but at 10 o clock\\nthe mail confirmed it, and galloping back, the master blew the\\nconch-shell that brought all his negroes in a trice from the most\\ndistant parts of the plantation into his yard, when he said to the\\nscores before him, from the very spot in the piazza where we were\\nsitting: It s a fact, Lee s surrendered; you are all free, and\\nnote you must look out for your dinner. This last announcement", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0075.jp2"}, "76": {"fulltext": "66\\nto poor dependents that had never in their lives, from the youngest\\nconscious child to the gray-haired old men and women, ever had\\na thought about providing their dinner, the regular cook of the\\nplantation dealing out their rations at the appointed time each day\\nall prepared, so took them aback that not a shout was heard or\\nthe wag of a tongue, but on the contrary, their very countenances\\nof jet black grew pale with consternation. After leaving them\\nto their reflections for half an hour, the master blew the conch-\\nshell again and told them he had been anticipating this result, so\\ngiving them a dinner, he related the following plan as the best\\nthing for him and them, he being left with nothing but his land,\\nstock, and farming implements, as Confederate money would at\\nonce be worthless The oldest married negro could first choose\\ntwenty acres of land in any part of his thirty-eight hundred, and\\nmove his cabin on to it and make a home for himself then the\\nnext oldest married man, and so on, and then the unmarried could\\nmake their choice. He would also let each have a mule and a\\nplough, and the use of his gin-house and cotton-press, and for\\nhis own support the}* should pay him a certain per cent, of what\\nthey got for their crop or every one could quit the plantation\\nand look out for himself. With the exception of one young\\nunmarried man, all accepted his offer and moved their dozen or\\nmore cabins on to the land of their choice, and at the time of his\\nnarrating the circumstances to me, ten years afterwards, every\\nfamily was on the place of their first choosing, with hardly an\\nexception, and everything had gone prosperously with him, and\\nfor his own sake he would not have slavery restored for all his\\nplantation. A second visit, eight years afterwards, to the same\\nplantation produced the same testimony from the considerate and\\nhumane old master.\\nExpressing my approbation of a beautiful peacock strutting in\\nthe yard, the generous old wife said to me, Catch it and mount\\nit for your Museum at Brown University, as a present from me.\\nIn five minutes its life was forfeited to the interests of science.\\nHaving promised a gratuitous lecture in the village in the even-\\ning, I mounted my horse after dinner to return, a young man\\naccompanying me a mile to the creek I had forded the day before,\\nbut the rain during the night had swollen it to swimming and also\\noverflowed its banks on either skle for more than a hundred feet,", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0076.jp2"}, "77": {"fulltext": "67\\nObserving on the right a high staked fence, extending within\\ntwenty feet of the other side, with the top rail jnst above the\\nrushing stream with overhanging branches, I gave my horse to the\\nyoung man to take back to its owner at his convenience, and\\nmounting the fence, with the incumbrance of the peacock with its\\nfive-foot tail and fifteen-pound weight, and a tall silk hat, I walked\\nthe sharp edge of the rail by the aid of the slender overhead\\nbranches, thanks to the acrobatic practice of my youth, till I\\nreached the end of the fence, when, tossing the fowl as far towards\\nthe shore as I could, and holding my watch and purse above my\\nhead, I followed, landing in water only waist-deep, instead of\\nneck-deep, as I feared. My companion on the opposite side, see-\\ning me safe across, swung his hat and shouted, A Yankee for\\nanything and forever! Replacing my watch and shouldering my\\nbird, I plodded the live miles to the village, arriving just in time\\nto change my wet underclothes for dry, but for the want of another\\nsuit of outer garments was obliged to lecture in wet pants. My?\\nneighbors and pupils of a generation before were, however, well\\npleased to hear the voice of their old friend and teacher.\\nLearning that an old college-mate was residing in the vicinity\\nof Toccoa Falls in northern Georgia. I made a detour of two\\nhundred miles by rail to call upon him. These Falls are of won-\\nderful beaut} 7 and, with the present railroad facilities, are attract-\\ning hundreds of visitors annually-\\nFrom Toccoa, Georgia, to Charlotte County, Virginia, 1 ac-\\ncomplished by rail what took me by stage through the same towns\\nin December, 1841, from Monday noon of continuous travel, night\\nand day, with the exception of Sunday, to Thursday noon of the\\nweek following. I was the only through passenger, and usually\\nat night the only one, so that my trunk was taken inside the stage\\nfor fear of robbers, and filling the space between the seats, made\\nme a more comfortable couch. The rivers were all crossed by\\nferries, and one night, the lights of the stage having gone out, the\\nnew driver missed the path leading to the ferry and found out his\\nmistake when a sudden wheeling around of the horses upset the\\nstage within twenty feet of the bank, waking me out of a sound\\nsleep. Re-lighting the uninjured lamp by matches furnished by\\nmyself, we surveyed our surroundings, and loosening the jaded\\nhorses, shouted for help. Soon the negro ferrymen on the opposite", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0077.jp2"}, "78": {"fulltext": "68-\\nside replied, and coming to the proper landing several rods up\\nstream, soon righted matters for ns. At another ferry the rope\\nbroke when nearly across, but as it was in the daytime, we soon\\ncaught by the overhanging branches and pulled ourselves up\\nstream to the right landing-place.