{"1": {"fulltext": "317", "height": "3338", "width": "2314", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "Class\\nBook\\nCOPYRIGHT DEPOSIT", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "Hunting in Florida in 1874.\\nTHOUGH a native of Massachusetts, it was ray fortune,\\nat tlie age of thirteen, to enjoy squirrel, oppossum\\nand fox liunting in interior Virginia; at nineteen, deer,\\ncoon and bear chasing in soutli western Georgia; at twenty-\\nfive, plover, duck and hawk shooting in southeastern New\\nEngland; at forty, a sight of wild chamois in the high\\nAlps, and at fifty-five, a camp Ufe of fifty consecutive\\ndays in the miasmatic swamps and everglades around\\nLake Okechobee in southern Florida. The object of this\\nnarrative is to give a detailed account of this latter expe-\\nrience in the most forbidding of all wild regions: but to\\nthe naturalist a perfect elytium.\\nThe mention of Florida suggests the invalid, but it\\nshould not in the case of myself or my three compan ons,\\nthe one an expe ieiiced collector of forty, inured to all the\\nhardships of camp life, and recognized by naturalists as\\nDoctor P., and the other two, youths of eighteen, in-\\nexperienced, but enthusiastic, whom we will call Erwin\\nand Fred.\\nFor hunting-dress outfit, I was provided with a suit of\\nsail cloth, colored yellowish brown or butternut, to re-\\nsemble dead leaves, the sack coat prepared with ten\\npockets, besides one, full size of the skirt, for large speci-\\nmens, the pants with six pockets, two blue flannel shirts,\\nwith inside pockets for watch, money and photographs,\\nall wrapped in oil sUk bags (carefully keeping paper\\nmoney from contact with the oil sUk surface, by first en-\\nclosing it in an envelope), military boots and brogans, and\\nfour pair of thick woolen socks. Any sort of vest is an\\nincumberance on hunting excursions. A huswife well\\nprovided with sewing materials, extra buttons, pieces of\\ncloth in variety for mending garments and dressing\\nwounds, was not omitted.\\nFor obtaining game, and for camp constructing, I had\\na double-barreled breechloader; in the waist-belt on the\\nleft side, a large size revolver, and on the right side a\\nclaw-hatchet with wrist string in the handle; sundry\\nsmall traps, bunches of cord, insect nets, etc. At least\\none breechloading rifle should be in every hunting party.\\nFor preserving and transporting specimens, I found a\\ntin knapsack, constructed with various apartments for\\nalcohohc vials, lunches, medicine-box and eggs, very con-\\nvenient. At least ten gallons of alcohol and twenty\\npounds of arsenic were provided, besides some hundreds\\nof muslin bags of different sizes, for keeping specimens\\ndistinct when thrown into one large jar. Convenient\\ninstruments, in duplicate, for skinning birds and animals\\nand for blowing eggs, completed the general outfit.\\nTwo o clock P. M., Jan. 29, 1874, found myself and\\nparty steaming out of the harbor of P., ui southern New\\nEngland bound direct to Savannah. A sudden fit of indi-\\ngestion admonished Fi-ed to seek cascading quarters,\\nbefore we were fairly out of sight of land, whither I fol-\\nlowed him in a short time. The Doctor and Erwin proved\\ninvulnerable, and greatly enjoyed our distress. How\\nsingular that of all the ills that flesh is heir to, the most\\ndistressing never awakens a particle of sympathy from\\nthe unsuffeiTng, but rather mirth and cniel hectoring.\\nHappily for Fred and myself, we were booked for the\\nsame stateroom, to which having retreated, through the\\nlive-long night and succeeding day, we were as sympa-\\nthizing as the Siamese twins. On the third da my sea-\\nsickness fled more suddenly than it came, on hearing the\\ncry on deck, Porpoises! poi-poises! all round, Hasten-\\ning up, I found we were in a school of that species of\\nCetacea called Delphinus delphis and quite unlike the\\ncommon porpoise. This latter is often seen entering bays\\nand even ascending large rivers for miles, while Del-\\nphinus rarely approaches soundings. Looking from the\\ndeck of the steamer, I had an excellent opportunity for\\nobserving their swift motions, and the upward and down-\\nward movement of the tail, in contrast with its horizon-\\ntal movement in fishes. At regular intervals they would\\nrise to the surface to breathe through their single spiracle\\non the summit of the head; but exhaling and inhaling\\nin an incredibly brief period of time. The hot air\\nfrom the lungs, surcharged with moisture, is instantly\\ncondensed to vapor, giving to the careless observer the\\nappeai-ance of spouting water, which none of the Cetacea\\never do. Celebrated for their swiftness, they play around\\nthe vessel, changing their position from side to side^ by\\nsometimes passing under the bow and sometimes under\\nthe stern, but never disconcerted by the speed of the\\nsteamer, though plowing the waves at the rate of ten\\nknots per hour. Both jaws are armed with numerous\\nconical teeth, enabling them to feed upon the gregarious\\ntribes of fishes. Robert L. PeU says: It commits great\\nravages among the enormous shoals of flying fish (Exo-\\nccetiis volitans), inhabiting the temperate latitudes, and\\nit is a very remarkable fact that he necessarily seizes it\\nas it endeavors to e-cape him, behind; and were it not for\\nprovident nature, he could not swallow it on account of\\nits wings. The moment, however, it enters Ms mouth,\\nsome internal management reverses the fish, and it passes\\ndown his throat head first. Tliis cetaceous animal much\\nresembles the porpoise, but has a longer snout and more\\nslender body. In this quotation from the address of Mr.\\nPell, before the American Institute, May 17, 1858, we\\nsuspect either he or the reporter rather mixed accoxints,\\nby confounding the cetaceans e?p/iJH i(.s with the scale-\\nfish Coryphcene, species of both genera being popularly\\ncalled dolphins, though the former is a ma mm al and\\nthe latter a true fish. According to Captain Basil\\nHall, it is the Corijphwne that commits great ravages\\namong the flying-fish, and an old whaler by my side\\nfully confirms his account, but as confidently denies Mr.\\nPelfs. Can any of my readers testify to ever having\\nseen any species of porpoise pursue and feast upon flying-\\nfish?\\nDelphinus delphis is regarded as the true dolphin of the\\nancients, to which the Greeks paid divine honors, placing\\nits image in their temples and impressing it on their coins,\\nthough never actually imitating nature in their represen-\\ntations of it, but rather idealizing it as embodying physical\\nand moral perfections beyond those of the human race.\\nAt noon we passed Cape Hatteras with a perfectly calm\\nsea, very unlike some of my former passings of it in a\\nsailing vessel in my youthful days. At 9 P. M. Sunday,\\nwe anchored m Tybee Sound, and at dawn proceeded up\\nthe Savannah River to the city. We conveyed our lug-\\ngage across the city in a drenching rain, and started at 5\\nP. M. in the cars for a night ride of 350 miles to Jackson-", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "ville. The contrast between the station and car accom-\\nmodations of southern New England and southern Georgia\\nwas painfully striking. Toward dawn our train passed\\nover the hard-fouglit battle-ground of Olustee, where the\\nUnion troops were disastrously defeated in the late civil\\nwar. Anticipating our arrival at the place, I had sought\\ninformation among the passengers, and fortunately found\\none who WHS in the fight on the Sjuthern side. To my\\neager inquiries, he pointed out the graves of the Union\\nsoldiers who fell in the battle and in the hasty retreat of\\ntheir comrades were left on the field, and I knew that\\nthere lay two of my former pupils, whose lives had been\\nlaid upon the altar of their country. Another, who com-\\nmanded a company of cavalry in the fight, was taken\\ncaptive on the retreat and thrown into prison, escaping\\nonly to die in a few weeks of the disease contracted dur-\\ning his prison life.\\nAt 10 A. U. arrived at Jacksonville\u00e2\u0080\u0094 four and one-half\\ndays from snow and ice, to orange groves laden with\\nMaking inquiries for best route to Lake Okechobee, I\\nfound it was a terra incognita to even Floridians. The\\npublisher of a recent map of the State pointed to it with\\nthe remark, It is sa d to be there, but I have never met\\none who has seen it. Should you find it and return,\\nhaving escai.ed its miasma and reptiles, do not fail to\\ngive me a call, and verify or correct my map for the next\\nedition. The papers were teeming with sensational\\nstories about the wonders of the lake; beautiful islands,\\non which are castle ruins, grassy plains and nondescript\\nanimals, among which latter were spiders of 41bs.\\nweight! I was also informed of a party, just a day or\\ntwo in advance of me, bound for the lake by a western\\napproach to it. This information at once decided me in\\nfavor of an approach from the east, and with only two\\ndays delay in Jacksonville, I found myself and party on\\nthe little steamer LolUe Boy headed for Salt Lake, ex-\\npecting to arrive there by 12 M. Saturday.\\nTo quote from the Floridian Peninsula Such en-\\ntire ignorance of a body of water with a superficies of\\n1,200 square miles, in the midst of a State settled nearly\\nhalf a century before any other in our Union, which had\\nbeen governed for years by Spanish, by English, and by\\nAmericans, well illustrates the impassable character of\\nthose vast swamps and dense cypresses known as the Ever-\\nglades; an impeneti-ability so complete as almost to justify\\nthe assertion of the State Engineer, so late as 1855: These\\nlands are now, and will continue to be, as much unknown\\nas the interior of Africa, or the sources of the Amazon!\\nThe sequel to my narative will show how completely two\\nmonths more sufficed, through the perseverance of two\\nof my party, united to two others that subsequently\\njoined them, together with my own independent efforts, to\\ndispel the vagueness and even romance attending a knowl-\\nedge of its existence.\\nThough the area of the State of Florida compares with\\nthat of New England in the ratio of 59 to 62, three-fourth\\nof its surface is much of the year under water; and this\\nfact will largelv account for the ignorance concerning its\\nphysical features. None but wild Indians, cattle-rangers\\nand naturalists can be expQoted to wade through its\\nswamps, risk its miasmata, and brave its dangerous ani-\\nmals. From the first two, little information can be ex-\\npected, and the latter have but recently been attracted to\\nits more inaccessible regions.\\nThe St. John s is an anomaly among rivers. Its sovu-ce\\nor sources, like those of the Nile, are still unknown. It\\nflows a little west of north, till near its mouth, for at\\nleast 300 miles, but with a change of level for that entire\\ndistance of not more than 6ft. Still it cannot be called a\\nsluggish stream, which is aUthe more remarkable, when\\nit is considered that not an eminence in East Florida at-\\ntains the height of 200ft. and where all the water comes\\nfrom, to give for 150 miles from its mouth an average\\nbreadth of about two miles, in apparent contradiction of\\naU the hydraulic laws of physical geography, is the never-\\nceasing wonder, as day and night one steams over its\\nsurface. Ascending, the voyager traverses lake after\\nlake; some extensive enough to give a water horizon, and\\nfully justifying the alleged meaning of the Indian name\\nIl-la-ka, a river of many lakes; though it may here be\\nstated that an educated Choctaw chief defined the name\\nas meaning, it hath its own way, is alone contrary to\\neverv other; a signification quite as pertinent to its\\nphysical c iaracter as the former. Its unnavigable por-\\ntion seems to issue from an immense prairie covered with\\nlong saw grass, a region neighbor to the everglade and\\nculminating in it. The great rains of the summer are\\nhere collected as in a reservoir, till the low latitudinal\\nwater-shed is overflown, and the sources of the northern\\nflowing St. John s are confounded with that of the south-\\nern flowing Kissimmee. After the annual great rain fall\\nis over, the running away of the waters reveals the sub-\\nmerged dividing line, and leaves the streams distinct,\\nwith an easterly and westerly water-shed of varying\\nlongitudinal width, but never extensive even in thedi-iest\\nseasons. Such an anomalous condition was long sus-\\npected by those engineers who had approximated the\\nsources of both streams, but it was left to the observations\\nof my party, so far as I know, to confirm the view, as\\nwill appear in the sequel.\\nNearing the wharf at Hibernia, a few miles above\\nJacksonville, I was most agreeably surprised to find my\\nlifelong friend, the late Professor Jeffries Wyman, at\\nwhose house, m Cambridge, Mass. I had dined a few days\\nbefore, and whom I supposed still in New England.\\nForced by chronic complaints, he was spending his\\ntwenty-third winter, if I remember rightly, in Florida,\\nand as the event proved his last. Mitigatmg his tenden-\\ncies to pulmonary diseases by a southern winter, and to\\ncatarrhal by a White Mountain autumn, he had for nearly\\na quarter of a century alternated between the two ex-\\ntreme latitudes, and thus prolonged a most useful life,\\ntill in the issue he left behind a reputation that estab-\\nlished him in the line of comparative anatomy as the peer\\nof Agassiz and Owen.\\nAt the moment of embarking on the little steamer, two\\nladies came on board whose ways at once suggested the\\nschool marm. When informed by the clerk that every\\nstateroom was already assigned, he was taken all aback\\nby the reply, Oh, anv of these gentlemen \u00c2\u00ab-ill sleep on\\nthe saloon floor, just for one night. On hearing this\\nremark, my first impulse was to put myself outside of\\nthat crowd at once. But observing that none of the\\nyounger passengers responded favorably to the appeal, I\\nvolunteered the half of my room, and induced the Doctor\\nto give up the other half. Without a single thank you\\nm reply, we were speedily dispossessed, and not possessed\\nagain, each day of the voyage proving so charming to the\\nladies that they concluded to remain aboard and return\\nto Jacksonville with the boat. Gallantry, however, had\\nits reward, though at the expense of a hard couch for suc-\\ncessive nights.\\nThe steamer stopping the second day for an hour at\\nVolusia to wood up, an opportunity was afforded for\\nexamining the shell mound upon which the village is\\nbuilt. It is formed exclusively of fresh-water species,\\nmainly AmpuUarias and Paludinas with some Unios, as\\nare all the mound\u00c2\u00bb upon the river from a few miles above\\nits mouth, and has evidently resulted from being the\\ndwelling-place of some of the earliest inhabitants dm-ing\\nthe successive stages of its formation, and the casting\\naway of the shells, after extracting their contents for food.\\nProfesssor Wyman, than whom no archaeologist has given\\nmore attention to their investigation, speaks with great\\nconfidence of their pre-Indian origin. My brief stay re-\\nsulted in unearthing a few pieces of pottery, at varying\\ndepths, and in determining the river Une of the mound to\\nbe at least 100ft., with a height of 6 or 8ft., and of an un-\\ncertain extent inland, owing to the forest growth on the\\ntop of it.\\nThe shell mounds of Florida, whether upon the coast or\\nthe banks of its rivers, and especiaUy those abounding\\nupon the St. John s from near its source to its mouth,\\nmust not be confounded with the sand or burial mounds\\nno less abundant, but scattered all over the State and\\ngiving no evidence of ever having been used for dwell-\\ning places. In the fourth memoii- of the Peabody Acad-\\nemy of Science, Vol. 1, 1875, Professor Wyman has pre-\\nsented in a volume of about 100 pages quarto, finely\\nillustrated, the result of his researches and conclusions,\\nin resi)ect to fortv-eight fresh-water shell mounds on the\\nbanks of the Upper St. John s, and to which the reader\\nis referred for the most complete account hitherto pub-\\nlished of these most interesting reUcs.\\nOur nights upon the St. John s were moonless, but the", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "-3\\ndarkness did not prevent at least one side Issue up a\\nnarrow creek for an hour to leave provision stores and\\nwhisky at the camp of a woodsman. As we threaded\\nour way in the Cimmerian gloom with interlacing\\nbrandies overhead, and sometimes sweeping the upper\\ndeck, the wildfowl were startled from their slumbers and\\nthe owls roused to a vigorous protest against the invasion\\nof their domain?. But the lynx-eyed pilot, who success-\\nfully steered liis way along the tortuous channel with\\nnot even tlie friendly glare of a lantern at the bow was to\\nme tlie greatest wonder of the excursion.\\nAgain in the St. John s, we found oiu selves at daylight\\nnearing a bluff, where we left Pi ofessor Wyman and his\\nannual camping companion. G. A. Peabody, Esq.. of\\nSalem, Massachusetts. To their great disgust, a squatter\\nhad taken possession of their old camping-site, and abeady\\nerected a log house in the orange-laden grove. Appear-\\ning at the door with rifle in hand, he saluted the old-\\ncomers with, How d ye, gen lmen, come to squat here?\\nIn the af ernoon another side issue to the left took us\\ninto Lake Bcresford to leave another squatter, who had\\nmigrated from Georgia, and at a ventiu:e was being landed\\nin a swamp with a wife and several children between the\\nage of two months and twelve years. As their scanty\\nfurniture was handed out and the family left on the\\nbeach in the rain, with no shelter, and miles away from\\nany human sympathizers, three hearty cheers were given\\nby their departing fellow-passengero for the American\\npluck, male and female, that ever adapts itself to physical\\nsmroundings, however forlorn the prospect.\\nOnce more on the St. John s, we found its breadth\\nsteadily narrowing, till it was reduced to less than 200ft.,\\nan advantage to the hunters on board, of which they were\\nnot slow to avail themselves, in popping away at every\\nalligator and large bird that appeared at short or long\\nrange. Soon, however, the banks recede again and sud-\\ndenly, as the steamer enters Lake Monroe, an expanse of\\nwater covering an area of at least twenty square miles.\\nThis crossed, the bluffs on either side are well-studded at\\nadvantageous points with shell mounds till the last great\\nlake upon the river is sailed over, and the region of water,\\nprairie and s%vamp is fully reached. At high water it\\nmakes little difference, in this region, whether the steamer\\nkeeps the channel or not, her sailing course well illus-\\ntrating the principle of cutting across lots, At half\\nstage, as we found it, the channel was sufficiently dis-\\nclosed to be followed, and equally well illustrated the\\ndoubling track of a hare with the hounds close at his\\nheels. For a bii-d to rise from one side with the intention\\nof proceeding but a short distance up or down stream,\\nand alighting on the other side, and succeed twice in suc-\\ncession, would establish its claim to sometlung of intel-\\nligence considerably superior to instinct. At length,\\ngrowing weary of the monotony, I proposed to the captain\\nto set me ashore and l^t me have a hunt of 100yds. across\\nthe base of a peninsula, while the steamer was doubling\\nit at fifty times that distance. Will you risk the snakes,\\nalligators and quicksand.s? was the squelching reply.\\nLeaving the St. John s, a few mUes of navigation\\nthrough Snake River, still more tortuous in its windings,\\nand whose abrupt turnings often required the boat hands\\nto jump ashore and push the bow round with poles,\\nbrought us into Salt Lake, so called from the saline taste\\nof its water, a phenomenon as yet unexplained. Our\\nvoyage was terminated on the opposite side of the lake,\\nby grounding the boat an eighth of a mile from the shore.\\nA scow came off for us, having on it four cords of wood\\nfor the steamer. As our captain was supplied he declined\\ntaking it, and so our luggage to the amount of as much\\ngreater weight was pilel on the wood, besides fifteen or\\ntwenty passengers, and the scow pushed off Half-way\\nto the shore it grounded, and then the boatmen exclaimed,\\nWhy, here is just where it grounded going out. A fair\\nspecimen of Cracker calculation, of which this was our\\nfirst, but by no means our last lesson. With the ground-\\ning of the scow a race commenced on the part of the mule\\nand ox teams waiting for u.s on shore, to see which should\\nreach us first to secure a load of goods and passengers for\\nSand Point, on the Atlantic coast, six miles distant.\\nWhen they reached us the cart bodies were just even\\nwith the top of the water. For my part I selected a\\nsingle mule team. For the bridle, a cord passed through\\nthe mouth and over the top of the head. Another single\\ncord to the driver on the bare back, answered for a rein.\\nA leather band supported the thills, and a collar made of\\nstrew, with wooden hames and short chains, completed\\nthe harness. Had the traces been of rawhide the whole\\narrangement would have been unique as a specimen of\\nthriftlessness. Having packed on our baggage of SOOlbs.,\\nwith two of us on top to balance it, we started for the\\nshore, apparently better able to carry the little mule than\\nit to draw us. The intervening six miles gave us our\\nfirst Florida lesson in walking. Midway we passed a\\nlarge sand burial mound, from the top of which Professor\\nWyman had exhumed a skeleton buried only a foot deep,\\nthough 6ft. below pieces of charcoal and decayed bones\\nwere discovered.\\nWhile stUl in the woods, our teamster commenced un-\\nloading at a hut constructed in part of logs and in part of\\nframework covered with boards split out by hand.