SEA-BASS AND OTHER FISHES. 339 



Major: "These creeks and islands all look alike; how do 

 you find your way?" 



"Well, I've been doing it this thirty years, day and night, 

 and ought to know the road by this time." 



Judge: "Are we near that Rock House that you told me 

 about?" 



P.: "It's not far, and I will stop there if you like." 



After several more turns, we came to a shell-bank landing, 

 with a high hamak covered with live oaks and cabbage palms. 

 A hundred feet from the creek stood a house — or the four 

 walls of one, for roof and doors were gone — the walls were of 

 coquina rock, some fifteen feet high, and about twenty by 

 thirty feet on the ground. On one side it was shaded by a 

 huge live oak, and on the other grew a large fig tree. 



Judge: "So, this is the Rock House — who built it, and 

 when?" 



P. : "That is more than I know. Old people who lived 

 here forty years ago said that it was here when they were 

 born. Captain Dummitt, who came to this country from 

 the West Indies fifty years ago, and who lived hereabouts 

 many years, used to say that the house was built by some of 

 Turnbull's colony, and there was formerly quite a large 

 plantation here. This big tree is one of the TurnbuU 

 people's trees. Anyway, the house was built by a Catholic, 

 for you can see the recess in the wall, where the crucifix 

 stood." 



"And has no one lived in it all this time?" 



"Oh, yes, a number of families have tried to live here. 

 One or two repaired the house, and put furniture in it, but 

 they could not stay. I don't know why. There's many 

 queer stories about the house. There was a young fellow 

 here, just after the war, from Chicago, or somewhere out 

 West, who used to hunt and fish about here. Well, one night, 

 he got caught in a storm in these creeks, and went to the 

 house for shelter — but he soon took to the woods and lay 