\\nThe cars leaving me in Virginia five miles from the nearest of\\nmy old school-mates of 1832, I engaged a horse for two days\\nriding. When brought for me to mount, the bridle had no two\\nparts alike, one stirrup was of wood suspended by a rope and the\\nother of iron suspended by leather, and the horse himself was\\nevidently a remnant of the cavalry of ten years previous, or more\\nprobably of the artillery or an ambulance corps. To my remon-\\nstrance, I was told it was the best in the neighborhood, a most\\npainful contrast to the blooded animals, with gorgeous trappings,\\nI used to ride on the fox-hunts forty-two years before in the same\\nregion. Arrived at the door of the residence of my school-mate,\\nshe herself appeared, so unchanged in all the intervening time I\\ncould not help grasping her hand with a school-boy s familiarity,\\nand tightening my grasp the more she tried to escape from it,\\nwhile I was parleying for a recognition from her. At length,\\npropriety suggested my rudeness, as she evidently began to be\\nalarmed, and letting go my hold, I asked her the leading question,\\nwhether she could not recall events of forty-two years previous.\\nOh, dear, am I so old, was her only answer, with a quick,\\nbut who are you I am the little Yankee boy of the log\\nschool-house on your father s plantation and then she herself\\nseized both my hands involuntarily, and it was my turn to leave\\nthe unclasping to her. The next moment tears came to her eyes,\\nwith the sad exclamation, Oh, that you should find us all in\\nsuch changed circumstances from what you knew us in our child-\\nhood and would have known us up to the war. That hack of a\\nhorse you just rode up on and its rigging is a fair sample of how\\nthe war left us, my husband, a physician, and our two sons\\nreturning from the ranks on the surrender of Lee with not a cent\\nbetween us all, except twenty-five dollars I had contrived to secure\\nto myself, and which my husband took to Petersburg to purchase\\nme a calico dress, the first of any kind I had purchased in all\\nthe four years. In yonder shed is our carriage, that, for the\\nwant of suitable horses and harness, has not been harnessed since", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0078.jp2"}, "79": {"fulltext": "69\\nthe war, and every luxury of the kind forborne, with no prospect\\nof the times being any better in my day. Such and much more\\nwas the sad tale I listened to during the three hours I stopped,\\nbefore proceeding ten miles further to the residence of her twin\\nsister, and two miles further to the residence of her brother, near\\nthe paternal mansion, where, during their youth, every luxury\\nabounded, as well as at their several homes, till the exigencies of\\nwar made Virginia the greatest sufferer of all the seceding States.\\nSpending only one day and night between the three families, 1\\nreturned to the station and hastened on to Washington, to find,\\nto my great disappointment, that I had not after ..all my effort\\nsecured a Wurdemaun Heron. Subsequent study of the species,\\nhowever, proves my specimen not to be the long-known Blue\\nHeron, but a variety now lately determined to be the Ardea wardi\\nor Florida Blue Heron.\\nLeaving Washington after spending one night, I reached my\\nhome on the evening of the last day of April, in a snowstorm that\\nhad been unintermitting during the day.\\nThe following extract from a detailed report of the New Orleans\\nTimes-Democrat Exploring Expedition through the Florida Ever-\\nglades in 1884 will make a fitting close to our narrative.\\nWhen we reached White Water Bay we had accomplished all\\nwe promised to do, and more than any man or men ever were able\\nto do before. We are the first party of white men who ever pene-\\ntrated the Northern Glades, and the first who ever started from\\nthe southern shore of Lake Okeechobee and came out at the Gulf\\nof Mexico through Shark s River, without diverging a mile to the\\neast or west from their due south course.\\nIn conclusion I sum up my observations of the Everglades in\\na few words\\nIt is a vast marsh, interspersed with thousands of islands\\nsmall in extent, and with few exceptions completely inundated,\\neven at the time we explored them, which was during a very dry\\nseason. On the islands that were out of water there was but a\\nfew inches of soil covering the rocks. In my opinion, their drain-\\nage is utterly impracticable, and, even if it were practicable, the\\nreward for such an undertaking would be lands that could be util-\\nized for no other purpose than as a grazing ground for stock.\\nThey are nothing more nor less than a vast and useless marsh,\\nand such they will remain for all time to come, in all probability.\\nIt would not be possible to build, or maintain if built, a tele-\\ngraph line along the route traversed by us, which statement is", "height": "3448", "width": "2034", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida01jenk_0079.jp2"}, "80": {"fulltext": "70\\nmade in reply to numerous inquiries as to the feasibility of such\\nan enterprise.\\nA. P. WILLIAMS.\\nI have designedly omitted in the foregoing narrative scientific\\nnames of specimens and specific descriptions, intending it only\\nas an account of the adventures of a Naturalist Collector in the\\nEverglades.\\nJ. W. P. 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