\\nIs this Sand Point? I inquired.\\nThis is Sand Point.\\nBut where it the ocean?\\nA mile and a af further on.\\nWere you not to take us to the ocean, where we could\\nfind a sailboat?\\nYou bargained for Sand Point, and this house is where\\nthe post office used to be. To go to the wharf will cost\\nyou a dollar more.\\nDid you not know when the bargain was made that\\nwe expected you to take us to the shore?\\nA bargain s a bargain, and if you want me to take you\\nto the shore, I will come to-morrow night or Monday\\nmorning, and do it for another dollar.\\nHere, then, was our first lesson in Cracker honesty.\\nThe captain of the boat having sent us ashore in the wil-\\nderness, fifteen minutes before dinner, when our appetites\\nwere well whetted up for a bountiful repast, and which\\nour walk of six miles had not in the least diminished, we\\nconcluded to disuiiss our honest teamster and stop over Sun-\\nday at the hut yclept in the guide book Sand Point Hotel.\\nThe next day, inquiring for a church, was informed by\\nmine host of a Sabbath school recently started in a school-\\nhouse not far distant, he had hearn tell of, but had\\nnever seen. Threading my way along a cow-path, I came\\nupon the building, just as the school of six pupils and two\\nteachers, one of whom was my honest teamster of the\\nday before, was assembling. The floor was of rough\\nboards, the apertures for light without glass, and the\\nlong benches without backs, but the Bible was in the\\nbuilding and the tender youth were taught its sacred\\ntruths. Outside of my own tent it was my last recognized\\nSabbath for seven weeks.\\nSeeking negotiation for a sailboat, to take us a hundred\\nmiles further south by the Indian River to Fort Capron,\\nthe first boatman i resenting himself was so under the in-\\nfluence of liquor that he was almost incoherent, though\\nprofuse in praisrs of his boat and his skill in managing it.\\nHaving declined his services, we fortunately secured the\\nbest boatman and boat on the river.\\nBetime Monday morning, we had our luggage stowed\\nupon the sailboat, a d commenced a voyage of 100 miles\\nfiu ther south upon the Indian River, a misnomer for an in-\\nterior sea or rather lagoon, running parallel with the Atlan-\\ntic Ocean and connecting with it by infrequent inlets. Its\\nsalt water aboimds in innumerable varieties of fish, while\\nthe shores on eitherside are no less attractive to the sports-\\nman. In some places, the banks recede from each other\\nfour or five miles, in others not more than 50yds. Oyster-\\nbed reefs obstnret navigation for vessels larger than com-\\nmon sailboats, but channels might be easily dredged\\nacross them for the passage of a small steamer, and thus\\nopen this more auspicious region of Florida to the tourist\\nand invalid.\\nAnxious to reach our most southern point of destination,\\nwe restramed oiu-selves from capturing either fish, reptile,\\nbird or mammal, though the temptation was constantly\\npresented; especially when, to reef sad, we ran into the\\nmouth of St. Sebastian River, and saw upon the beach\\nfresh tracks of deer, wildcats, and pumas. At sundown\\nwe anchored hard by the hut of oui- boatman s brother-in-\\nlaw, in which we found shelter and repose, though not\\nupon beds of down, but rather of dried hides. The larder\\nfurnished venison steak and hominy for supper and break-\\nfast, besides the inevitable pork and yam of a cracker s\\nrepast.", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "-4-\\nThe western shore at this point presents geological\\nfeatures of remarkable interest. That portion ordinarily\\nwashed by the waves presents a bluff, U or 8ft. in height,\\nformed apparently of fragments of shells cemented into\\nfirm rock by pressure or lieat. but honey-combed with\\ncylindrical orifices 6 to 15in. in diametiT extending i)er-\\npendicularly froui the surface of the blulf to a line cor-\\nresponding with the level of the beach at low-water mark.\\nThe appearance is as thougli a sudden overflow of the\\nwaves had deposited a mass of broken shells to the depth\\nof lOf t. more or less, around the closely growing trunks\\nof an extensive grove of jjalnietto trees; and then, tlie\\nshelly mass having consolidated ere the trees had de-\\ncayed, the moulds of the trunk remained, a geological\\nwonder. The same foundation structure is said to extend\\ninland beneath the soil to an unknown distance, having\\nbeen tested a lialf mile from tlie shore, and only kept de-\\nnuded on and near the beach by the more powerful action\\nof occasional storms. The geologic explanation of this\\nunique feature is a desideratum.\\nBetween watching the looming of distant points\\nahead and astern, the sailing of pelicans and the\\nbreaking of huge sharks, at tiaies almost under the\\nbow of the boat, the hours of the second day whiled\\naway, till at 4 P. JM. we landed at Fort Capron, the pro-\\njected base of our swamp operations. Stepping from the\\nboat a Yankee explorer bound also to Lake Okechobee,\\ngrasped my hand, and in a trice told me that he had\\nbrought out a sailboat all the way from New York city,\\nwith the intention of having it carried across the country,\\nsixty miles, by an ox-team, to Fort Bassinger, on Kissi-\\nmee River, down which he proposed to navigate till it\\nshould usher liim into the lake, and, moreover, he was\\nonly waiting to make up a party of four, having already\\nsecured one. Here was a dilemma. The addition to my\\nparty would make tlie number six, while the utmost\\ncapacity of his boat would accommodate but four. It\\nwas, however, quickly decided that we should all go to\\nthe river together, and then mature our plans according\\nto circumstances. To secure the services of an ox-team\\nand a driver, the Explorer and Erwin volunteered a\\ntramp of ten miles to the cabin of a cracker, who was\\nunderstood to be able to furnish the team. On their re-\\nturn the following day they reported themselves success-\\nful, and Saturday fixed upon as the date of our departure,\\nthe cracker engaging to take the boat and all luggage\\nto the river at the point designated for forty dollars.\\nMeanwhile indoor accommodations were furnished us\\nat Fort Capron by mine host Judge P., to whom I had\\na letter of inti-oduotion from a former pupil. Erwin and\\nPVed, at the suggestion of Doctor P., commenced initiat-\\ning themselves into camp life by erecting their tents in\\nthe yard. I donned my hunting suit and commenced\\ncollecting, 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\\nthat we should pass tlirough a settlement of outlaws, ten\\nmiles distant, every man of whom had left his native\\nregion for that region s good, and located himself outside\\nof law and gospel just over the frontier line of civiliza-\\ntion. The owner of our team, was accounted a leader\\namong them, and by way of cautioning me, my inform-\\nant related, under the promise of secrecy, the particulars\\nof a murder, within three weeks, by two of the gang, of\\nan honest, industrious German, who had made for him-\\nself a home just outside of their settlement. He, being a\\nman of education and some degi-ee of refinement, not\\naffiliating with them, and withal being envied the pos-\\nsession of a better orange plantation than they had,\\nthough wholly the result of his own industry, it was de-\\ncided to get rid of him on the damning charge of being a\\nstealer and killer of cattle. Among Floridian crackers\\nthis is a far more heinous crime than that of taking\\nhuman life, and once fastened upon a man, if only on\\nsuspicion, immediately puts him out of the protection of\\nsuch law as may exist. Finding their victim could not\\nbe driven away, their usual resort to treachery was\\nadopted, and the deed committid to two desperate\\nruffians, one a yoimg man of nineteen, whom we will\\ncall Tom, and who will figure largely in the sequel of\\nthis narrative. To him, as the story was told me, oiur\\nteam owner promised his daughter in marriage, if suc-\\ncessful.\\nAt first every effort was made to provoke a quarrel that\\nshould give some shadow of an excuse for the execution\\nof their plot: but (lie imperturbably good nature of the\\nhonest (lerman would not beguile him into a dispute. At\\nlength, under tlie pretense of desiring some orange-slips\\nfrom his excellent grove, they called at his cabin and\\nasked for some dinner. Both dinner and slips were\\ncheerfully given them, and tlien requesting their host to\\nset them across the deep creek about a quarter of a mile\\nfrom his house, he went with them for the purpose, but\\ndid not return. Soon after leaving his wife heard four\\ngun and three pistol shots in quick succe.ssion; but sur-\\nmising they were fired at game waited till near dark for her\\nhusband s return, and then repaired to the creek, only to\\nbe horrified with the sight of blood in the boat still secui ely\\nfastened on the other side. It was subsequently proven\\nthat the assassins thought to cover up the evidence of\\ntheir guilt by dragging the body a half mile below and\\nthrusting its dismembered fragments into alligator holes.\\nThe wife, snatcliing up her young child, traversed the\\ngloomy wilderness for ten miles at the dead of night to\\nFort Capron and reported the deed.\\nThe following week the sheriff of the county, with a\\nposse of ten men, started for the settlement with the in-\\ntention o arrestmg the guilty parties. When within\\nfive miles of it he was met by a delegation informing\\nhim tha his design was known, and the wliole neighbor-\\nhood was assembled in one cabin with plenty of arms and\\nprovisions, and ready to endure a siege, but no one could\\nbe arrested while a man or woman remained alive.\\nUnder these circumstances, and considering discretion\\nthe better part of valor, the sheriff beat a hasty retreat.\\nThus the matter stood two weeks subsequent, as I was\\nabout to enter the community, my informant closing up\\nhis narration with the remark that he felt it his duty to\\nlet me know the character of those to whom I was about\\nto trust myself and my party, but cautioned me on no ac-\\ncount to breathe a suspicion of any one or reveal the\\nsecret to either of my companions, lest it might be sus-\\npected by the outlaws that we had some knowledge avail-\\nable to the government, and, on the principle that dead\\nmen tell no tales, find our last resting place in concealed\\nalligator holes, even if their cupidity should permit us to\\nreturn from the swamp after they had fleeced us to the\\nextent we might permit. Forewarned, forearmed, I the\\nmore persistently determined to penetrate the mystery\\nand walk the strand of Lake Okechobee.\\nSaturday, punctually at 12 o clock, our teamster ap-\\npeared with two yoke of steers attached to a double set of\\nshaky wheels. In an hour or two the boat was launched\\nupon the axles and loaded with our provisions of coffee,\\nhominy, hard-tack and pork; our ammunition, of powder\\nand shot: our preserving materials, of salt, arsenic and\\nalcohol (the latter poisoned, lest the teamsters should be\\ntempted to try the preserving of themselves with it); our\\ncapturmg apparatus, of fish-net, insect-nets, etc., (guns,\\npistols and hatchets are on such trips to be a constant ap-\\npendage of the person besides the camera and necessary\\nchemicals of the Explorer for )irocuring pictiu es of the\\nruins said to be in the lake. When ready to start, I saw\\nplainly the weight was too much for the wheels, and pre-\\ndicted a break-down, to which, however, no other one of\\nthe party would listen.\\nThe cabin of the teamster lay upon the direct route to\\nthe lake, ten miles distant, where we expected to make\\nour first encampment. All went well till we entered the\\nbordering swamp of Five Mile Creek, when, after wading\\ndeeper and decider for half a mOe, and the oxen were just\\nready to jjlunge in all over for a swim across the channel,\\ncrash went one of the wlieels. There was no alternative\\nbut to wade back to dry land and camji without our tent.\\nFortunately, our provisions and cooking utensils were on\\nthe to]) of the load, and, by judicious distribution of the\\nweight, easily borne back Fi-om a stagnant pool near\\nour camping place we obtained water for oui- coffee, after\\nfrightening away from the margin the lizards, etc., and\\nthen straining it to get rid of the smaller nuisances, both\\nvegetable and animal. Rolled up in our blankets, we\\ncomposed ourselves to sleep with clouds of mosquitoes\\nsettling down upon every exposed spot of flesh, and amid\\nthe hooting of owls and howling of wild beasts, having\\njust before the break-down crossed the fresh track of a\\npuma. To repair the damage there was no alternative", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "\u00e2\u0096\u00a05-\\nbut for the teamster and his driver to push on with the\\noxen to his home and return as soon as a new set of\\nwheels could be prociu-ed.\\nAt noon, on Slonday, he reappeared with a stouter set,\\nfor which he had meanwliile made an entirely new axle.\\nTransferring the load, the old wheels were left in thek\\ntracks, where five weeks later they still remained. Reach-\\ning the bank of the Cieek, it was found that neither oxen\\nnor wheels could touch bottom. To effect a crossing, the\\nyoke was taken off, and swum over, and so placed on the\\nopposite shore as to be quickly hitched on again. The\\ndriver stripped naked, as well as the Explorer and Erwin,\\nthe former to swim at the heads of the oxen at the risk of\\nbeing gored in tlieir w^ild plunges, the other two to swim\\nastern and guide the boat against tlie current. The mo-\\nment the steers got foothold on the opposite bank, they\\nrefused to move, leaving the wheels sinking in the quick-\\nsands and the boat rising from the axles. It was a criti-\\ncal moment, but the leaders being hitched on and a sim-\\nultaneous shout raised by all, a long pull and a strong\\npull altogether landed the boat on the bank and relieved\\nour anxiety.\\nFive miles further brought us to the clearing of our\\nteamster. Selecting a place for a camp, I went on\\nalone to a well near the cabin, and observed two men\\ndressing a hog hung to the limb of a tree. Coming sud-\\ndenly upon them around a corner of the cabin, I noticed\\nthat the younger of the two instantly dropped his work\\nand rushed for the cabin door, out of which he soon\\nissued with a double-barreled gun in his hand and stood\\ndefiant. Apparently not noticing him, I passed back to\\nmy companions, wondering at his behavior. Soon our\\nteamster took me aside and asked why I wore a pistol\\nbelt with U. S. on the buckle. I told him I had borrowed\\nit from my cousin, who was color-bearer of his company\\nduring the late war. Then you are not a United States\\nMarshal? To me the idea was so ridiculous I could not\\nrestrain my laughter, and he returned to his cabin. Sub-\\nsequently I learned that the young man was Tom, and\\nthe United States belt with its pistol on one side and claw-\\nhatchet on the other, together with the gun in my hand,\\nhad aroused his suspicion that I had come with a posse in\\ndisguise for his arrest. The criminal doth fear each\\nbush an officer. Spreading our tent and smoking out\\nthe mosquitoes with pine knots. Fred and myself slept\\nsoundly with the expectation of rising at daylight to\\nrenew our trip to the lake.\\nIn the morning we were told by our teamster that the\\nload was twice as heavy as he promised to carry and he\\nshould go no further unless it was reduced at least one-\\nthird, and he was paid sixty dollars instead of forty.\\nLesson second in Cracker honesty. Fred and myself\\nvolunteered to remain, while Doctor P. and Erwin in-\\nsisted on advancing. Assuring Erwin I should see the\\nlake before leaving Florida, if health permitted, he still\\nchose to take his risk with the Explorer, alleging that he\\nleft New England with that sole object in view and now\\nsaw no other certainty but to go with the boat. Poor\\nfellow, he went on, and he saw the lake and circumnavi-\\ngated it, but while lying on his back most of the time for\\nfive weeks, shaking with fever and ague, hardly firing\\nhis gun during the whole trip. Of all this I was happily\\nignorant till I found him on my return from the swamps\\nat Fort Capron, unable to walk across the room.\\nJust before they were ready to start, the teamster came\\nto me and said he had in the woods another pair of steers\\nthat six months before had been yoked. These Tom\\nwould catch and with a Ught cart take the luggage of\\nFred and myself on the morrow, and carry us too, except\\nin the deepest wading places. By following then- wheel\\ntracks and with a light load, we could easily overtake\\nthem. Besides, we had learned from a neighbor during\\nthe evening that Fort Bassinger was not more than ten\\nmOes from the lake; moreover, this neighbor had left a\\nboat at the fort, in which he would take Fred and myself\\nto the la e and back to the fort in one day, while the\\noxen were resting. Then we would retui-n to his cabin\\ntogether, and let the rest of the party pursue their plan of\\nexploring the lake. For this service he must receive four\\ndollars per day, including Tom s wages, who was at work\\nfor him. The plan s?eming feasible, I concluded to adopt\\nit, and after much persuasion obtained Tom s consent,\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0who was not yet, as I afterwards learned, entirely free\\nfrom the suspicion of my being a United States officer\\nsent to arrest him.\\nAfter frivolous delays of several hours Tom started for\\nthe woods, and toward night drove into the inclosure a\\nbunch of cattle having one of the steers wanted. In\\nsingling this one out with the lasso it leaped the fence\\nand was quickly out of sight again. He must now go a\\nmile and get a neighbor, who, by the way, was his re-\\nputed companion-assassin, and the twain go two miles in\\nanother direction and bori ow some dogs, with which to\\ncatch the runaway steer. About ten at night they pass\\nmy tent, Tom ahead on a horse, holding one end of a rope\\naround the horns of the steer; his companion, on foot,\\nholding on to a rope around one hind leg of the animal,\\nwhich had been caught by the nose with bloodhounds.\\nThe next morning the woods were again scoured for the\\nother steer, which was brought in similarly about noon.\\nAn inspection of the cart decided, in the mind of Tom,\\nthat the wheels were too weak, and he must borrow a\\npair frrm a neighbor some eight miles away. This he\\nwould do next day and be ready to start Friday morning,\\nthree days behind time. Yielding at length to my re-\\nmonstrances, he started soon after dinner to exchange\\nthe wheels and break in the wild steers, returning past\\nmidnight. In the morning the last caught steer was\\nutterly exhausted, and the third day of delay must after\\nall be spent in hunting up and breaking in another.\\nFriday morning we started, the first essay of the wild\\ncreatures being to upset the load in their zig-zagging\\nthrough a right smart palmetery rough palmetto\\nroots above giound.\\nThe log cabin of our teamster was double, the two\\nrooms being connected by a thoroughfare. But it was\\na palace in comparison with all the other residences\\nin the settlement. A mile on our way we came to the\\ncabin of Tom s companion-assassin, consisting of a single\\nroom made of logs loosely piled upon each other, in which\\ndwelt a family of four. A track of loosely scattered\\nfeathers leading from a sapling close by the cabin to the\\nswamp indicated where a wildcat had dragged away a\\nhen the previous night, snatching it from within 2ft. of\\nthe sleeping inmates. A mile further on we reached the\\nshelter of Tom s father s family. It was a roof of pal-\\nmetto leaves, supported on posts, the four sides entirely\\nopen to the air. Here dwelt the father and mother, two\\ngrown-up sons, two grown-up daughters and four younger\\nchildren. A short distance beyond we swam a creek,\\njust narrow enough to save the cart from going to the\\nbottom before the steers gained footing on the other side.\\nHard by we passed the last evidence of Cracker life,\\nconsisting of a shelter of boughs in the form of one-half\\nof an A tent, beneath which a hermit had slept for five\\nyears. Soon, the trail pursued thus far ended, and fol-\\nlowing the wheel-tracks of our predecessors we struck\\nthe Alligator Flats, and during tlie rest of the day, mile\\nafter mile, waded axle deep in the mud and water. In-\\nstead of riding on the cart, as was promised us, we were\\nin constant fear of om- oxen giving out from sheer weak-\\nness, so that Fred and myself carefully avoided adding\\neven the weight of our guns to the load, though Tom did\\nnot hesitate to moimt his burly form upon the cart-tongue\\nmost of the time, pretending that he could discern the\\nguiding track beneath the water better by looking down\\nupon it. As the deadly poisonous moccasin snake, more\\nto be dreaded than the terrible rattlesnake, abounded in\\nthe 3ats and frequently rose up within 6ft. of us, throw-\\ning themselves mto a striking attitude and displaying\\ntheir crooked fangs in fearful warning, we plodded most\\nof the time behind the cart, that the splashing of the\\noxen might frighten away the reptiles. At length in the\\ngreater depth of the water and thickness of the grass\\nTom declared himself unable to distinguish the cart-ruts,\\nand it became necessary for Fred and myself to go before\\nand indicate guiding tracks by each taking one and beat-\\ning it out witli our feet. Thus we passed hour aft.r hour\\nconstantly whipping the water with long sticks to\\nfrighten away the snakes, though occasionally chilled\\nwith the sight of a moccasin gliding off a tussock of gi-ass\\nand concealing himself, neither could tell where. Toward\\nsundown we came to a pine island a few feet in diameter,\\nwith just enough of dry land for our fire and Tom to lie\\ndown beside it. Beyond, being one stretch of water as\\nfar as the eye could reach, we haul up, turn the oxen out", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "to feed, bake our yams, barbecue our meat, curl up on\\nthe top of our luggage in the cart and go to sleep wink-\\ning at the stars.