THE IBIS. 



No. XV. JULY 1862. 



XXIII. — Five Weeks in the Peninsula of Florida during the Spring 

 of 1861, with Notes on the Birds observed there. By George 

 Cavendish Taylor, F.R.G.S., F.Z.S.,.&c. (Part II.) 



[Concluded from p. 142.] 



On the 6th of April I started at sunrise, with George Sheldon, 

 in a small centre-board boat, to go to an island at the entrance 

 of the Mosquito Lagoon, distant sixteen miles south of Smyrna, 

 and reported to be a breeding-place for Pelicans. For some 

 miles the channel is intricate and tortuous, among low marshy 

 islands covered with mangroves, in which the only birds to be 

 seen are White and Blue Herons and Pelicans. On the east 

 bank is a large mound, consisting of sand, oyster and clam 

 shells, which is supposed to have been thrown up by the In- 

 dians; part of it has been washed away, and it now forms a 

 bluiF, and is overgrown with vegetation. It is called "Turtle 

 Mound.'^ Sheldon has built a " turtle-house " there, as a station 

 during the turtle-season, in the fall of the year. The animals 

 are caught in long nets, and kept in "pens" or enclosures of 

 stakes, until there is an opportunity of shipping them. Sheldon 

 catches a good many and sells them at four and a half cents a 

 pound to small vessels, which take them to Charleston and New 

 York. In this river the turtles do not average over forty pounds 

 each, but in Indian River they are much larger. 



All day long there was a strong wind from the south-east. It 

 took us six hours to get to the island, having to thrash to wiud- 



VOL. IV. p 



