^S 1^ FLORIDA. 



ter, till we should get over the effect of so sudden an 

 introduction to a new acquaintance. 



Next day we devoted to the ducks, but we were 

 not properly rigged for them, and soon learned that 

 without a battery we could not expect to kill many 

 in the wide waters of Lake George, they were most- 

 ly broad-bills, but did not seem to be as healthy as 

 our Northern ducks. One of my men, who was an 

 old gunner, said that their feathers appeared to be 

 burnt, as though they had been scorched by the 

 sun. They are continually chased by all the visit- 

 ors to Florida, silly shooters, who fire at them from 

 every passing steamboat, or who pursue them in the 

 small steam yachts, which are becoming a feature of 

 Southern travel. The day following, we sailed across 

 the lake to the south-west corner, intending to as- 

 cend the Juniper Creek, which empties into it there. 

 Mr. Green and myself were all of the party who 

 cared to make the exploration; we took one of the 

 small boats, and struck into the outlet, which we 

 had found without difficulty and commenced the as- 

 cent. It was a strange, desolate river, quite unlike 

 our Northern streams, slow and sluggish most of the 

 way, half grown up with grasses, weeds, and cabbage 

 plants, lined on eitlier side by a rank, tall mass of 

 reeds, that were yellow with age, and approaching 

 decay, overhung here and there by some Southern 

 plants or bushes, and once in a while winding be- 

 tween groves of palmettos. There was a sombre, 

 savage, and deadly appearance in the water itself. 

 We proceeded quietly for a time, but Mr. Green, 