\\nTlie next day is but a repetition of the previous, only the\\nwading is deeper and the wriggling snakes are more\\nnumerous. Familiarity, however, breeds contempt,\\neven in tlie matter of exposure to the cold, clammy touch\\nof a snake and danger from its deadly fangs, as well as\\nin dissimilar experiences of liuman nature a contempt\\nleading Fi-ed and myself to often ease our blistered feet by\\nthrovFing our high-lop))ed boots upon the cart and sub-\\nstituting brogaus, or even going barefoot. A disting-\\nuishing feature of these water-praii-ies is an occasional\\nstretch of cypress-clumps clusters of trees presenting\\nbeautiful rounded outlines, very appropriately termed\\nBlue Mountains. Their attraction, however, is entirely\\nupon the outside, and in the far distance. Approached,\\ntheir blending foliage separates to the view and becomes\\nscragged, while their bases are sunk in a most forbidding\\nmorass. Through such a cj press-slue we forced our\\nway, and emerged upon a clear, open prairie, where we\\ncamped for the night. Crossing this, we found ourselves\\ndui ing the forenoon of the third day entering an old mili-\\ntary trail and on solid ground. Siwrnising that we must\\nbe near the fort, Fred at 11 o clock pushed forward, and I\\nsaw no more of him till sundown, when he returned and\\nreported an interminable prairie three hours in advance\\nand no signs of the Kissimmee. Not much like overtak-\\ning the advance party, we thought; but there was no al-\\nternative, and while we were deliberating what was best\\nto do on the morrow, the double-yoked team hove in sight\\non its return, having that morning left the Explorer\\nand his party at Fort Bassinger as agreed, but found the\\nfort sixty miles from the lake, instead of ten. Nor was\\nthere any neighbor s boat at the deserted fort, the Indians\\nhaving probably stolen it, etc. etc. The truth now flashed\\nupon my mind, and I needed no more proof that the\\nteamster s story was manufactured for the purpose of\\nalluring me on to secui-e his four dollars per day. Lesson\\nthird in Cracker honesty.\\nOur encampment for the night was near a creek whose\\nbed was dry, but in which oiu- teamster affirmed he had\\nsometimes found water flowing south, and at other times\\nnorth, according as the region on either side of the east\\nand west trail had received more abundant supplies of\\nrain. A careful observation of the whole region fully\\nconvinced me that here we find in the wet season one\\n(perhaps the most southern) of the many affluents of the\\nmighty St. John s. So little, however, is the change of\\nlevel that out of the same reservoir, and by the same\\nchannel, there heads, at times, another creek taking a\\nsouthward direction into St. Lucie Sound, and on the\\nnorthwest border of the same reservoir is fovmd issuing\\nat high water an affluent of the Kissimmee, by whose\\nchannel a portion of the waters of this same great central\\nreservoir find their way into Lake Okechobee, from whose\\nmore exposed surface excessive evaporation is constantly\\ngoing on. This opinion is sustained by the rain charts of\\nthe Smithsonian Institution, which show that the penin-\\nsula of Florida is the region in which the rainfall is\\nheaviest east of the Rocky Mountains, and further, that\\nin the peninsula itself the cm-ves of the greatest rain en-\\ncroach ujion the headwaters of the St. John s, though\\nstill more upon those of the rivers flowing south into\\nLake Okechobee, and west into the Gulf of Mexico.\\nFred and myself had hardly erected our tent when it\\nbegan to drizzle, with indications of abvmdant rain, but\\nfortunately for vis, not realized. Ere we slept, a brother\\nof tlie teamster appeared from beyond the Kissimmee\\nwith his mother, wife and seven childi-en ranging in age\\nfrom tlu-ee weeks to twelve years, aU riding in a cart\\ndrawn by a single yoke of oxen. Two of the older chil-\\ndren were shaking witli the fever and ague, to whom my\\nprescriptions of quinine brought speedy relief. The chil-\\ndren found shelter during tlie night beneath the cart,\\nwliUe the adults lay down upon the damp ground,\\nwrapped in blankets. Long before light we were cooking\\nour breakfast, preparatory to an early start, when a de-\\nmand was made upon our scanty store to feed the hungry\\nmouths of the new-comers a hospitality we were poorly\\nprepared to extend, but wliich it was not in our heart to\\nrefuse, especially when pleaded for by the wistful looks\\nof the little innocents.\\nRelieving our jaded oxen by tranferring to our cart one\\nyoke from the teamster s unladened wheels, it fell to me\\nto handle the ropes and goad. So long as I kept in the\\nrear of another team all went well; but if I essaj^ed to\\nlead, my Yankee brogue was utterly luirecognized by the\\nhalf-tamed creatures. Halting at noon beside a forsaken\\nlog-house, I amused myself with catching lizards, tree-\\ntoads and ant-lions, whde Fred left his dinner lialf-eaten\\nto bag a flock of Carolina parrots, the first and oniy ones\\nwe met in Florida. True to their reputation, curiosity to\\nknow what had happened to a fallen companion seemed\\nto keep them lingering around till all were shot without\\nthe shooter hardly stirring from his first cliosen position.\\nThere can be little doubt that this bird, once so abundant\\nin all the Southern States, and even ranging into New\\nYork State, is fast becoming extinct east of the Mississippi\\nRiver. After dinner, while waiting for our lazy teamsters\\nto snooze, I still further amused myself with skinning a\\nsandhill crane, in the midst of which operation rapid\\nstinging sensations about the naked ankle, caused an in-\\nvestigation, only to reveal a centipede or scorpion amus-\\ning himself with my nervous system. The application\\nof hartshorn to the half dozen puncture reduced the\\nswelling, and in two or three days I was no longer re-\\nminded of the insect that menaces with its head, but\\nwounds with its tail.\\nThe monotony of the afternoon drive was varied about\\nfour o clock with the cry of turkey ahead. Fred and\\nTom undertook the task of providing us with fowl for\\nsupper, and with such success as to bring in a bird apiece.\\nJust as we were congratulating ourselves on something\\nbetter than hog and hominy, a party of six more, parents\\nand children all told, overtook us and fastened themselves\\nupon our party. The cracker s coach the inevitable ox-\\ncart bore four of them, while two rode ponies. Taught\\nby the experience of the morning, the dreams of Fred and\\nmyself vanished, and we resigned ourselves to the thought\\nof little more than sniffing the perfumes of the savory re-\\npast. The larder of the latest comers proved as lean as\\nthat of the earlier, and when all had partaken sparingly\\nof the supper, the teamster declared that such as had\\nhorses, including himself, must push on at midnight, and\\nleave the rest on short allowance, to reach his home by\\nsundown on the following day, as not more than a spoon-\\nful of hominy to each was left. On further consultation\\nit was decided for all to start at light and make a few\\nmUes before breakfast. After a brief repast at the foot of\\na tree, our oxen were yoked and all fell into line. A\\nwildcat springing out of the path was soon overtaken by\\nthe dog, but instead of being held by the dog, it tiu-ned\\nthe scale and held the dog, till Tom came up and released\\nits victim by a charge of buckshot. Skinning the cat at\\nour next halt, and throwing the carcass into the low\\nscrub. I was surprised to find both the turkey buzzard and\\nthe Caracara eagle gathering around it in large numbers\\nin less than twenty minutes, though when thrown away\\nthere was not a bird in sight.\\nBoth in going out toward the Kissimmee and in return-\\ning, wherever the water had dried away upon the prairie,\\nnumerous hillocks of freshly-formed pellets of sand, five\\nor six inches in height, were discovered. Digging beneath\\nthe hills would invariably discover a small crayfish, that\\nevidently maintained its home in the moist eai-tli by keep-\\ning beneath the influence of drought.\\nAs we neared the home of the teamster. Tom whispered\\nin my ear, We are going to have a party at our house\\nto-morrow night, and as he said it, I observed a smile\\nupon his countenance for the first time since we had met.\\nExclusion No. 1 from our camping base on Ten-Mile\\nCreek proving fruitless, so far as seeing Lake Okechobee\\nwas concerned, and Fred being disinclined to sjjend any\\nmore time searching for it, I undertook the matter alone,\\nand bargained with the teamstei whom we will here-\\nafter call BIr. J. to provide me with a mule, and guide\\nme at the beginning of the week to the Indian village\\nsome forty miles distant, and reputed to be in the vicinity\\nof the lake.\\nOur provisions being exhausted and one kind of shot,\\nit was necessary for Fred to go to Fort Capron to replen-\\nish our larder and ammunition. We also hoped to receive\\nletters, as we had heard nothing from home to this time.\\nTom s services were again secured, but this time as di-iver\\nof a mule cart, which could, however, only reach Bell s", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0010.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "-7\\ngrocery, a mile short of the post office grocery, where our\\nammunition was stored. Under the disappointment of\\nno letters for either of us, Fred undertook to carry by a\\ntangled foot path to Bell s grocery two bags of shot, five\\npounds of coffee, and a liandleless jug containing two quarts\\nof sugar syrup for hominy, neither grocer having any\\nsugar. A boat was at hand, but the boatman must\\nhave a dollar and a half for the mile of saiHng; nor would\\nhe help carry the load on land for less. Being Yankee\\npluck against Cracker generosity the former triumphed,\\nbut a kind Providence tlu-ew a man in his way soon after\\nstarting probably one of the loungers about the grocery\\nwho for fifty cents re ieved Fred of a part of his load.\\nThis deposited in the cart, it started homeward, while\\nFred made a detour of tliree miles to get at another grocery\\nfive ])Ounds of hominy and his singlebarreled gun he had\\nleft tliere when fu-st starting for the lake. In a little time\\nthe paper hominy-bag gave way, and the contents com-\\nmenced marking liis track. In this exigency he remem-\\nbered the big pocket in his hunting coat extending over\\nthe whole back, and designed as a receptacle for game.\\nInto this goes the remnant of the hominy and is saved.\\nIn swimming Five-Mile Creek the jug of syrup rolled out\\nof the cart and was left in the mud at the bottom. So\\nall the delicacy we had for either coffee or hominy, we\\nhadn t.\\nWhile Fred was gone I skinned a pair of coons, male\\nand female, both secured at one shot. The male had\\nmarks of great age, and, judging from his mutilated ears,\\nmust have been a hard fighting character in youth. One\\nbone had also been broken square off, and no surgeon\\nbeing at hand to reduce the fractiue, it had healed\\nwith the two ends lapping, through contraction of the\\nmuscles.\\nAs suggested by Tom, toward sundown of the day fol-\\nlowing our return I observed men, women and children\\ngathering at the cabin, mostly on foot, but some on horse-\\nback and others in ox-carts. At length a man I ode up of\\ngraver mien and with horse more richly caparisoned\\nthan any other I had seen. Soon Mr. J. brought him to\\nmy tent, and taking me aside, said, ThisToian is a justice\\nof the peace, and has come sixty mi es to marry Tom to\\nmy daughter to-night, but there is a hitch in the aiTange-\\nment, as the last week s mail has failed to bring the license\\nsent for. Now what do you advise, as the justice cannot\\nwait two weeks for another mail, and my neighbors for\\nten miles around are all gathered to \u00e2\u0096\u00a0n itness the cere-\\nmony? As the malfeasance would be whoUy on the par\\nof the justice, inasmuch as should he perform his part\\nwith their consent, they would be legally married to all\\nintent and purpose, it was flna ly decided that Mi J. and\\nTom should give the justice a written obligation, with\\nmyself as witness, to send liim the certificate as soon as\\npossible, which document they botli signed by making\\ntheu- mark, after I had assiu:ed them it was written cor-\\nrectly. Nothing fui-ther hindering, Tom and his bride took\\nposition on the platform connecting the two rooms of the\\nlog cabm, while the justice pronounced them, without\\nany questioning or pledging, husband and wife. Tom had\\nexchanged his teaming suit for a similar one, only more\\ncleanly, and his bride contented herself with plain calico\\nwithout ornaments of any kind, but with shoes and stock-\\nings the first time I had seen lier wear any. After the\\nceremony, the bride s mother and grandniother stepped\\nup and shook hands without kissing, and were followed\\nby her father without coat or vest, shoes or stockings, but\\nwitli shirt-sleeves rolled up to his elbaws, and his pants\\nto his knees. After a long pause, I considered it my tui n\\nto shake hands with them, though, with all my knowl-\\nedge of their antecedents, and at how fearful a price Tom\\nhad gained Ms bride, I could hardly bring my mind to con-\\ngi atulate them upon their union. The ice broken, there\\nwas a rush for handshaking, after which Mr. J. bi ought\\nout a fiddle with two strings and called for dancing. Un-\\nable to aid in this part of the festivity, I soon retu ed to\\nmy tent, though disturbed till dayliglit with tlie music\\nand toe-tripping. There miglit have been some whiskey-\\ndrinking, but it was not apparent, nor did I see any one\\ninebriated, though Sir. J. s prolonged efforts to extract\\nmusic from the two-stringed fiddle had evidently over-\\ntaxed his nervous system and somewliat disguised him.\\nDuring the forenoon the guests were scattered about the\\npremises, sleeping off the weariness of the night, and by\\nsundown all had departed, even the guests from beyond\\nthe Kissimmee. It was, however, discovered that many\\nequipments had changed hands, either intentionally, on\\nthe principle that exchange is no robbery, or in the\\nconfusion of a half-wakeful condition. Jly own premises\\nwere undisturbed except by the wandering hogs, whose\\nlong snouts thrust between my tent-coverings rooted me\\nup, and interfered with my slumbers more than the\\nsqueaking of tlie fiddle.\\nWhile waiting for Mr. J. and Tom to sleep off the\\nweariness of tlie wedding festivities, Fred and myself\\nbusied ourselves in preparing skins of such birds and\\nanimals as were vicinous to the camp, such as turkey-\\nbuzzards, brown-headed nut-hatch, hawks, lizards and\\nsnakes. WHiile skinning the coons a buzzard alighted on\\na branch within 20ft. and patiently watched the opera-\\ntion, expecting, no doubt, to feast upon the carcasses.\\nHis sauciness tempted my gun beyond endurance, and an\\noff-hand shot quenched his appetite forever. Dropping\\ninto a mass of palmetto scrub, I requested Fred, who was\\ncooking our supjjer, to bring him in, lest the hogs should\\nappropriate him before I could leave my work conveni-\\nently. Ever accommodating and respectful, he essayed\\nto fulfil my request, but quickly returned, blui ting out\\nsnappishly between the retchings of his stomach, Go get\\nthe stinking thing yourself the first and only im-\\npatient expression that fell from his lips in all our trip.\\nIt was his first experience of close proximity to the foul\\nbird, wliile my childhood Virginia experience had made\\nme familiar with its habits. Instantly suspecting the\\nreason of his disgust, I forgave hira in my heart? his un-\\nintentional disrespect, and laughingly rallying him on\\nthe weakness of his stomach, picked up the bird myself\\nand put it in a safe place from the hogs, notwithstanding\\nthe unsavoriness of the ejections from its nostrils.\\nThe wily Cracker, BIr. J., having by this time con-\\ncluded he had found the goose that lays a golden egg,\\nbegan to tell of heronries a few miles away in different\\ndirections that would furnish us all the variety of birds\\nand eggs we could desire. To test his word, Fred went\\nwith bim the second day after the wedding to the nearest\\none, Mr. J. on horseback and Fred afoot. Five miles,\\nmost of the distance through water from ankle to knee-\\ndeep, brought them to the heronry. It was a cypress-slue\\nwith tall trees, twenty-five feet in height to the lowest\\nlimbs, and thick undergrowth of bushes, ten to twenty\\nfeet in height. Most of the nests were in the trees, though\\nsome were in the tops of the bushes. By wading, in some\\nplaces waist-deep, and climbing the bushes, Fred was\\nable to secure twenty-seven eggs of the snakebird and\\nwhite heron. The bushes and nests were dr ipping with\\nthe excrements of the birds, giving Fred a second lesson\\nin some of the unpleasant experiences of a naturalist.\\nStumbling over an unseen slimy log, he dropped his gun,\\nand in recovering that completed the drenching of all his\\ngarments. On his way out he had shot a snakebird and\\na white h;roii, and left them to seciu e ou his return.\\nAiriving on the spot a few feathers only were found a\\ndozen or more buzzards on the tres contiguous explain-\\ning the absence of the bodies of the game. Nearing the\\ncamp, he secured for me a ground rattlesnake, a species\\nabout two feet in length and much smaller than the dia-\\nmond, but more venomous. One morning, shaking up\\nmy bed of palmetto leaves, I noticed one of these reptiles\\ncrawling away from my couch. Wishing to secure one\\nof the larger species, 1 offered a ten-year-old son of a\\nCracker passing oui camp a dollar if he would bring\\nme one not less tlian foiu and a half feet in length. In\\nless than fifteen minutes he returned, dragging at the end\\nof a string fastened around his neck an adamanteus five\\nand a half feet in length and seven inches girth, with ten\\nrattles. Between rattlesnakes on the land and moccasins\\nin the water, it became us to be ever on the alert.\\nWhen making arrangements for the lake, Indian\\nCharley, son of As-se-he-ho-lar or Osceola, the famous\\nSeminole chieftain, happened to pass the camp. He\\nwore a heavy turban on his head, a frock reaching half\\nways to his knees and moccasins on his feet. His skin\\nhad the genuine copper color of the wild Indian, and his\\nhair hung over his shoulders in long, raven-black locks.\\nHe had a deer slung on his back, with a bundle of tanned\\ndeer skins for trading. I learned from Mr. J. that the\\nIndians first soak their deer skins till the epidermis with", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0011.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "-8\\nthe hair drops off and then pound them in a wooden\\nmortar with the brains of the deer to tan the skins and\\nmake them pliable. Charley acted very stujiid, jiretend-\\ning that he diil not understand us. Further acquaintance\\nshowed that this was only Indian caution before strangers,\\nputting you off your guard till, by listening to your re-\\nmarks in apparent indifference, they have made up their\\nmind concerning you, and then relaxing or maintaining\\ntheir stolidity, according to the impression you have\\ngiven them a lesson in human nature their more en-\\nlightened white brethren might learn and practice with\\nprofit.\\nHaving become disgusted with our high-top boots and\\nbrogans for swamp travel we importuned Charley to\\nmake each of us a pair of moccasins. Showing him\\npaper money he signitied he would make a pair for a dol-\\nlar, but would discount 00 per cent, for silver. Having\\nfortunately, the morning I sailed from the North, ex-\\nchanged at a bank twenty-five dollars in paper currency\\nfor silver, paying 9 per cent, for the difference, specie\\npayment not liaving been resumed, I now had the best\\nopportunity afforded me for speculation I had ever ex-\\nperienced\u00e2\u0080\u0094a gain by the trader s own offer of 41 per\\ncent. and thus far I regard it as the silver-letter day of\\nmy life. The bargain struck, Charley unroled his bundle\\nof buckskins, measured my foot with a stick, and with\\nonly a knife and a bone awl, in half an hour made me a\\npair of moccasins that did me excellent service for weeks\\nafterward, and are now deposited in the museum of\\nBrown University as a sample of utilitarianism respect-\\ning our pedal extremities it were well a more boastful\\ncivilization should progress to instead of tortiunng nature\\nwith cramping shoes, in obedience to a slavish servility\\nto fashion and for the benefit of corn doctors.\\nI learn that Mr. J. has the credit of causing the last\\nSemmole war in 1857, i y wantonly and piu-posely shoot-\\ning an Indian squaw, that the remnant of tiie tribe left\\nin the swamps around Lake Okechobee, after the removal\\nof the greater part in 1843, might be more circumscribed\\nin their aheady narrow limits guaranteed to them by a\\nsolemn treaty, and thus enable the constantly encroach-\\ning frontier settlements of outlaws from northern Florida\\nand Georgia to enlarge their cattle ranches the main\\ndependence of Cuba for beef. I met many Crackers\\nwho participated in that war of intended extermination\\nof the tribe, and it was their universal testimony that the\\nwhites were, in every instance, the aggressors. One\\nthing is certain, the word of the Indian and his general\\nadherence to the golden rule were far more to be de-\\npended upon than the majority of the whites whom I met\\nin that locality.\\nDaylight Monday morning found me mounted upon a\\nmule, starting again for Lake Okechobee in company\\nwith Mr. J. Guided across the country by my pocket\\ncompass and map, and disregarding turkeys, deer and\\ngame of all kinds, about sundown we turned our creatures\\nloose, kindled a fire, cooked our supper, and lay down to\\nsleep at the foot of a taU pine. The night was clear but\\nmoonless, and I slept soundly despite the mosquitoes, till\\nthe unearthly hooting of a large owl right over my head\\nawakened me. To raise my gun without raising myself\\nand drop him at my feet, was the work of a moment, and\\nto drop to sleep again was the work of another moment.\\nIn the morning I foimd the bird within 3ft. of me, and\\nwas severely reproved by my companion for not throwing\\nit into the bushes when it fell, fearing it might have at-\\ntracted the varmint to us. Within half a mile of our camp\\nwe struck the trail that led us in an hour to an Indian\\nlodge simply a roof -shelter of palmettto leaves, supported\\nby four posts, with the sides wholly exposed to the winds.\\nA platform of rails but two feet high, covered with deer\\nskins, formed the couch. Outside upon the ground was\\na fire with sweet potatoes and a corn cake baking in the\\nashes. Upon a log near the fire sat a squaw nursing a\\npappoose, while a boy and girl of ten or twelve, entirely\\nnaked, were swinging a younger child in a hammock.\\nAs we came in sight, the pater familias, knowm among\\nthe Crackers as Tommy Tiger, planted himself in front\\nof the lodge, with folded arms, standing full six feet two,\\nclothed only in a frock reaching half way to the knees.\\nTo Mr. J. s Good morning. Tommy, not a word of reply\\nor movement of a muscle. Yank, Okechobee, here night,\\nyou guide, silver, was uttered by Mr. J., partly by words.\\nbut more by signs. A shake of the head only in reply.\\nWhere s Chief Tustenuggee? A wave of the arm by\\nTommy signified that he was way off hunting. I then\\nbroke in, Me Yank, Okechobee, one day, silver, suiting\\nmy action to my word by displaying a handful of the\\nshining halves and quarters. His eyes sparkled, and\\nturning upon his heels without a sign struck a bee line\\nfor the woods. He s gone for his pony, said the guide.\\nObserving a child enter a swamp, we followed, and cross-\\ning a creek on narrow footlogs, came out upon a hum-\\nmock of pine land, where we found half a dozen more\\nlodges, and plenty of women and children, but no men.\\nThe women were grubbing the ground preparatory to\\nplanting corn. The children were amusing themselves\\nwith their bows and arrows.\\nThese Indians, to the number of about forty families,\\nare a remnant of the Seminoles left in the Everglades at\\nthe close of the war of 1857. They are not recognized by\\nthe Government and maintain their original habits of\\nliving by hunting and fishing in a tribal relation; electing\\nand deposing at pleasure their chief, whose word is abso-\\nlute. No missionary labor has been dispensed among\\nthem, nor do they seemingly need it more than the neigh-\\nboring whites. Their singular custom of loading down\\nthe female children with glass beads necklaces obtained\\noriginally from the Spaniards and passing down the\\ngenerations as heirlooms, must have some physiological\\nsignificance, which, in my ignorance of their language I\\ncould not discover. A single necklace is put on qt birth\\nand additions made from time to time, till I counted over\\na hundred around the neck of a maiden of eighteen or\\ntwenty, the whole weighing not less than 251bs. A very\\naged squaw tottered around beneath a similar burden, and\\nfrom her erect form, I inferred the object of wearing\\nthem might be to develop and preserve physical symmetry.\\nOn the border of the creek I found an outcrop of coral\\nrock gi-eatly worn and decayed, with north and south\\nstrike. This find strongly countenances the correctness\\nof Mr. C. J. Maynard s conclusions respecting the geologi-\\ncal process of land-making bj which the peninsula of\\nFlorida has been formed. Simply premising that the\\ntheory requires there to have been in geologic ages past a\\nmore or less extensive ridge of rocks along what is now\\nthe western coast, as a foundation for coral building, I\\nwill quote at length from the Sportsman, in which paper\\nMr. Maynard first published his views in 1874:\\nAges ago these breakers which roll upon this eastern\\nsandy beach, dashed on the rocks of western Florida,\\nmore than a hundred miles away. Then it was that the\\nlittle polyp, living far down beneath the sea, began to\\nabstract lime from the surrounding waters and build a\\nline of coral reef, just like the one which now lies along\\nthe Florida Keys. When the coral rock had risen to the\\nsurface of the water the action of the waves continually\\ncast sand and shells over it, gradually filling the space\\nbetween it and the shore. These accumulations aiose\\nmore rapidly immediately behind the reef and soon over-\\ntopped it, rising above the surface in a long ridge. This\\ngrew wader and wider, and finally became covered with\\nvegetation, presenting the appearance of a veritable beach\\nridge like the one on which we stood.\\nThe waves with their ceaseless motion ground and\\nbeat millions of shells to pieces, just as they are now\\nbeating and grinding them. The wind swept the lighter\\nfragments into the lagoon which was now formed be-\\nyond, while the waves during storms rushed over the\\nridge and carried with them the larger shells. The sand\\nbeing heavier, settled down, and the shells gradually ac-\\ncumulated over it until the lagoon was filled and dry\\nland was formed, which was soon covered with vegetable\\nmold upon which grew the luxuriant vegetation of the\\nSouth.\\nThus it was that a great level plain was formed, vrith\\nenormous depressions, in which fresh water collected.\\nThese hollows then formed swamps, which overflowed,\\nand the water striving to escape to the sea marked out\\nthe river beds. It can now be understood how it is that\\nthe foundation of Florida is composed of lime rock. This\\nimmense bed of loose fragments of shell became cemented\\ntogether by pressure with the help of water, and now\\nforms the underlying strata just below the surface of the\\nsoil.\\nThis in general is the plan of the formation of Florida.", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0012.jp2"}, "13": {"fulltext": "-9\\nTwo of these partly filled lagoons are now to be seen on\\nthe eastern coast; Indian River which, as it has a supply\\nof fresh water continually sweeping through it from the\\nswamps at the north, will probably always remain much\\nas it is at present: Mosquito Lagoon which, as the shelly\\nheach on the western side indicates, is now slowly filling\\nand before many seasons have passed will be solid land.\\nThe water of this lagoon is very salt. The tide ebbs and\\nflows but a short distance from the inlet, which is shal-\\nlow and narrow, while on account of constant evapora-\\ntion, the waters of the southern end of the lagoon some-\\ntimes contain 25 per cent, more salt than that of the\\nneighboring ocean. Where the beach ridge is narrow\\nthe coral reef can be see just below the surface of the\\nwater. The beach ridge is 25ft. higher than the surface\\nof the ocean; yet during storms the waves dash over the top.\\nAccording to this theory the St. John s flows in the\\nlatest formed lagoon west of the Indian River, while the\\nsouthern terminus of the peninsula must once have been\\nnorth of Like Okechobeeand have been continued south-\\nerly by successive reefs curving to the southwest.\\nIn about half an hour Indian Tommy returned bestride\\na pony without saddle or bridle. Girting on a blanket,\\nwith stirrups of deerskin and a bridle corresponding, and\\nbinding on his moccasins, with a few sweet potatoes\\ntucked into the bosom of his frock, he mounted and\\nstarted for the woods in a bridle-path without a sign of\\nany kind indicating his intentions. We mounted and\\nfollowed in true Indian file at a stiff trot for an hour,\\nwithout a backward look from oirr guide. Coming to a\\ncreek bordered on either side for 50ft. with thick under-\\nbrush, lie dismounted and sounded the quagmire with a\\nlarge stick, till, finding a fording place, he led his pony\\nby the thong reins across the slough. We foUowed his\\nexample, but when we emerged from the thicket he was\\ntrotting at double speed, full quarter of a mile distant.\\nAt the end of another hour he suddenly dismounted,\\nhung all his horse equipments upon a branch, turned\\nthe pony loose, and sat down composedly to eating his\\npotatoes. Imitating him we built a fire, boiled our\\ncoffee, broiled our venison, and at one o clock signified\\nthat we were at his service. Immediately he struck into\\na blind trail in the unburnt grass, that terminated in\\nquarter of an hour in a cane-brake. Signifying to one of\\nus to follow a few feet to the right of liim, and to the\\nother a few feet to the left, he plunged into the morass,\\nparting the cane with his hands. In half an hour the\\nwater was nearing my waist, when we came upon four\\ncanoes hollowed from logs. Tommy selected the best,\\nand motioning to us to get in, with some difficulty we suc-\\nceeded, lying close in the bottom. He then went still\\nfurther into the cane, till lost to view, but soon returned\\nwith a long pole and a paddle. Bounding into the canoe\\nlike a cat. he p:)led us along for an hour, when we en-\\ntered a cypress swamp, with open water among the huge\\ntrunks, though greatly impeded by cypress-knees from be-\\nneath, and bramble giowth from above. For once, his\\nIndian keenness was at fault, and after fruitless efforts for\\nan hour, to penetrate the cypress slough, we worked our\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0way back to where we entered, when Tommy started off\\nwaist deep in the water, prospecting. When 100ft. away\\na low chuckle reached our ears. He has found it,\\nexclaimed my companion, and speedily he appeared\\nwith an approximation to a smile upon his counte-\\nnance, the first I noticed. Poling the canoe through\\nthe cane and saw-grass to the spot, I noticed a twig\\nbroken half off, 2ft. above the water and bent to the left;\\nalso flags, a sure indication of a sluggish current or chan-\\nnel. Fifty feet fm-ther on a twig was broken similarly,\\nbut bent to the right. Though in a creek, no current was\\nperceptible, and often a thick curtain of brambles had to\\nhe lifted by Tommy s pole while we dragged ourselves\\nbeneath. In other places logs impeded our track, which\\nwe sometimes crawled under, and at other times hauled\\nthe canoe over. Tommy, giant that he was, depressing\\nthe bow or elevating the stern. After toiling another\\nhour in forcing our way through the cypress, and disturb-\\ning not a few gator, moc sins and such like varmin, as\\nmy Cracker companion called them, we found our-\\nselves suddenly debouching on the lake, with only a water\\nhorizon in front, and limitless banks on the right and left.\\nThe problem is solved-there is a Lake Okechobee, and even\\nmy Cracker guide, who had been five years searching for\\nit, is obliged to give up his doubts and confess that I had\\nenabled him to find it. Before landing we paddled out\\nfrom the shore for a (quarter of a mile. Sounding\\nwith a pole, we found it eight feet deep, and were\\nassured by Tommy it was nowhere deeper than that. Its\\nshallowness permits light winds to stir up the bottom,\\nand hence its destitution of fish, the fine sand being\\ntroublesome to their gills. My first impulse, as I stepped\\nfrom the canoe, was to climb the tallest tree and see if I\\ncould discover the boat or camp of the Explorer and his\\nparty. Seeing nothing of them, I contended myself with\\ncutting my name in the bark of a huge box tree, in hopes,\\nif they had not already passed this point in their crcum-\\nnavigation of the lake, they might find it, and thus Erwin\\nknow ere we met, how well I had fulfilled my promise to\\nsee the lake before leaving Florida. Two weeks later\\nthey passed the point, but not near enough to discover\\nsigns of occupation. It is now known as the result of\\ntheir exploration, that the lake is about forty-five miles\\nin length, from north to south, and thirty in wadth, from\\neast to west, near the center. With the exception of\\ntwo small islands on the southwest bordtr, it is an un-\\nbroken expanse of water, terminating at the south in\\nthe Everglades, through which, without creek or river,\\nthe accumulated drainage of thousands of square miles\\nof territory slowly percolates by millions of channels\\nwith countless ramifications, to the ocean and the gulf.\\nConvinced that the shores of the lake, where I examined\\nit, were utterly barren of animated natural history, and\\nwarned by the low descending sun, I gave orders for our\\nreturn.\\nHaving gratified my curiosity as to the existence of the\\nlake, I more carefully inspected the skirting rypress\\nslough on my return, and was amazed at the gigantic\\nferns and flaming epiphytic air plants. Overarching\\nvines and Spanish moss festooned the trees, while varie-\\ngated leaves of beautiful lilies tinted the waters. But\\nhideous snakes and repulsive alligators alone represented\\nthe animal kingdom to enjoy these rare charms of the\\nvegetable leading me often to ask, Why does the Cre-\\nator so frequently display His selectei^ skill in places ^f\\ninaccessible to mortal man?\\nReached the hiding place of the canoes at sundown\\nand the halting place at dusk to find our horses all right.\\nIt being too late to go further, we built our camp-fire, and\\nsharing our supply with Tommy, I lay down to sleep,\\nwith a known murderer and outlaw on one side and a\\nwild Indian on the other, in a wilderness at least fifty\\nmiles distant from any semblance of civilization. It was\\nimpossible to prevent intrusive thoughts of suspicion that\\nmy watch and silver might prove a stronger temptation\\nthan their honesty could bear especially when I awoke\\nabout midnight and found Tommy stepping noiselessly\\nnear my head. Instinctively one hand grasped my pistol\\nand the other searched for my hatchet, till I discovered\\nhis intentions were only to recruit the fire. To thwart\\nthe clouds of mosquitoes that settled down upon every\\nexposed part of my body, and even pierced readily\\nthrough my sail cloth pants and blue flannel shirt, as soon\\nas Tommy lay down I parted the fire and laid myself\\ndown between the two heaps, that the wind might blow\\nthe pine-knot smoke across my face. As a result from\\nthe gathering of the soot upon my hair and beard, I was,\\nin the morning, far more of an Indian in appearance than\\nTommy, to his great amusement the second time I had\\nseen anything like a relaxing of his facial muscles.\\nObserving numerous stumps of large trees, that had\\nevidently been cut by a civilized axe, I learned from\\nTommy that we were encamped upon the site of General\\nTaylor s great battle with the Indians in 1837, when he\\nwas most disastrously defeated. Tommy explained in\\nhis pantomimic way how the soldiers fled in their retreat,\\nand 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\\ntree, but could see nothing of them. Descending he took\\na circuit, till, discovering their tracks, he darted off in a\\ntangent, returning in a couple of hours driving them be-\\nfore him. Having Tommy to feed, we were on short\\nallowance for breakfast, but on reacliing Tommy s lodge\\nat noon, he brought out sweet potatoes in abundance,\\nwith jerked venison, and, as a luxury, he drew into a\\nbroken gourd some honey from a bottle made of the skin", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0013.jp2"}, "14": {"fulltext": "-10\\nof the leg of a deer, stripped off whole and plugged up at\\nthe ankle end with a wooden stopper. We all dipped\\nour bread together into the gourd with a good relish so\\nreadily does real liunger do away with squeamish ness.\\nAfter lunching, I offered the promised silver. Tommy\\nheld his open palm toward me, but turned his face from\\nme. I dropped into his palm one, two, three, four half\\ndollars, when he closed it, tucked the silver away in his\\nfrock, and started off, without any more of a farewell\\nthan of a welcome the day before.\\nFor fifty years an Indian relic constructed of a dozen\\nbox-tortoise shells, bound together by deer skin thongs,\\neach one partially filled with wihl beans, had lain in a\\nphysician s office in Providence, R. 1., with the tradition\\nthat it came from the Seminoles, though nothing more\\ncoiild be said about it when it was presented to the\\nmuseum of Brown University. At my first sight of the\\nIndian lodges I was gratified to observe the same article\\nsuspended under the roof of each one. As Tommy turned\\nto leave me I signified my desire to purchase a pair of\\nthem. At first he flatly refused, but as I urged he com-\\nmenced a dialogue with his squaw and aged mother,\\nwhich ended in his holding up one finger for one and two\\nfor two, meaning a dollar for one and two dollars for a\\npair. I readily took a pair and then desired him to put\\nthem on and show me how to use them. At that he\\nstraightened up to his full height of 6ft. 3in. folded his\\narms and looked down upon me with such a withering\\nfrown as completely cowed me. Mr. J. instantly grasped\\nhis pistol, so threatening was his scowl. But Tommy\\nquickly recollected himself, pocketed the insult and con-\\ntemptuously pointing to his wife with the exclamation,\\nSquaw dance, turned upon his heel and left me. I at\\nonce saw my mistake and how grievously I had insulted\\nhim by intimating that he, a brave, should demean him-\\nself to put on an article which, I afterward learned, was\\nworn only by the squaw^ as a musical accompaniment to\\ntheir green-corn dances. Going over to her, I held out a\\nsilver quarter, when she readily bound them below the\\nknee, and gave me a specimen of a Seminole reel.\\nMy return to Fred s camp was devoid of interest,\\nexcept that my Cracker companion got out of tobacco\\nfrom sharing with Tommy (who, in his turn, shared with\\nall his picaninnies except the pappoose in the hammock),\\nand soon became very cross, often putting his horse into\\na gallop and getting far ahead of me, it being almost im-\\npossible for me. with stick and spur, to urge my mule\\nout of a slow trot. The second day he became insolent,\\nand insisted finally upon breaking camp at 10 o clock at\\nnight, to reach home at midnight, saying his hor e would\\nknow the way home in the darkest night. Knowing\\nwhat he might be if the lion within him was aroused I\\ncarefully avoided irritating him and let him have his own\\nway. When about two miles from home he wanted me\\nto let him have my pistol to fire off as a signal to his\\nfamily that he was coming, pretending that he always\\ndid so when he returned home. Asking him why he did\\nnot use his own he said mine spoke loudest. As I\\nhanded it to him with my left hand I cocked my double-\\nbarreled gun with my right and fell back a little into the\\ndarkness. He fired two shots in quick succession and\\nsaid he would fire two more half a mile further on. and\\ndid so, and then returned me the pistol and somewhat\\nrelieved my anxiety. Just upon that, a year-old colt be-\\nlonging to him galloped up, and though doing nothing out\\nof the way, he commenced venting his spite upon it by\\nfilling the air with his curses. At length, determined to\\nhurt something, he dismounted and commenced belabor-\\ning the colt with a large club, but in the darkness gave\\nhis own horse a thwack that sent him flying and landed\\nhis saddle-bags in the bushes. The faithful beast, how-\\never, returned at his call, and after a long search the\\nsaddle-bags were replaced, and we arrived at his cabin\\nto find Fred all right in his tent, but greatly rejoiced at\\nmy return. I have no reason to think Mr. J. designed\\nharm, but to this day his conduct is utterly unaccount-\\nable to me.\\nDuring my absence Fred tented alone, employing the\\nfirst day in household matters, cleaning Ins gun, sharpen-\\ning his hatchet antl skinning-knives, shooting a couple of\\nbirds in the vicinity of the camp, trying his hand at bak-\\ning bread in a borrowed Dutch owen, and retiring at sun-\\ndown; but the wandering hogs so disturbed him he rose\\nsoon after midnight and built a rousing fire. This\\nbrought from the cabin a Mr. N. the eccentric character\\nof the settlement, a squatter and bachelor, whose home-\\nstead, three miles distant in the woods, consisted of a\\nmule cart, beneath which he slept in his blanket on the\\nbare ground, and whose personal property comprised the\\none suit of clothes he wore and the mule I roile to the\\nlake, with dilapidated saddle, bridle and saddle-bags.\\nLending a hand to the squatters occasionally, he earned\\na precarious subsistence, spending what little money he\\ncould get hold of for whiskey. Obeying the caution I had\\nimpressed upon me by Judge P., at my introduction to\\nCracker life, I carefully avoided inquiring into the\\nantecedents of any one, but Mr. N. must have seen better\\ndavs at some period of hi^ life, for he would entertain us\\nwith Methodist songs from memory (as he could not read\\nor write) by the hour together the only recognition of\\nChristianity I found in all this benighted region. Though\\nat least three-score-and-ten, he assured me he intended to\\nmarry ere long; and, when I interposed the objection of\\nhis want of a suitable lodging place, he quickly replied,\\nAny woman who didn t love him enough to sleep with\\nhim under his cart, wasn t worthy of him. My more\\nextended acquaintance with Crackers of the feminine\\ngender convinced me he would not find much trouble in\\npairing himself if he should seriously pop the question.\\nWhile I was absent a Cracker boy stimulated Fred s\\ngastronomic propensities by the offer of some eggs, which\\nluxury called to mind the sugar syrup in the bottom of\\nFive-Mile Creek. The temptation to try for it was too\\nstrong to resist; so, putting all his provisions inside of\\nMr. J. s for fear of the hogs, leaving both ends of the tent\\nopen for them to walk through, rolling up all the clothing\\nwith tlie carpet-bag knapsack containing onr arsenic into\\na bundle and putting it on the table I had extemporized\\nfor skinning purposes, he took his gun and trudged to the\\ncreek, and was delighted to see the jug sitting bolt up-\\nright on the bottom, but too deep do vn to reach with\\narm or stick. Though the water was very cold, in a trice,\\nstripping and diving for it, he was overjoyed to find the\\nwater had not leaked in to dilute it. And so the luxury\\nwe hadn t, we had. Securing a couple of herons, and\\nthis time firmly retaining hold of the coveted jug, he re-\\ntraced his steps to the camp with beatific visions, which\\nwere destined to be dashed to the ground when he came\\nin sight of it. The table lay flat and everything was scat-\\ntered around, with the hogs making merry with all the\\nwomen in the cabin 300ft. distant had not saved, as they\\nheard the table fall. Fortunately, both forom-selves and\\nthe hogs directly, and indirectly for our continuance on\\ngood termr. with the Crackers in the settlement for the\\nhogs were common property the women saved the\\na: s 3nic before the creatures had penetrated to it. Having\\nrighted things and carefully potted two bones of a deer\\nfor soup the next morning, seeming the cover beyond the\\npossibility of a hog s snout reaching the mest, he lay\\ndown to sleep. By 4 o clock in the morning the hogs\\nrouted him out. but the pot containing the soup meat was\\nseemingly untouched. All preparations being made, the\\npot was opened, when, lo, one of the two bones was miss-\\ning! Though every necessary caution had been taken\\nagainst the insertion of a hog s snout, none had been\\ntaken against a coon s snout or a possum s paw. Scend-\\ning his third day alone in skinning birds and contriving\\nbetter arrangements for protection against the hogs and\\nvarmint, he lay down to sleep at dark, only to be\\naroused by my return at midnight. Little sleep, how-\\never, had either of us, so annoying were the hogs, and\\nwe decided to quit that locaUty as speedily as possible.\\nHaving accomplished the desideratum of the trip, in see-\\ning the lake and disabusing naturalists of its pretensions\\nas an elysium for them, we were all at sea as to future\\nplans, for the second object of our trip was still in abey-\\nance the securing of specimens of rare birds and their\\neggs, and a study of them in their haunts. Our wily\\nCracker, ever on the alert to make money out of us,\\nhonestly or dishonestly, suggested our camping for a few\\ndays at a heronry a day s tramp into the heart of\\nAlpatiokee Swamp, known only to himself and the In-\\ndians, but impenetrable, except by a boat, on account of\\nthe deep water and the cypress-knees. He also informed\\nus that three miles down the creek near which we were\\nencamped there was a flat-bottomed boat, just adapted to", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0014.jp2"}, "15": {"fulltext": "-11\\nour need, which the owner would sell at a reasonable\\nprice. So Tom was dispatched with the oxen to bring it.\\nToward night he returned, saying it had lain ui)on the\\nbank so long, drying in the sun, that lie could thrust his\\nhand between every plank. Suggesting to him tliat we\\nwould take it to pieces and re-nail and re-caulk it, 1 went\\nback with him, and bringing it to the camp we set about\\nthe operation. As there were neither sawn boards nor\\nnails in all the settlement, we worked very carefully to\\nsave what we had. For calking we used the lace fibre of\\nthe palmetto leaf besmeared with tar, which we tried out\\nof the pine knots by smothering them in an oven made in\\nthe gi ound. When finished we had a scow twelve feet\\nin length, four feet wide, turned up two feet at each end,\\nwith a gunwale of eiglit inches the frail bark that sub-\\nsequent experience proved was to save us many times\\nfrom the jaws of alligators and a watery grave.\\nHaving bargained with Mr. J. to take us with his ox-\\nteam to the heronry and return for us in ten days at so\\nmuch a day, we had our luggage all ready for him to\\nload into the scow soon after daylight, anl requested\\nhim to drive about 100yds. to our camp for it. As the\\nheronry was beyond his house from the camp he refused\\nto come or even to lend us the least assistance in getting\\nour heavy packs to the team, saying he bargained to\\nstart from his house. As before suggested we knew it\\nwas well not to arouse the tiger in him, and so we toted\\nthem ourselves to the scow, he gi-umbling all the time\\nthat we were delaying him. About 9 o clock we got off,\\nbut were ourselves got off by our teamster s insisting\\nupon a long tarry at each Cracker s hut we passed within\\nthe first five miles. By careful balancing of our load we\\nmanaged to ford almost to swimming Ten Mile Creek\\nand keep our powder dry, and soon after entered the\\nFlats, showing only a water horizon with an occasional\\nisland a few feet in diameter, on which from one to half\\na dozen tall pines were growing with a thick gi owth of\\nunderbrush excellent rendezvous for panthers, wildcats,\\npossums and land snakes, wild turkeys roosting in the\\ntrees. To wade knee-deep was the work of the day, care-\\nfully avoiding the dreaded moccasins, which, lurking in\\nthe tussocks of grass, strike their envenomed fangs\\ndeep into the leg ere the traveler is aware of their pres-\\nence. Plodding on wearily after the cart, as the safer\\nposition through the fright to the snakes occasioned by\\nthe paddling of the oxen, we came to a grassy plain a\\nmile in width, from which the drying-up waters had re-\\nceded, but revealing midway across it a creek nearly\\nwaist-deep with perpendicular sides. But my spade soon\\nchanged their steepness to a slope, and the faithful oxen,\\naccustomed to rushing through a stream, landed all safe\\non the other side.\\nTwo or three such, but with sloping banks, we met in\\ntlie course of the day, and one altogether too deep to wade\\nconven .ently; but to my request that we ride over, our\\nteamster on the cart only replied by pouring out a volley\\nof oaths, and urging the cattle across before we could\\ncome up with him. Thus alternating between strips of\\nmarsh and wide wastes of water, we at length discerned\\non the horizon a cypress clump towering up like a blue\\nmountain. That is the heronry, exclaimed our guide,\\nbut there is no camping place nearer than this island\\nclump of palmettos near by. But how far is the heronry\\nfrom here? Perhaps four miles. And do you expect\\nus to wade this long distance twice a day for ten days and\\ncarry our game? Certainly. Then take us right\\nback to your house. After much persuasion he was in-\\nduced to go on and run the risk of finding a nearer camp-\\ning island. At length we found one less than fifty feet\\nacross, with considerable dead wood upon it, which our\\nteamster said was not over a mile distant from the heronry,\\nand was absolutely the nearest spot of dry land to it.\\nCareful observation afterward proved it to be not less\\nthan two miles. Cutting a path through th dense pal-\\nmetto scrub bordering the island, we unloaded our traps\\nfrom the scow, and left Fred to put things to riglits for a\\nten-days camp-keeping, with the caution to be careful\\nabout setting the dry leaves afire, while the teamster and\\nmyself hastened on to launch the scow near the heronry.\\nThis effected, we noticed a fine camping island not more\\nthan a quarter of a mile distant; but it was too late, as all\\nour luggage was two miles back. Nearing the camp on\\nour return, Fred was seen repeatedly hurrying out into\\nthe water and back again, as though in trouble. It seems,\\nnotwithstanding our precaution, the fire had got the\\nupper hand of him and was spreading, and he was lug-\\nging the powder and provisions out of the way of danger\\nto an extemporized platform of sticks he had constiiicted\\nin the water. Further examination proved the soil to be\\npeaty, and suggested the danger of subterranean combus-\\ntion, and such a possible thinning of the crust as to refuse\\nto bear our weight some night, with the result of tum-\\nbling us, powder and all, into a mass of smouldering em-\\nbers. To avoid this, we encircled our hearth with a trench\\nand daily supplied it plentifully with water.\\nTo obtain filtered water for culmary purposes, we dug\\na shallow well a few feet within the margin of the island\\non the opposite side of our entrance, which soon filled\\nwith water percolating through the peaty soil. This,\\nstrained from the insects and small lizards continually\\ntumbling into the well, served our purpose satisfactorily.\\nHaving thoroughly beaten the ground within and around\\nour tent, to frighten away any ground rattlesnakes,\\nscorpions and such like vermin as may have been lurking\\nbeneath the leaves, we commended ourselves to the care\\nof Him who never slumbers nor sleeps, and lay down to\\nrest at dusk. Excessive fatigue quickly invited sleep, but,\\nthe nights being moonless, for how long time we were\\nunconscious I cannot say, when we were awakened by\\nsuch deep bellowings within a few feet as made me think\\nat first some bulls of the cattle herds ranging all over the\\ncountry had come into camp near us. It was our first ex-\\nperience of the full-toned bellowing of alligators so near\\nus, and it was a question whether the savory viands of\\nour evening repast might not be attracting th em to our\\nlimited quarters. The thought was not pleasant, nor\\nmade less so by the su, den chiming in of the most horrible\\nthrottling sounds that ever grated upon human ear. I\\nhave not been unaccustomed from my youth to the\\ndeath rattle of the dying bedside, or the gasping groans\\nof the earlier slaughter houses; but in this medley of\\nsounds that filled our ears, there was a perfect nondescript\\nanomaly to me. Later experience leads me to suppose it\\nwas the dragging under of a large bird, perhaps the water\\nibis, by an alligator, as there was much splashing of\\nwater commingled with the shrieks and gurglings. But\\ntu ed nature would assert herself, though only to be dis-\\nturbed again by the distinct, but stealthy, tread of some\\nanimal close to our canvas. Is it a panther? is it a wild-\\ncat? is it a coon? is it a possum? we whispered to each\\nother. At length it approached my head and tapped the\\ncanvas watliin 6in. of my face with its paw. I tapped\\nback, when it bounded away, but with so light a bound\\nthat I was convinced it was not larger than a wildcat or\\na coon, and felt no further alarm. Waking at daylight,\\nwe found abundant tracks of a wildcat in the soft mud\\non the margin of our island and a flock of turkey buzzards\\nroosting directly over our heads, both indications of\\nmarauders warning us to put our things in order for safety\\nbefore starting for the heronry.\\nStrapping on my tin knapsack containing our lunch,\\nwith gun in left hand and a pala etto stick 7ft. long in\\nright, with which to slap the water to frighten away the\\nmoccasins, and in our high-topped boots, we started, Fred\\ncarrying his gun, two tin pans and a tin cup, and a board\\nfor the purpose of making a seat across the top of our\\nscow. We had hardly left the camp when the w^ater\\npoured into our knee-top boots, adding greatly to the\\nweight we had to carry. Frequently my slapping the\\nwater would scare up a moccasin, which, striiing an\\nattitude for striking, would await our nearer approach\\nwith threatening fangs. Disabling it by a blow of the stick,\\nI was on the alert for another. Carefully taking our\\nbearings that we might not get lost on om- return, we\\ncame in sight of the gunwale of our scow just peeping\\nabove the water, it having sunk during the night. Cau-\\ntiously approaching it, lest it might shelter imderneath\\nthe dreaded reptile, I aided Fred into it to bail it out,\\nwhile I proceeded to cut away the marginal imderbrush\\nand make a path for pushing the scow into deep water.\\nOn starting, I had forgotten to take my stick, in my en-\\nthusiasm at the sight of the flocks of spoonbills and\\nherons flying over the swamp; but ere I had taken ten\\nsteps, pausing in the water half knee-deep to watch their\\nmovements, I looked down and saw just beneath the sur-\\nface the largest moccasin I had hitherto seen, crawling", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0015.jp2"}, "16": {"fulltext": "12-\\nbetween my legs. Instantly becoming motionless and\\ntelling Fred to keep (juiet, I watched it drag its slow\\nlength along, till its tail was a foot to the rear of me,\\nand tlien showed it to Fred, whose blanched countenance\\nwould hardly permit him to exclaim, Are you bitten?\\nI think I could sketch the markings on that snake s back\\nwith accuracj- to-day, ten years after the occurrence, for\\nI am sure I seemed to have amjile time to examine them\\nbefore the end of that tail sho ved itself.\\nAnticipating some trouble with the scow, for some of\\nthe boai-ds I used in repairing it were not straight-edged,\\nI had prepared myself witli palmetto lace, and with my\\nhatchet and knife recalked it, so that, should we bail it\\nevery few minutes we deemed it might be safe, and so\\npushed it through my path into deep water.\\nNow for the results of all our toil, e.xpense and danger,\\nand, thanks to a kind providence, they are speedily\\nrealized. Hardly afloat and a roseate spoonbill rose from\\nits nest and perched beside it. Fred sliot her vvhUe I\\npoled the scow in all haste, as, the moment it struck the\\nwater, watchful alligators made for it on every side. We\\ntriumphed and secured it, and then Fred climbed to the\\nnest amid the filthy branches while I kept the scow im-\\nmediately under him, lest, falling from a dead limb into\\nthe water, he should himself be gobbled up by the alliga-\\ntors, who were watching the ope.ation to the number of\\nat least half a dozen. Three eggs were secured and iden-\\ntified. Bailing out our frail scow, I pushed it among the\\ncypress knees, botli excited to the highest pitch, as the\\nbirds kept rising from their nests, and, circling in the\\ngleaming sunlight displayed their roseate hues to the\\nbest advantage. Soon another falls a victim to Fred s\\nunerring aim, but alas, drops right into sn alligator s\\nmouth, who goes to the bottom with it in a trice. Fred,\\nlay low and I ll have thatbu-d yet. Nonsense, it sdown\\nthe alligator s maw by this time. We U see, I replied,\\nand pushing the scow over the spot of engulf ment, I\\ncould plainly see about six feet deep the pink hues of the\\nspoonbill as it was held down by the alligator. Two or\\nthree thrusts of my pole so astonished the brute that he\\nlet go the bird, and it now graces the Museum of Brown\\nUniversity. Besides the spoonbills, there were by the\\nhundreds, the different species of egrets, herons and\\nibises. Having identified the eggs of the different nests\\nby carefully noting what birds flew from them, and\\nsecured about fifty in all, besides as many birds as we\\nthought we could skin before dark, we left our scow in\\nthe marsh outside and returned to camp carrying our load\\nof about fifty pounds each, wading every step of the two\\nmiles witli our boots full of water.\\nThe next day being Sunday we spent in camp cook-\\ning and wishing we might hear from home, as no\\nletter had yet reached us. About 2 o clock Mr. J. rode\\ninto camp, horseback, with letters for both of us, and\\nsaid he had a good chance to trade with the Indians if\\nhe had silver. So I accommodated him with $15 and\\nengaged him to come for us in nine da3 s. Wandering to\\nthe further side of our 50ft. island for meditation the\\nthought suddenly struck me what should either of us do\\nif the other should perchance be killed? Until that\\nmoment such a possibility had not occurred to me, and I\\nfelt the cold shudder creeping over me till I had worked\\nout a plan that seemed feasible for preserving the re-\\nmains in such an exigency. My plan was to sew up the\\nbody in our stout tent cloth and my India rubber blanket\\nand suspending it in a tree, the survivor find his way\\nback to Mr. J. s as best he might. In cas3 of severe in-\\ndisposition or maiming only the problem was less easily\\nsolved, as the indisposed or injured could not be left\\nalone. Considering all the risks I began to regret there\\nwas not a third member of the party, and I resolved then\\nand there that I would run no such risk again.\\nOn our third return to the cypress-slue, while Fred was\\nbailing out the scow I was attracted toward the margin\\nin an effort to get within gunshot of a spoonbill circling\\noverhead. Was it indirect vision or was it God s over-\\nruling providence that caused me as I raised my gun to\\nfire to look down instead of up to see that I was witliin a\\ngun s length of the snout of a 10ft. alligator half c n-\\ncealed in the water, but whose jaws were slowly opening\\nto close about my limbs with a snap defying any meclian-\\nical motion for quickness. To pour the contents of three\\nchambers of buckshot into his side just back of the fore-\\nleg was the work of a moment. As he rolled over on his\\nside we left him for dead, but returning to the spot tliree\\nhours later he was gone.\\nWe often found on the same tree eight or ten different\\nkinds of nests, and observed that no nest was ever left\\nvacant when undisturbed one mate instantly taking the\\nplace of the other as a regular system of robbery was\\nconstantly carried on between the rapacious hawks and\\ncrows, and the inoffensive herons. The slue was not\\nvery extensive, and after robbing the lower nests from 10\\nto 20ft. in height, and shooting the owners, we turned\\nour attention to those nests from 30 to 40ft. in heiglit.\\nOn the fourth day Fred s shoulder became so lame from\\nclimbing he could hardly raise his arm and was forced\\nto exchange work with me. Unfortunately we had no\\nclimbing irons, but fastening mj claw-hatchet securely\\nto my wrist and carefully testing the strength of every\\nlimb with a pull upon it before trusting my weight to it,\\nI succeeded in mounting higher than I had ever done on\\ntrees, since the venturesome period of childhood. It was\\nnot a pleasant siglit in my elevated position to see a dozen\\nheads of alligators with pop-out eyes watching all my\\nmovements, and I knew that a treacherous branch might\\nfui-nish them with a feast. Merely throwing them down\\na stick would start them out of their lurking places, and\\nbring into display their activity in the water, as well as\\ntheir flexibility in winding in and out among the half\\nconcealed cypress knees. The climber let the eggs and\\nyouuK birds down by a string in a nandkerchief to the\\none remaining in the scow.\\nOne of the Crackers in the settlement happening to be\\nat Fort Capron when the semi-weekly mail arrived by\\nsailboat from Jacksonville, he undertook to bring our\\nsecond batch of letters to us with a package of my\\nphotos for which I gave a sitting the morning before I\\nsailed from the North. But after searching for us two\\ndays he gave it up, and delivered the letters to Mr. J. to\\nbring to us when he should send for us. Another Cracker\\nlearning that we had taken a scow to the heronry laid in\\nwith Mr. J. to direct him to it that he might avail himself\\nof our means of navigating the slue to secure egret\\nplumes, which were in great demand for ladies bonnets.\\nWhen half way back to our camp on the fifth day, we\\nfound him wading toward us. Joyfully welcoming him\\nhe returned to our camp, but as our tent was hardly large\\nenough for Fred and myself he slept outside rolled up in\\nhis blankets.\\nWe frequently saw deer feeding in the open water-\\nprairie, but as there was no cover for still-hunting were\\nunable to secure any.\\nOur constant firing had either killed off or frightened\\naway the more timid spoonbills, so that Fred and the\\nCracker decided to take night and morning rations and\\nspend the sixth night in the heronry to secure egrets as\\ntLey should come in at night from their feeding grounds\\no go forth in the morning thus leaving me alone at the\\ncamp for that night. It was a new experience for me,\\nalthough I had become accustomed to otrr nightly\\nserenade medly of alligator bellowing, wUdcat yawUng,\\nfrog peeping, turkey gobbling, heron screaming, owl\\nhooting and every other kind of unearthly sound pertain-\\ning to a wilderness swamp. The death rattlings of\\nalligator or wildcat victims were frequently repeated on\\nevery side of me, and about midnight I was aroused by a\\nsecond visit from our prowler of the first night. Again\\nhe tapped the canvas over my head as though clawing it,\\nand bounded away with a heavy tread as I tapped back.\\nDetermined to identify the creature and, if possible,\\nsecure it for the museum, I hastily lit my dark lantern,\\nand lifting the side of my tent, saw a little way off in the\\ndarkness two eyes gleaming upon me. Fearing to shoot\\nmy gun lest I should alarm my companions two miles\\ndistant, I fired my pistol at the eyes, with only the effect\\nof eliciting a yell and a bound into the thicket. I was\\nsoon asleep again, not waking till long after sunrise.\\nFred and the Cracker retm-ned toward night well laden\\nwith birds and plumes. Our provisions growing short,\\nwe sent the Cracker into the settlement on the morning\\nof 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\\nlittle coffee. Our spoonbill carcasses being all gone, we\\nwere forced to eke out our larder with white ibises.\\nAbout noon the next day Tom arrived with the team.", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0016.jp2"}, "17": {"fulltext": "-13\\nand after loading on to the axles the scow, we filled it\\nwith our luggage and started for civilization, such as it\\nwas. AVTiUe on the island Fred was stung twice by\\nscorpions, but our bottle of hartshorn brought quick\\nrelief. About dark some of Tom s family met him, and\\nthey lield a long consultation apart from us. As yet Tom\\nhad no reason to suppose I knew anything about his being\\none of the murderers of Mr. Lang, but I saw from their\\ncountenances there was trouble brewing for them. When\\nhe returned to the team, I put tn as cheerful a counten-\\nance as possible and commenced joking him, but he had\\nno heart for my je.sting, and I left him to his forebodings,\\nwhich were not unfounded, as the sequel will show.\\nOnce more encamped ou the old spot, we hoped, as we\\nbunked for the night, the thievish hogs had forgotten us\\nduring our ten days absence, but were wofuUy mistaken,\\nas our frequent alternations of Shoo, shoo, and snatches\\nonly of dozing without real sleep proved. While break-\\nfasting we were planning how to provide the grub neces-\\nsary for carrying out a plan proposed by our C: acker vis-\\nitor at the rookery for the next ten days, to the effect that\\nwe should proceed to a locality on the coast called Fort\\nPierce, four miles south of Fort Capron, where he had a\\nboat, and camping there let him supply us with shore\\nbirds and fish in such numbers that we would be kept\\nskinning and preserving all the time till we were ready to\\nsay halt. This plan would cut us loose from Jlr. J.,\\nwho, subsequent experience showed, was not quite ready\\nto let the goose that was laying the golden egg for him\\nfly away. So he and oiir new parasite, whom we will\\nhereafter call Jim, came to our camp with many protes-\\ntations of interest in our success, and proposed a post-\\nponement of the ten days shore hunting and fishing for a\\nten days trip, more or less, to another rookery two days\\ndistant, much larger than the one we had just left, and\\nbordered by a pine hummock affording good camping\\nground immediately upon its shore. As it was yet early\\nin the season for gathering some kinds of eggs, we\\nsnapped at the bait, and, sending off Tom to Fort Capron\\nfor replenishing our larder, spent the day in recaulking\\nour scow and packing the material we had left to dry in\\nthe loft of 3Ir. J. s log s able. Vermin of some kind, de-\\nspite the a-senic, had ruined my rattlesnake s skin,\\nleaving me only the head and rattles. The mammal and\\nbird skins were on the eve of moulding from the exces-\\nsive dampness of the nights, and it was becoming a serious\\nquestion whether we had not better get out of so swampy\\na region, to save what we had already secured at so great\\nan expense of fatigue and money. To leave a cherished\\nplan unaccomplished had not been tlie experience of my\\nlife of nearly three score years, and I also felt some\\nresponsibility in reference to introducing my young com-\\npanion of less than a score to such an unfortunate future.\\nAfter another sleepless night through the unwelcome vis-\\nitations of our porcine tormentors, we repacked the scow\\nplaced upon the ox-team axles, and bade a final adieu to\\nthe settlement on Ten-Mile Creek, with no regret, though\\nin Mrs. J. we had found a true-hearted woman, who, alone\\nof all we had met in the settlement, had manifested\\ntowai-d us the least spark of unselfishness.\\nIn the outgoing of this trip, Mr. J. s Uttle son of ten\\nyears accompanied us, and enlivened the monotony of the\\ntramp by his cheerful and unsophisticated nature, often\\nplying me with questions concerning Yankeeland that\\nmade me grieve to think so bright a lad was being raised\\nunder such outlaw influences. An incidental remark, as\\nwe were fording a deep stream, whose quicksand bottom\\nthreatened to sink oxen and load out of sight, that in my\\ncountry I had often driven oxen with a load of wood\\nacross a pond without sinking an inch, so taxed his credu-\\nlity that he called upon my companion for confirmation\\nof the statement. He had never seen a flake of snow or\\na film of ice, and no kind of illustration at our command\\ncould make him comprehend the fact. Dressed only in\\nshirt and trous;rs, he scrambled around in the briers and\\nsaw-grass with naked feet as fearless of harm as though\\nrattlesnakes and moccasins were as unknown in that re-\\ngion as ice and snow.\\nCamping soon after dark, we were too tired to unload\\nour tent, and each chose liis own place and lay down\\nupon a bed of palmetto leaves and went to sleep counting\\nthe stars. Our little cheerfulness went searching in\\nthe dark for water, and just on the brink of a pool felt a\\nground rattlesnake wriggling about his naked ankles.\\nNimbly jumping aside, he captured the reptile and brought\\nit to me as a trophy. At early dawn we were off, and\\nsoon after sunrise crossed fresh tracks of deer, and not\\nmuch further a panther s tracks. The panther should be\\nhunted only with dogs, that his attention may be diverted\\nfrom the hunter while he is drawing sufficiently near to\\nmake sure of a deadly aim. In the course of the day we\\narrived at the rookery, and for once realized all the ex-\\npectations raised by our Cracker guides. It was a cypress-\\nslue of ten or twelve acres, with the exception of the end\\nnearest us, of about two acres of clear water, the whole\\nencircled with a margin ofdenseundergiowth twenty-five\\nor thirty feet in thickness. So matted was the marginal\\ngrowth it was impervious to the gaze beyond eight or ten\\nfeet, but on climbing a tall tree and looking over the\\nunderbrush the clear water furnished to the sight a unique\\naquarium that uo other State than Florida, I imagine,\\ncan furnish. I counted one hundred alligators, from\\nthree to twelve feet in length, leisurely swimming in all\\ndhections in the two acre space, and ceased counting.\\nSome were dragging long rushes in their mouths across\\nthe water, evidently to construct their nests, which are\\nbuilt on the margm above the water. The alligator lays\\nfrom fifty to seventy eggs in alternate layers of reeds\\nand eggs, and leaves the mass of rubbish to putrefy and\\nheat the eggs for incubation. Instinct brings the\\nmother to the spot at the right time to tear open the pile\\nand release the chicks on their first peeping.\\nSelecting a place for our camp just far enough from the\\nswampy undergrowth to feel safe from the visits of alli-\\ngators, in two hours we had a path cut through the un-\\ndergrowth with a corduroy bottom laid, along which to\\npush our scow for launching in the clear water. Jlr. J.\\nand his son returning with the team, tliis time we had\\nwith us Jim, an experienced hunter and boatman. Our\\nexperience in the first rookery led us to provide a boat-\\nhook for this, besides poles and paddles. Our boat\\nlaunched, we essayed to cross the clear water to the\\ncypress-slue, above which we could see hundreds of\\nspoonbills, white ibises and egrets sailing, while others\\nwere diving in and out among the branches. So far as\\nCrackers or Indians knew, we were likewise the first ever\\nto launch a boat of any kind upon these waters, as well as\\nat the first rookery. To the alligators, our invasion of\\ntheir hitherto undistm-bed domain must have been some-\\nthing akin to the astonishment of the natives when the\\nvessels of Columbus hove in sight. Fearless, they swam\\nup to the gunwale as to a floating loj-, and but for the\\nthumping of their snouts with our poles, they would evi-\\ndently have boarded us and taken possession of our frail\\nbatteaux. A few charges of shot so educated t nem, how-\\never, that on the second or third day they were ready to\\ngive us a wide berth as we issued among them. As we\\nboated among the cypress-knees, they were still more\\nnumerous and audacious, so that we found it almost im-\\npossible to secure a single bird we had shot, a half dozen\\nat a time springing from their lurking places the moment\\nthe bird touched the water. Another set of nest robbers\\nthan ourselves we found in the slue. The fishcrows by\\nthe liundreds were perched near the nests of the curlews\\nand herons, just out of reach of their long necks; but the\\nmoment a bird left the nest, either to exchange places\\n\\\\^-ith its mate or because frightened liy the crack of our\\nguns, these crows, so intent upon their plunder as to be\\nthemselves un terrified, would dart upon a nest, and, if\\nthe egg was small enough, fly away with it in its bill, or\\nif large, pierce it with its bill and fly off ^\\\\\u00e2\u0096\u00a0ith the contents\\ndripping away tlirough the air. Forced thus to change\\nour tactics, either to secure birds or eggs, we made it a\\nrule each morning to first shoot a number of crows as\\nthey flew out and in, and by occasionally getting ahead\\nof the alligators secure a portion of them. Placing these\\nupon the slanting bow of the scow, if our shot dropped a\\nspoonbill or other bird, we would throw a dead crow in\\nfront of the nearest alligator making for our game, and\\nthus manage, by giving away sometimes two or three\\ncrows, to secure one spoonbill.\\nIn crossing the open water on our campward trips, as\\nwe came out of the slue, our guide Jim was very expert\\nin often hitching the boat-hook over the shoulder of a\\nhuge alligator headed the right way, and making him in\\nhis fright drag us across the pond, till, nearing the shore.", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0017.jp2"}, "18": {"fulltext": "he would let go by thrusting the hook forward and then,\\ngiving our steed a punch in the side, dismiss him. In a\\nfew days we had secui ed all the spoonbills, egrets, ibises\\nand snake-birds and their eggs we could well care for,\\nand began to think of leaving the interesting place. Our\\nprovisions, too, were giving out, so I told Jim he must\\ntake our breecliloading rifle and go out and get us some\\nvenison hams. In about fifteen minutes after leaving us,\\nwe heard three shots in quick succession, and in a fe%v\\nmoments more he came in with the request that we go\\nout and help liim bring in the hams. RepairLi:g to the\\nspot, we found a buck and a doe lying as they fell, about\\nten feet apart, the third, a doe, running off with a broken\\nshoulder, but f^und the next day a few hundred feet\\naway, dead. Securing our hams, and a portion of the\\nliver of each, we had jerked venison for days to come.\\nIn one of the livers I found the parasite fluke, always to\\nbe searched for in the hepatic system of herbivorous\\nanimal?.\\nToward night of the sixth day Tom appeared with the\\noxen and axles. Quickly converting our scow into a\\nwagon-body we prepared to bid farewell to cypress-slues\\nand gator swamps, weU pleased with our experience in\\nseeing wild beasts and birds in their wild haunts. A\\nday s tramping across pine hummocks and wallowing\\nthrough intervening sloughs brought us upon an old\\narmy trail leading from Fort Capron on the Atlantic\\ncoast to Fort Bassinger on the Kissimmee. Following\\nthis with the forests on tire on both sides and trees fall-\\ning across it, which had to be cut away, we camped at\\nmidnight for four hoiu-s by simply halting and lying\\ndown on the ground and sleeping as best we might. Re-\\nsuming our march by earliest dawn we soon found our\\nway impeded by thick undergrowth and crosswise logs,\\nwhicli had to be cut away for the team. The last six\\nmUes being across a sandy hummock with the thermom-\\neter at 100 for six hours man and beast suffered exceed-\\ningly from tliirst, and I began to long for the knee-deep\\nmorass as more desirable. Toward night we reached\\nFort Capron, and as I drew near was espied by Judge P.,\\nwho had so kindly warned me as I was about to leave for\\nOkechobee of the danger of trusting myself to the out-\\nlaws who alone inhabited the region besides Indians.\\nThe instant he recognized me he rushed out of his house\\nand clasped me around the neck, declaring he was never\\nso relieved in his mind, for he had about concluded his\\nworst fears for our welfare liad been realized.\\nAt Judge P. s I found Doctor P. and Erwin, who had\\nreturned but the day before from their circumnavigation\\nof the lake, having had a very sorry and to Erwin at\\nleast a very unprofitable time, for he had suffered most\\nof the time from chills and fever, which had now\\nassumed a bilious form, and had so reduced Ms strength\\nthat he was unable to leave liis bed. At first sight of\\nhim, I saw that, if I would take him home alive, I must\\nchange my role and turn nurse. Tlierefore I cliose a\\ncamping place not far away on the left bank of a stream\\nabout one-eighth of a mile above its debouche into Indian\\nRiver. Just across the stream a stalwart negro by the\\nname of Trott had recently squatted, having a reputed\\nlawful wife and a concubine, whpse incessant quarreling\\nmade day discordant and night hideous, excexjt when the\\nlord of the harem interfered and for the time turned one\\nor the other out of the one-room shanty, as his fancy\\ndictated. He was a native of the West Indies, and had\\nserved on a man-of-war in varied capacity, till he had\\nacquired more or less skill as a navigator. His strength\\nwas fully equal to that of two ordinary men, and if pro-\\nvoked would have been a dangerous man to deal with.\\nAs soon as possible I sent by boat for a hermit doctor\\nacross the Indian River, whose prescriptions dispelled the\\nbilious tendency and gave me encouragement that in\\neight or ten days I might commence my homeward\\njourney. Subsequent acquaintance with this physician\\nrevealed a singular history. Originally from Vermont,\\nwhere he had long practiced medicine, he acted as\\nsurgeon during the war in a Western regiment, but\\ninstead of returning to his home at the close of the war,\\ndrifted to this frontier land, and doubtless under an\\nassumed name commenced a hermit s life on the sandy\\nisland nearly opposite Fort Capron, whding away his\\ntime in fishing and corraling green turtles for the Savan-\\nnah market. At this time he had corraled about fifty.\\n14-\\nweighing from 40 to 1251bs. I bought of him the largest\\nas a specimen for Brown University Museum. Two\\nmonths later, he embarked on a sloop commanded by the\\nnegro, to take his tiu-tles to Savannah, and was wrecked\\nand drowned on the coast near Fernandina.\\nOur camping place for the week proved beset with\\nmosquitoes and fleas beyond anything we had experi-\\nenced in the wilderness, utterly banishing sleep till\\nafter midnight, and sheer exhaustion compelled it. We\\ncould in a measure relieve ourselves from mosquitoes by\\nfilling our little tent, as we lay down, with the dense\\nsmoke of fat pine knots. But, for the fleas there was no\\nrelief, often observing them to jump from our blankets in\\nswarms as we hung them out to dry in the morning. A\\nsecond trip would suggest a bountiful supply of oil of\\npennyroyal with which to perfume our garments, and\\nwhich is said to be flea-expelling. At this stage of our\\ntrip we began to suffer from the stinging bites of the\\nblack gnats, an insect so small as hardly to be detected\\nwith the naked eye, but whose bite sends a thrill through\\nthe nervous system altogether disproportionate to its size.\\nTo this annoyance, unlike that of the fleas, if one is pro-\\nvided with essence of pennyroyal, there is no remedy.\\nA heavy rain for three days and nights kept us under\\nshelter most of the time, blowing the gi-eat quantity of\\neggs we had brought from the cypresti-slues our boat-\\nman Jim meanwhile making a fish net of stout twine to\\nuse for seining the carp and small fisli that abounded in\\nthe stream near whose mouth we were encamped.\\nWhen finished we set it a little way up the creek, ex-\\npecting in the morning to find a variety inclosed in its\\nmeshes. But instead, an alligator, or perhaps an otter,\\nswam through it and tore it to shreds, thus in one\\nmoment ruining our boatman s work of two days.\\nThe chuck-wills-widow, the analogue of our northern\\nwhip-poor-will, enUvened the nights with its plaintive\\nnote. To obtam one, as they are utterly secluded during\\nthe day, Jim fa.stened my dark lantern to the top of his\\nhead and going toward the sound, soon detected the bird\\nin the cimmerean darkness, by the shine of its eyes, and\\nsecured it, though badly mutilated by the shot, as he was\\nunable to judge of his distance from it. As soon as the\\nnorther of three days had blowed out, Fred spent a day\\nacross the Indian River shooting terns, skimmers and\\noyster-catchers, which rose from the water in flocks of\\nthousands, while I prepared my large tmtle for preserva-\\ntion, poisoning the carcass and salting the meat for our\\nlarder. The follo\\\\ving day, I hired the stalwart negro to\\naccompany Jim and myself in a large boat to the Indian\\nRiver Inlet, hoping to secure a sawfish. These fish come\\nin f x om the ocean tlu-ough the inlet to prey upon the schools\\nof fish that abound in Indian River. Swimming c lose to the\\nbottom, when they perceive a school above, they quickly\\nelevate their toothed upper jaw and whii ling it about\\nin the school, mangle and kill many, to be eaten at their\\nleisure. Our boat being provided with a coil of rope about\\n100ft. in length, attached to a harpoon, we paddled gently\\nwhere the water was about 5ft. deep, till discerning our\\ngame on the bottom, aV)Out li!ft. in length, Jim drove the\\nharpoon completely through its body. Instantly the fish\\nstarted for the ocean through the inlet, drawing out the\\nline over the gimwale so rapidly as to make it smoke.\\nThe line having been made fast to the bowpost, when the\\nend was reached, boat and all followed for half a mUe\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0svith a velocity so great that I quickly drew my hatchet\\nfrom my belt and stood ready to cut the rope, if the bow\\ngave indications of going under as the fish went into\\ndeeper water. At length he was wearied with the exer-\\ntion, and slacked up, when we began to play the crea-\\nture, till worrying him on to a shoal place, I had a fine\\nexhibition of the way he gyrates his saw when mutilating\\nIlls prey. At length seizing a favorable moment as his\\nhead was raised out of the water, I planted a rifle-ball\\njust midway between the eyes, when a quiver ran through\\nhis frame and he was dead. None judged him to weigh\\nless than 8001bs. To whig him across the river to our\\ncamp, it was the work of an entire day to skin and pack\\nthe specimen for transportation.\\nWhile at this camp one of the better class of citizens\\nprivately interviewed me to learn what I might have\\nlearned diu-ing my forty days of intimacy with the mur-\\nderers of JNIr. Lang, saying he had in his pocket a warrant\\nreceived by the last mail from the Governor of the State", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0018.jp2"}, "19": {"fulltext": "15-\\nf or the arrest of Mr. J. and Tom and a neighbor of theirs,\\nwho were understood to be the guilty parties; and sug-\\ngested that, if I would leave interrogatories with a notary\\npublic before going out of the State it might further the\\nends of justice. Replying that I liad carefully avoided\\nany allusion to the murder myself, yet Jlr. J., in our long\\ntramps alone, had seemed to find relief in freeing his\\nmind to me of his own accord, and had revealed enough\\nto satisfy me who were the guilty parties,- yet I could not\\nisetray confidence unless subpoenaed from Massachusetts\\nas a hearsay witness. I have learned from newspapers\\nthat toon after I left the region a determined sheriff went\\ninto the settlement with a ijosse, and shot Mr. J. dead in\\nhis tracks wliile resisting arrest, but brought Tom to\\ntrial, who was, for the want of positive evidence, con-\\nvicted only of manslaughter, and died within a year in\\nthe State prison.\\nIn nine days Erwin was strong enough to be conveyed\\nto a couch prepared for him in a small sailboat, and we\\nstarted northward. It was our intention to start by 1\\no clock at the latest, and were ourselves all ready, but\\nJim s laziness delayed us till 5. Had we not had a super-\\nabundance of experience already in the thrif tlessness of\\nthe Crackers, we should have gone crazy at the needless\\ndelay. The greatest boasters of what they can do, but\\nthe poorest performers of what they promise, they are\\nunique in their characteristics, and to the enterijrising\\nYankee a marvel of incongruities. Wlien the antiuo-\\npologist has satisfactorily traced the Hottentot and the\\nNorth American Indian to their origin, he may turn his\\nattention to the origin of the Florida Cracker, and he will\\nfind a much harder problem to solve. I have been a far\\nmore patient man since my trip to Florida than before,\\ntwo months experience in Crackerdom doing more for\\nme in the cultivation of that grace than a half century\\npreviously.\\nWith a favoring breeze we made twelve miles by 10\\no clock and camped on the west shore of Indian River on\\nthe sand, making Erwin as soft a couch of leaves as pos-\\nsible beneath our mosquito bars, while Fred and myself\\nlay down by the fire. By S o clojk the mosquitoes and\\nsand-fleas got the mastery of us and banished all sleep\\nthereafter. For fresh water we dug a hole about 10ft.\\nfrom the shore which soon filled with water percolating\\nthe sand, the coliesive attraction of the sand retaining\\nthe salt. Breakfasting upon broiled turtle steak,- we\\nreached a brown pelican rookery on an island of eight\\nor ten acres in extent. Our large boat grounding about a\\nmile distant we all went overboard but Erwin and pushed\\nit for half a mUe. Then anchoring and pushing our small\\nrowboat a quarter of a mile further we left it and waded\\nas much more to behold the greatest cuiiosity of the kind\\nI had ever dreamed of. The island was mostly covered\\nwith mangrove trees, a kind of banyan, whose limbs\\nturn down from the height of 18 or 20ft. and take root,\\nthus forming an uninterrujited canopy over a large part\\nof the island. An acre, more or less, was covered with a\\nclump of taller trees, in which blue herons were nesting.\\nHoping these might prove to be Wurdemann, I first gave\\nmy attention to them, but through the failure of Fred s\\ngun to fire as the bird rose from its nest, lost my chance,\\nto my great disappointment. Having secured the eggs\\nwe turned toward the pelicans. The mangrove is a slowly\\ndecaying tree,and though at some time this grove must have\\nbeen thrifty probably before the pelicans took possession\\nof it now every tree was barren of leaves and life. As\\nwe drew near every branch seemed covered with nests as\\nclosely as they could be packed indeed so near oftentimes\\nthat a bird sitting on its own could easily dip its bill into\\nthe nest of its neighbor. On one tree not 20ft. high or\\nmore than G or 8ft. broad I counted twenty-two nests, all\\noccupied. Acres of the ground also were so thickly cov-\\nered that it was easy to step from nest to nest across\\na full acre. In one nest there might be three or foiu-\\neggs, in no instance more, and in its neighbor young ones\\nin different stages of growth. To these last the old birds\\nwere continually coming with fish in their pouches,\\nwhich they disgorge into the capacious maws of the\\nyoung by both dropping the lower mandible and the\\nparent bu-d apparently contracting its pouch from the\\nbottom so as to empty its contents into the pouch of its\\nyoung. How wonderful the instinct that could find its\\nown nest among so many thousand and also adapt its\\nselection of fish from day to day to the varying size of\\nits yoimg, for I saw the old feeding young nearly as large\\nas themselves as well as those just hatched. Rather than\\nclimb the filthy trees we took our eggs from those nests\\non the ground, gathering a waterpail full in a few min-\\nutes, always selecting the freshly laid ones, and might\\neasUy have gathered barrels of them. Seciu-ing eggs and\\nstudying their habits, we commenced securing birds. It\\nwas an easy matter to get three or four in a range and\\ndrop most or all at a shot. At every crack of the gun\\nthousands would rise from the trees, darkening the sun,\\nbut soon settle down again. After a while our continual\\nfiring so disconcerted them that they settled down by\\nthe thousands on the water around the island, forming\\nsemi-circular ranks with two or three feet between, as\\nthough platooned under leaders. For my own use I\\nbrought away eighteen birds, representing a series in\\nevery stage of pKimage, from a fledgling just escaping\\nfrom the egg to the matiu-e bird.\\nFearing to leave Erwin longer in the broUing sun, we\\nleft the fascinating spot, and camped on a sand-bar\\nat the mouth of St. Sebastian River, intending to spend at\\nleast three c ays in camp, as famous large alligators are\\nfound in the brackish water at the mouth of the stream.\\nOn a hummock within a mUe a squatter had succeeded\\nin cultivating, with great success, a plantation of oranges,\\nbananas, mangoes, etc. Not to be hindered in skinning\\nmy pelicans, I hired the squatter s son to watch the\\nmouth of the river for a large alligator. About 1 o clock\\nhe came running to the camp, saying, the biggest gator\\nlie ever saw was coming down the river. Calling Fred\\nand Jim, and snatching up our gims and rifles, we ran to\\nthe end of the sand-bar, two or three hundred feet away,\\nand sure enough, judging from the distance between his\\nsnout and his eyes, he must have been at least fifteen\\nfeet in length. Just as we were lavmching the rowboat\\nto make sure of him, a scream from the camp hurried us\\nback, to find Erwin was suddenly attacked with the\\nseverest chill I had yet seen him have. Greatly alarmed,\\nI ordered all things packed as quickly as possible, and in\\nan hour we were mider sail with a stiff breeze, towing\\nme in the rowboat that I might continue skinning my\\npelicans, as there was not room in the sail-boat with\\nErwin stretched at full length. The wind increasing, in\\nless than an hour the tow-line broke, and before the sail-\\nboat coidd be turned about, I was a half-mile astern,\\nwithout paddle or oar. Recovered at last, darkness set\\nin and we camped on a sand-bar. Rain setting in, Fred\\nand Jim were well soaked in the course of the night,\\nwhile I watched with Erwin in the tent without a wink\\nof sleep.\\nNext day the wind was dead ahead, and we were com-\\npelled to remain at camp tiU 4 o clock P. M., when we\\nstarted, and by 8 had reached Eau Gallic, where we had\\npassed a night as we went out. Here I got Erwin into\\nthe shelter of a log hut, and as only thirtv-five miles re-\\nmained to Sand Point, I planned to send him on the mor-\\nrow by another boat to that place, where he could have\\ngood nursing and a good bed, till Fred and I should\\narrive by the way of Banana River, a route twenty nules\\nlonger, but on which we hoped to get wliite pelicans and\\nshore birds; but on awaking a rainless norther was blow-\\ning so furiously our boatman dared not go on. Wind-\\nbound, I tried to think how I could turn the day to some\\naccount, having had to throw away all but four of my\\nseries of pelicans on account of the hot sun ruining them\\nbefore I could skin them, through my hasty departm-e\\nfrom St. Sebastian. Learning that there was an Indian\\nmound over across the Indian River, three or four mUes\\ndistant, I requested Jim to take me over in a boat, but he\\ndeclined, saying, No boat could live m such a sea.\\nAnother Cracker was willing to risk it for a dollar and a\\nhalf. As the wind blew fortunately for crossing, though\\ndangerously, I took my spade and trowel, and forbidding\\nFred to risk the voyage with me, I crossed over, the par-\\ntially decked bow going under several times, but skill-\\nful management carried us across safely, though well\\ndrenched with the spray. Ascending the mound, about\\nthirty feet In height, and well wooded with \\\\vild orange\\ngrowth, I succeeded in exhuming a perfect skeleton, hav-\\ning its knees bent to its chin, and facing the south\u00e2\u0080\u0094 thus\\nfulfiUing at the last chance one of the things I promised\\nProf. Jeffries Wyman I would try to do. It is an HI", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0019.jp2"}, "20": {"fulltext": "wind that blows nobody any good, but Erwin s sick-\\nness seriously interfered with my finishing up Florida\\naccording to my plans; but as I could not see how I was\\nresponsible, 1 knew it was all right, and according to the\\nplans of my heavenly Father, who is too wise to err and\\ntoo good to be unkind.\\nThe nortlier blowed out during the night and we started\\nabout 8 for Sand Pomt direct, giving up for his sake\\nBanana River and the white pelicans. IJefore starting I\\ngave Ersvin a morphine pill to alleviate the pain in his\\nleft side, the second time I had opened luy medicine case\\nduring the trip the first being, as stated in the earlier\\npart of the narrative, to give one of my phials of quinine\\nto a man on Ten Mile Creek who camped near me one\\nnight with his wife and seven small children, two of them\\nvery sick witli fever. We parted in the morning, but he\\nsent me word by a cowboy two weeks afterwai d that my\\nquinine saved the lives of his cliildreu.\\nHaving failed to secure aWurdemaun heron at the pel-\\nican rookery, I kept on the lookout for one, and diu-ing\\nthis day s sail espied a nest on the right bank, on a tall\\npine, which Jim declared belonged to Wurdemann.\\nSending him asho. e witli the rifle, he brought me one of\\nthe old birds and a half -fledged young lie found under\\nthe nest. This specimen differs materially from the book\\nmeasurements of the great blue heron, Ardea herodias,\\nbut so little in plumage that I was still in doubt, and\\nobliged to wait till I reached Wasliington to discuss the\\nmatter with Prof. Baird and test the find. Night over-\\ntaking us ten miles from Sand Point, we were forced to\\ncamp again on the sand just opposite the lower end of\\nMerritt s Island. Pitching my teuton the windward side\\nof a rousing fire, and making as nice a bed of palmetto\\nleaves for Erwin inside as I could, I gave the tent up to\\nhim and was gi-atified to learn ia the morning that he had\\nslept well. To quote from a letter to my wife written on\\nthe sailboat after leaving this camp: This encouraged\\nme to hope that after a sail of two hours I might yet have\\nthe gratification I had been all week anticipating of hav-\\ning a quiet Sabbath at Sand Point, and revisiting that\\nSabbath school in the pine woods, whose acquaintance I\\nhad made on my outward trip, but the wind was contrary,\\nand so we add another day of holy time to the last seven\\nSabbaths unrecognized entirely as such, except in our\\ntent, and two of those necessarily spent in traveling with\\nan ox-team in Okechobee swamps, as the journal of my\\nsojourn in the wilderness will explain. This journal,\\nby the way, is wholly in my mind, as, till leaving Fort\\nCapron last Monday, I have had uo possible opportunity for\\nwriting except the few postals I have forwarded. Now I\\nhope to send a postal almost daily, from the time I leave\\nJacksonville, and a letter weekly, giving daUy particulars.\\nThis will keep you posted on my movements as you could\\nnot have been whUe I was out of civilization, among\\nmurderers and ex-Ku-Kluxans, for at this distance I dare\\nwrite so, while had I written out my experience in the\\nv/ilderness, and it had fallen into the hands of the\\nwretches prowling through that region, it might have\\ncost me my life. Yet I was well treated by evei-y one,\\nthough I had to hear the most outrageous language\\nrespecting the Yanks. I must .confess I felt safer in\\nhaving my revolver under my head and our guns between\\nus as we slept in the tent, according to Cromwell s in-\\njunction to trust in God and keep our powder dry. I\\nalways sleep the foreside of the tent, as Fred is a sound\\nsleeper, while I usually wake at the tread of a possum\\nwithin ten feet of me; still, into such a wild region you\\nmust go if you would study natTore first hand instead of\\nsecond. Hence the reason so few naturalists do anything\\nmore than study books and take the observations of\\nothers and use them second-handed. To a great extent I\\nhave done so, but always to ray great dissatisfaction, you\\nknow. I now feel as though I had a riglit to speak and\\nlecture on some subjects pertaining to Natural History,\\nex-cathedra authoritatively. I cannot but feel greatly\\npleased with my experience for the last two months as\\nwell as grateful, I trust, for God s preserving care. We\\nare just landing at Sand Point, at 11 o clock A. M.\\nLearning that a man living a mile in the interior had a\\nsijring sulky, I sent a lad for it to convey Erwin to a suit-\\nable lodging place for the night and on the next day to\\nthe steamer at Lake Harney, twenty-two miles distant,\\non which we proposed to sail down the St. John s to\\n16-\\nJacksonviUe. Having thus disposed of my sick compan-\\nion, with gi-atitude for his convalescence, I chose a suit-\\nable camping jilace for the afternoon and night, and\\nleaving Fred and ovir guide to take our luggage ashore,\\nwent myself in seai-ch of a suitable team to transfer us\\non the morrow to Lake Harney. Having secm-ed a mule\\nteam I hastened back to find the last package just piled\\nin a piazza of a store, when a furious thmider shower\\nbroke upon us. During my absence the mail-boat had\\ncome up from Fort Capron, bringing Dr. P. with tlu ee\\nother passengers. It being Sunday the propiietor of the\\nstore was absent, leaving for twelve men and all their lug-\\ngage only the jnazza, (Jft.xSOft., for shelter. Feeling it\\nwas more important to preserve dry our luggage than\\nourselves we gave to it tlie benefit of our blankets and\\novercoats and took our own chance unsheltered for the\\nmost part with tlie ])robability of lying down at night\\ndrenched to the skin. Toward evening the rain ceased, and\\nthe proprietor of the store returning, he kindly oflfered us\\nall lodging on his attic floor. My rubber blanket served\\nto soften the couch of hard pine, and either it or fatigue\\ninduced sound sleep, to find on waking in the morning a\\ncloudless sky.\\nAfter cooking and eating our breakfast of coffee, pork\\nand hardtack, I commenced packing the cart, while Fred\\nskinned three shoveler ducks and a woodpecker he had\\nshot before breakfast. This done, he lent his aid to pack-\\ning, but was soon interrupted at seeing a monstrous black\\nhog run off with one of his duck skins. Giving chase, he\\novertook it in a boggy swamp, but had hardly deposited\\nthe skin in a safe place, when the same or another hog\\nseized another duck skin, and in a trice chawed off one\\nleg, thus spoOing it as a specimen for mounting. Will\\nhog tribulations never cease, tliought I. Our things\\npacked, my final experience in Cracker honesty r^as\\nrealized. Jim demuiTed to my construction of the bar-\\ngain I had made with him two weeks before, to take us\\nto Sand Point in his sailboat and there leave us, at so\\nmucli per day, more or less number of days. He made\\nout almost as large a bill for extras as the bargain called\\nfor, wlien there were to be no extras of any kind, unless\\nprovidential ones, and such lie could not say there had\\nbeen. After an hour of abuse, with charges of Yankee\\nmeanness and some threatening of legal redress, he\\ncalmed down and took his jaay at my first calculation. I\\nthen donated him my camp cooking utensils that had\\ncost me about five dollars and were uninjured, supposing\\nI could not possibly have any further use for them.\\nAt 3 P. M. we bade farewell to Indian River, having a\\nboy of twelve for our teamster, who proved to be no ex-\\nception to an adult Cracker s thriftlessness, for when\\nwe camped at dark in the woods, he had no cooking ap-\\nparatus. However, boding our coffee in a lard can and\\nour eggs in a peach can, and after di-inking the coffee,\\nour hominy in the lard can for breakfast in the morning,\\nas it could be handled cold, we lay down on the ground\\nand looking skyward went to sleep, as often before,\\ncounting the stars. Rising at 3:30 in the morning, I ended\\nmy camping career of fifty-one nights, and exchanged\\nmy butternut hunting-dress and blue flannel shirt for\\nbroadcloth and linen, and donned my beaver in place\\nof the worn-out straw hat which I left sticking upon a\\nstake.\\nAt 9 A. M. we reached the steamer Volusia, gratified to\\nfind Erwin comfortably established on board, and at 2 P.\\nM. sailed away from Crackerdom down the St. Jolm s.\\nSharing a stateroom with Capt. B. previous and subse-\\nquent to the war, lighthouse keeper at Cape Canaveral I\\nlearned from him some interesting particulars of his ex-\\nperience during the war. On the secession of Florida he\\nwas ordered by the State authority to put out his light.\\nHe obeyed, and more. In the darkness of the night and\\nthe retu-acy of the surroundings, he took down the lan-\\ntern and everything movable, and transferred all by a\\nmide-cart to a lonely spot four miles distant, and safely\\nhiding them, kept the secret during the war. At its close,\\nwhen a U. S. vessel came down the coast to re-light the\\nlanterns, he was inquired of for the equipments. Leading\\nthe officer to the hiding place, he brought all out to\\nlight uninjured, and for his discretion was recommended\\nby the officer as a suitable person to continue in charge of\\nthe li.ght, and was successful in receiving the apjjoint-\\nment from Washington. He also informed me that early", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0020.jp2"}, "21": {"fulltext": "-17-\\nin the war Jeffsrson Davis and h s Cabinet entrusted him\\nwith lieeping concealed in the inlet near the cape as lara:e\\na vessel as possible, to take any of them, in case of dis-\\naster, to Nassau, under British dominion, being assured,\\nif once there, they would be protected according to the\\nMason and Slidell jirecedent. During the last year of the\\nwar the Union gunboats found their way into the Indian\\nRiver and captured the vessel, with much other contra-\\nband material that had been accumulating as the safest\\nplace on the coast. On the siu-render of Lee and the sep-\\naration of Da\\\\ns and his Cabinet, at their last meeting in\\nthe second story of the bank building at Washington,\\nWilkes county, Georgia, each strove to reach, by differ-\\nent routes, the rendezvous in charge of Capt. B., to make\\nhis escape to Nassau. Mr. Davis taking his family, who\\nhad been boarding for some time four miles out of Wash-\\nington followed the route leading through Taliafero\\ncounty, and passing across the very plantation where I\\nspent the year 1841 teaching a private school, was cap-\\ntured a few miles further south. Breckenridge alone\\nfound his way unmolested to the appointed rendezvous,\\nand was enaled to escape to Nassau by Capt. B. s fur-\\nnishing him witli an open rowboat of large size, which be\\nhad fitted with a jury mast, Capt. B. showing me a gold\\ndollar hanging at his watch chain, which he said Mr.\\nBreckenridge gave him as he stepped aboard the boat, as\\nthe only remuneration he could offer him for his kind-\\nne-?.\\nOn our second day s sail down the river, at a wooding-\\nup place, Capt. B. drew my attention to a woman stand-\\ning in a doorway, with a child in her arms, and said,\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00a2That is the wife of Mr. Lang, who was murdered a few\\nweeks ago in the neighboi hood of Ten-Mile Creek you\\nhave just escaped from. As the boat was about to start,\\nI failed of an oppoitunity to learn definite particulars\\nfrom her of the terrible tragedy, but this seems the proper\\nplace in my narrative to give the denouement. Less\\nthan a year afterward I found the followang in the Boston\\nTranscript, but by whom written 1 know not, nor,\\nthough correspondence with true men in the vicinity of\\nFort Capron, have I been able to obtain other than con-\\nflicting accounts of the arres s and trials:\\nNow that spiritualism is being brought so prominently for-\\nward, it is interesting to learn, from the CJiicago Tribune, that an\\ningenious attorney in Florida was the frst person to discover n\\npractical value in it. His client, Tom Drawdy, was accused of\\nmurdering one Lang, and the jury was composed of eiglit colored\\nand four ignorant white men. There was no doubt of the murder;\\nthere was no flaw in tl e evidence. But the counsel found one.\\nHe maintained that no proof ot Lang s death had been given, and,\\nin all probability, he was still iiiding 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\\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 clammv\\nlongue, the death damp on his hands and the horrors o\u00c2\u00a3 the tomb\\nround about him Of course they would 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.\\nJXrSTICE IN THE SOUTH.\\nTo thr Elinor nf the Tramcript: In the Traytseript ot the Uth\\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. 1 was in east Florida last winter, near the scene of this\\ncrime, and as the affair illustrates the life and manners of many\\nSouthern States, I will give the story as I heard it.\\nLang, the victim, was an honest, industrious German, who had\\nitiade for himself a home on the Indian River, where he was\\nliving with his wife. He was a man of education and a natural-\\nist. His neighbors were Floridians, usually called Crackers,\\nignorant and lazy, and hating Yankees. They en\\\\Ted Mr. Lang\\nthe possession of a better plantation than they had, the result of\\nhis own industry, and determined to drive him away. So they\\ngot up a ttory that he had stolen cattle. As in the West the\\ncharge ot being a horse thief is the most fatal that can he brought\\nagainst a man, so in Florida, where cattle and hogs constitute the\\nsole i roperty of most of the t rackers, to charge a man with kill-\\ning his neighbor s cattle is to put him out of the protection of\\nsuch law as may exist.\\nFinding that they could not drive Lang away, they hired the\\nDrawdys, a desperate family ot ruffians, to kill him, arid 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\\nin his boat. He went witli them for the purpose, but did not\\nreturn. His wife heard a shot tired soon after the party left the\\nhouse, and as her husband did not return she went to look for\\nhim. The boat was found on the other side of the river with\\nstains of blood upon it, but nothing was ever seen of Lang. The\\npeople in the neighborhood took no steps to biing the murderers\\nto justice, and Mrs. Lang applied to the (jovernor of tlic State,\\nwho sent a posse from Tallahasse, who it appears arrested the\\nmen about three months after the murder was committed. It\\nseems they have escaped punishment, a^i they have many times\\nbefore for lesser crimes.\\nWithout affivming or denying the tnttli of these state-\\nments in their fullest extent, I am assmed from all I can\\nlearn that Mr. .J., the father-in-law and reputed instigator\\nof the murder, was shot dead in his tracks by the sheriff\\nwhile resisting arrest, as he had assured me he would be.\\nrather than be arrested; that Tom died in the State s\\nprison not long after incarceration, and that his colleague\\nin the mtuderous affair w^as shot by the guard for insub-\\nordination in the chain-gang.\\nLeaving the steamer at Tocoi I proceeded by a mule\\nrailroad to tlie old town of St. Augustine, bidding good-\\nbye to my comprtnions Fred and Erwin, who continued\\non to Jacksonville and thence to New England by\\nsteamer. My familiarity with quaint old towns in\\nEurope, hundreds of years ante-dating the settlement of St.\\nAugustine, prevented my realizing the novel sensation so\\ngenerally depicted by totirists on first beholding its dilap-\\nidated walls and coquina-stone castle. A walk before\\nbreakfast on the long sea-wall and a ramble around the\\nfort through its moat, and across the draw-bridge, with a\\nhasty inspection of the ceiuetery and the old cathedral\\nand square, satisfied my curiosity, and 1 spent the fore-\\nnoon, as the mule-car did not retiu-n to Tocoi till 1 P. M.,\\nin searching for objects of natm-al histoiw in the suburban\\nlagoons. Taking the Palatkasteamer for Jacksonville at\\nTocoi I re-admired the remarkable river whose verv\\nsoui-ce I had found near Fort Drum at the northern boun-\\ndary of Alpatiokee Flats, and had jumped across, but now\\n^videning to two miles in extent. Conversing with a\\nstranger on board, about three o clock of the second day,\\nand inquiring for Jacksonville time, he displayed an\\nold-fashioned silver movable-cased watch, remarking,\\nit was the best time-keeper on board, though a relic of\\nhis grandfather s day. Telling him 1 could match it\\nas a time-keeper, 1 felt in my pants watch pocket\\nfor a silver-edged lepine watch that I had owned for\\nmore than thirty years, and which, then an old watch,\\nwas given to me by a watch repairer to replace one 1 had\\nleft with him to repair, but, through careless exposure at\\nhis window had, during his temporary absence from the\\nroom, been grabbed by a sneak thief with half a dozen\\nothers on the same rock, and successfully secured. But\\nlo! the pocket was empty. I recalled changing my\\ndouble-time lever watch the second morning before at\\nSt. Augustine from my money belt, where I had securely\\ncarried it through all my swamp experiences, to my vest\\nwatch pocket, and puttiiog the old lepine without a chain\\ninto my pants pocket. A little reflection convinced me\\nthat it had slipped out while gathering specimens in the\\nsuburbs of St. Augustine. So soon, therefore, as I arrived\\nat Jacksonville, I wrote the postmaster at St. Augustine,\\nexplaining my loss and requesting him to send his clerk\\nto certain points in the lagoon I designated, offering him\\na reward of five dollars if he should be successful in find-\\ning it and would send it to my home address in Massachu-\\nsetts by mail, carelessly neglecting to mention the num-\\nbers on the case and the works of the watch for identi-\\nfication, though 1 had them with me in my pocket book,\\nand also at my home. On arriving at my home a month\\nlater, almost immediately my wife handed me a letter\\nfrom the postmaster for explanation. He sent his clerk\\nas requested, but he found nothing. During the evening,\\nhowever, he overheard a negro man say his son had\\nfound a watch that day in the moat of the castle, and\\nobtained his consent to give it to him if I would send on\\nthe numbers of my lost watch and the five dollars reward\\nif the numbers I should send indentified it. Remember-\\ning my tramp through the moat I hesitated not to send\\nthe money with the numbers, and in due time received\\nmy watch in good order.\\nAt Jacksonville I disabused the minds of those who had\\ntold me when I started up the St. John s, that after a\\nresidence of years in Florida they had concluded that\\nLake Okechobee was a myth, and advised them to look\\nout for the report of the exploring party who had circum-\\nnavigated it. Shipping home my collection of beasts,\\nbirds, reptiles, fishes, etc., by the sliortest route, I made", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0021.jp2"}, "22": {"fulltext": "a detour from Jacksonville to the southwest and north-\\neast sections of Georgia between which I had spent the\\nyears from 38 to 43 as teacher. The little frontier village\\nof 38 in the Lower Creek Indian coimtry of liardly more\\nthan forty log houses, where, at the age of 19, I made my\\ndebut as principal of a school in which I had pupils in a,\\nb, c, as well as in advanced Latin and Greek, sending\\ntwo of the latter class to college at the end of my first\\nyear of instruction, had become a municipality of r),000\\ninhabitants. The Creeks had, after hard fighting, been\\nremoved west of the Mississipiji within five years of my\\nlocation in the hamlet, and, with the exception of a few\\nindividuals, the character of tlie people partook of the\\nworst elements of a frontier settlement. Seventy miles\\ndistant from any stage route, my only way of reaching\\nit at that time was by an old negro and his mule cart,\\nmaking the journey in two days and camping at the foot\\nof a pine tree at night. My mail came once a week on\\nhorseback, the original star route I imagine, aud all the\\nappointments pertaining to civilization were of the most\\nprimitive stamp, such as New England had outgrown a\\nhundred years before.\\nA conch shell blown at the Court House in the center of\\nthe village square, for it was the shire hamlet of the\\ncounty, notified me on the morning of my first Sunday\\nthat a strolling Methodist preacher would hold services\\nin the Court House at 11 o clock. Repairing from my\\nroom just outside the village to the place of worship, I\\npassed in the open square two faro tables where peripate-\\ntic professional gamblers were fleecing a much larger\\ngathering than I found inside the Court House. The\\npreacher had his own Bi ijle and hymn book and led all\\nthe services, giving out each hymn line by line, and\\nstarting the tune himself at each break. Durmg the first\\nprayer I heard just outside a sudden out-burst of loud\\ntalking raingl d with fearful oaths, which made me open\\nmy eyes, but seeing neither minister nor worshippers in\\nthe least disturbed, I composed myself and concluded\\nthere was no disrespect intended for us. Before the ser-\\nmon was half through the outside rabble had matured a\\nplan for a horse-race, which was kept up with the usual\\naccompaniment of swearing and disputing till long after\\nour services were ended. Longer experience in the com-\\nmunity taught me that the occasional religious services\\nenjoyed by a moiety of the citizens was not objected to\\nby the gamblers and liorse-racers, so long as they were\\nnot interfered with in their mode of enjoying the Sabbath.\\nInquiring for some of my old pupils of thirty-six years\\nbefore, I found the war had spared a few, but not one of\\nhalf a dozen or more that I met recognized me, so\\nchanged was I from an almost beardless youth of nine-\\nteen to an old man of fifty-five.\\nIn northeast Georgia, where for ne rly a year I was\\nboth instructor and colleague of an aged minister in 1841,\\nI was equally itnrecognized by all who had known me in\\neither capacity. It was in this region that I attained my\\nmajority and cast my first vote, on which was the name\\nof Alexander H. Stephens, in his first candidacy for\\nCongress. The intimacy we formed dm-ing the year I\\ndwelt in his vicinity was never broken, but renewed\\nfrom time to time, as circumstances brought us together\\nthe last time bvit a few mohths before his decease in 1882.\\nDesirous of visiting the site of my last school-house in\\nGeorgia I left the cars at a station within seven miles of\\nit, and borrowing a horse from one of my old pupils, now\\na lawyer of middle age, I essayed to find it. My route\\nrequired me to cross the same stream twice. At the first\\ncrossing I forded the stream by gathering my limbs cross-\\nwise upon the pommel of the saddle, but found the sec-\\nond, by my recollection of its bed, more than swimming\\nto my horse, with too swift a current to think of stem-\\nming, and so turned aside for the night to stop with the\\nfather of my pupil, who with his wife occupied the same\\nplantation of 3,800 acres I used to visit in 41. True\\nSouthern hospitality welcomed me as of yore, though de-\\nspoiled of everyth ng but the naked land by the exig-\\nencies of the war. Talking over the situation with the\\nold gentleman he related tlie following war incidents:\\nOne morning one of his many t egroes accosted him,\\nMassa, we s all free. Ah, how so? Massa Lincoln\\nsays so. Surprised at the statement, and knowing the\\nblacks always had information of important movements\\nat the North, sometimes days in advance of the whites,\\n18-\\nthe master mounted his horse and galloped to town, six\\nmiles, to learn tliat no one there knew what the state-\\nment meant. In the afternoon news came l)y the mail\\nfrom Augusta of Lincoln s proclamation freeing the\\nsi ves, and the master galloped back to his plantation to\\ninform his negroes that Massa Lincoln s saying so had\\nnothing to do with their freedom, as they were all under\\nJefferson Davis, and ordered them to their work as usual.\\nTwo j ears subsequently the master was a4;ain surprised\\nb-^ the same old negro saying (jne morning, Massa, now\\nwe s tree for sartin. Ah, how s that? Lee s surren-\\ndered Richmond, and Jeff Davis has fled Again gal-\\nloping to town, no such news had reached there, but at\\n10 o clock the mail confirmed it, and galloping back, the\\nmaster blew the conch shell, that brought all his negroes\\nin a trice from the most distant parts of the plantation\\ninto his yard, when he said to the scores before him, from\\nthe very spot on the piazza where we were sitting: It s\\na fact, Lee s surrendered; you are all free, and now you\\nmust look out for your dinner. This last announce-\\nment to poor dependents that had never in their\\nlives, from the youngest conscious child to the gray-\\nhaired old men and women, ever had a thought about\\nproviding their dinner, the regular cook of the plan-\\ntation dealing out their rations at the appointed time\\neach day all prepared, so took them aback that not a\\nshout was heard or the wag of a tongue, but on the con-\\ntrarj their very countenances of jet black grew pale\\nwith consternation. After leaving them to their reflec-\\ntions for half an hour, the master blew the conch shell\\nagaiir and told them he had been anticipating this result,\\nso giving them a dinner, he related the following jjlau as\\nthe best thing for him and them he lieing left with\\nnothing but his land, stock and farming implements, as\\nConfederate money wotdd at once be worthless. The\\noldest married negro could first choose twenty acres of\\nland in any part of his thirty-eight hundred, and move\\nhis cabin on to it and make a home for himself; then the\\nnext oldest married man, and so on, and then the un-\\nmarried could make their choice. He would also let\\neach have a mule and a plough, and the use of his gin\\nhouse and cotton press, and for his own support they\\nshould pay him a certain per cent, of what they got for\\ntheir crop; or every one could quit the plantation and\\nlook out for himself. With the exception of one young\\nunmarried man, all accepted his offer and moved their\\ndozen or more cabins on to the land of their choice, and\\nat the time of his narrating the circumstances to me, ten\\nyears afterward, every family was on the place of their\\nfirst choo ing, with hardly an exception, and ever^-thing\\nhad gone prosperously with him, and for his own sake he\\nwould not have slavery restored for all his plantation. A\\nsecond visit, eight years afterward, to the same plantation\\nproduced the same testimony from the considerate ami\\nhumane old master.\\nExpressing my apjirobation of a beautiful peacock\\nstrutting in the yard, the generous old wife said to me,\\nCatch it and mount it for your museum at Brown\\nUniversity, as a present from me. In five minutes its\\nlife was forfeited to the interests of science.\\nHaving promised a gi-atuitous lecture in the village in\\nthe evening, I mounted my horse after dinner to return,\\na young man accompanying me a mile to the creek I had\\nforded the day before, but the rain during the night had\\nswollen it to swimming and also overflowed its banks on\\neither side for more than 100ft. Observing on the right\\na high staked fence, extending within 20ft. of the otlier\\nside, with the top rail just above the rushing stream with\\noverhanging branches, I gave my horse to the young\\nman to take back to its owner at his convenience, and\\nmounting the fence, with the incumbrance of the pea-\\ncock with its oft. tail and ISlbs. weight, and a tall silk\\nhat, I walked the sharp edge of the rail by tlie aid of the\\nslender overhead branches, thanks to the acrobatic prac-\\ntice of my youth, till I readied the end of the fence, when,\\ntossing the fowl as far toward the shore as I could and hold-\\ning my watch and purse above my head, I followed, land-\\ning ill water only waist deep, instead of neck deep, as I\\nfeared. My companion on the opposite side, seeing me\\nsafe across, swung his hat and shouted, A Yankee for\\nanything and forever! Replacing my watch and shoul-\\ndering my bird, I plodded the five miles to the village,\\narriving just in time to change my wet underclothes for", "height": "3219", "width": "2153", "jp2-path": "huntinginflorida00jenk_0022.jp2"}, "23": {"fulltext": "19\\ndry, but for the want of another smt of outer garments\\nwas obliged to lecture in wet iiants. My neighbors and\\npupils of a generation before were, however, well pleased\\nto hear t e voice of their old friend and teacher.\\nLearning that an old college-mate was residing in the\\nvicinity of Toccoa Falls in northern Georgia, I made a\\ndetour of 200 miles by rail to call upon him. These falls\\nare of wonderful beauty, and with the present railroad\\nfacilities, are attracting hundreds of visitors annually.\\nFrom Toccoa, Georgia, to Charlotte county, Vii-ginia, I\\naccomplished by rail what took me by stage tlirough the\\nsame towns in December, 1841, from Monday noon of\\ncontinuous travel, night and day, with the exception of\\nSunday, to Thursday noon of the week following. I was\\nthe only through passenger, and usually at night the\\nonly one, so that my trank was taken inside the stage\\nfor fear of robbers, and filling the place between tiie\\nseats, made me a more comfortable couch. The rivers\\nwere all crossed by ferries, and one night, the lights of\\nthe stage having gone out, the new driver missed the\\npath leading to the ferry, and found out his mistake\\nwhen a sudden wheeling around of the horses upset the\\nstage within twenty feet of the bank, waking me out of\\na sound sleep. Relighting the uninjured lamp by\\nmatches furni.shed by myself, we surveyed our- sur-\\nroundings, and loosening the jaded horses, shouted for\\nhelp. Soon the negro ferryman on the opposite side\\nreplied, and coming to the proper landing several rods\\nup stream, soon righted matters for us. At another\\nferry the rope broke when nearly across, but as it was\\nin the daytime, we soon caught by the overhanging\\nbranches and pulled ourselves vp stream to the right\\nlanding place.\\nThe cars leaving me in Vii-ginia five miles from the\\nnearest of my old school-mates of 1833, I engaged a horse\\nfor two days riding. When brought for me to mount,\\nthe bridle had no two parts a ike, one stirrup was of wood\\nsuspended by a rope and the other of iron suspended by\\nleather, and the horse himself was evidently a remnant\\nof the cavalry of ten years previous, or more probably of\\nthe artillery or an ambulance corps. To my remonstrance,\\n1 was told it was the best in the neighborhood, a most\\npainful contrast to the blooded animals, with gorgeous\\ntrapjnngs. I used to ride on the fox hunts forty-two years\\nl)efore in the same region. Arrived at the door of the resi-\\ndence of my bchool-mate, she herself appeared, so un-\\nchanged in all the intervening time I coidd not help grasp-\\ning her hand with a school-boy s familiarity, and tighten-\\ning my grasp the more she tried to escape from it, while I\\nwas parleying for a recognition from her. At length,\\npropriety suggested my rudeness, as she evidently began\\nto be alarmed, and letting go my hold, I asked her tlie\\nleading question, whether she could not recall events\\nof forty-two years previous. Oh, dear, am I so old,\\nwas her only answer, with a quick, but who are\\nyou? I am the little Yankee boy of the log school-\\nhouse on your father s plantation; and then she herself\\nseized both my hands involuntarily and it was my turn\\nto leave the unclasping to her. The next moment tears\\ncame to her eyes, witli the sad exclamation, Oh, that\\nyou should find us all in such changed circumstances\\nfrom what you knew us in our childhood and would have\\nknown us up to the war. That hack of a horse you just\\nrode up on and its rigging is a fair sample of how the\\nwar left us my husband, a physician, and our two sons\\nreturning from the ranks on the surrender of Lee with\\nnot a cent between us all except twenty-five dollars I had\\ncontrived to seciure to myself and which my husband\\ntook to Petersbm-g to purchase me a calico dress, the first\\nof any kind I had purchased in all the four years. In\\nyonder shed is our carriage that, for the want of suitable\\nhorses and harness, has not been harnessed since the war,\\nand every luxury of the kind forborne, with no prospect\\nof the times being any better in my day. Such and\\nmuch more was the sad tale I listened to during the three\\nhoui S I stopped, before proceeding ten miles further to\\nthe residence of her twin sister, and two miles further to\\nthe residence of her brother, near the paternal mansion,\\nwhere during their youth every luxury abounded as well\\nas at their several homes, till the exigencies of war made\\nVirginia the greatest sutferer of all the seceding States.\\nSpending only one day and night between the three\\nfamilies, I rettxrned to the station and hastened on to\\nWashington, to find, to my great disappointment, that I\\nhad not after all my effort secured a Wurdemann heron.\\nSubsequent study of the species, however, proves my\\nspeiimen not to be the long-known blue heron, but a\\nvariety now lately determined to be the Ardea ivardi or\\nFlorida blue heron.\\nLeaving Washington after spending one night, I reached\\nmy home on the evening of the last day of April, in a\\nsnowstorm that had been unintermitting during the day.\\nThe following extract from a detailed report of the New\\nOrleans Times-Democrat Exploring Expe lition through\\nthe Florida Everglades in 1884 will make a fitting close to\\nour narrative.\\nWhen wo 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 tirst party of white men who ever pene-\\ntrated the Nortliern Glades, and the tirst who ever started from\\nthe southern shore of Lake Okeechobee and came out at the Gulf\\not Mexico tlirough 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, ^nd 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\\nutilized 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\\nmade in reply to numerous inquiries as to the feasibility of such\\nan enterprise. A. P. Williams.\\nI have designedly omitted in the foregoing narrative\\nscientific names of specimens and specific descriptions,\\nintending it only as an account of the adventures of a\\nnatiu-alist collector in the Everglades. J. W. P. Jenks.\\nBkown University, Providence, R. I.\\nAs a supplement to the foregoing narration, I may\\nstate that recent information gathe- ed during a late visit\\nto the region, almost convinces me that Mr. J. s unex-\\npected visit to our camp on Sunday was in pursuance of\\na plot between him and a neighbor for some evil ptu pose,\\nwhich was fiiistrated by that neighbor failing to find our\\ncamp, so deeply hidden as it was from the usual trails of\\nthe cattle rangers. My informers claim that after we\\nleft the State dark hints from some of the outlaws gave\\ncolor to their regret that so good a prize had escaped\\nthem. Personally, I can but hope that their better ckiss\\nof neighbors did them an injustice by drawing any such\\ninference after our departure, though subsequent events\\nakin to the murder of Mr. Lang do not perhaps warrant\\na conclusion as to their innocent intentions toward us.\\nAs to the trial of the mm-derers of Mr. Lang, personal\\nwitnesses of it assured me in my late visit that the ac-\\ncount quoted in the narrative from the Boston paper is\\nsubstantially correct, and that the spiritualism dodge\\nof the cunning lawyer secm-ed a verdict of manslaughter\\nonly, against the clearest weight of evidence in tavor of\\nmurder in the first degree. Tom s fate was to be punished\\nso repeatedly in the Penitentiary that, at length, his\\npowerfully robust frame succumbed to the lash and two or\\nthree years only sufficed to put him in his grave. His\\ncompanion in tlie murder of Mr. Lang was shot by the\\nprison guard while attempting to escape after some years\\nof imprisonment. Mr. J. was arrested at his own table\\nby a ruse of the sheriff and his posse, who were dining\\nwith him as pretended cattle-buyers. But escaping from\\njail before his trial, and removing with his family into\\nregions still more remote, he was at last, through one\\nwho had been a Pinkerton detective, and who had been\\nfor two months playing the part of a cowboy and hail\\nfellow well met with him and his neighbors, decoyed\\ninto an ambush through the pretense of the detective s\\nwishing to trade horses with him. Though none but the\\ndetective was in sight while the negotiation was going\\non, suddenly Mr. J. became suspicious, and mounting his\\nhorse fled, while the posse in ambush fired, but only\\nwounding him, though instantly killing his horse, which\\nfell so quickly that his rider pitched headlong into the\\nlow fork of twin trees, and by the time the posse reached\\nhim he was dead with a broken neck. J. W. P. 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