12 Kennakd, On the Trail of the Ivory-bill. [jan. 



Van Agnew's, when to our disgust we discovered that the oxen 

 were missing. This was not an at all uncommon event, and while 

 the men were off hunting them up, Charlie, the Deep Lake colored 

 hunter-cook, wandered into camp with a letter for me, and a yarn 

 to the effect that the teamster at Deep Lake had yesterday seen 

 three Ivory-bills, just south of the grove. While I put no faith in 

 the story, for no one hereabouts seems to know that there are two 

 large species of woodpecker, I thought it best to change my plans, 

 and as soon as the oxen were driven in, traveled south to Deep 

 Lake, where we camped on a hammock just north of the grove. 

 Here we stayed for a week, hunting the region as thoroughly as 

 possible for signs of Ivory-bills, but without success. 



On the 7th, I went to Everglade, some fifteen miles south, over a 

 new railroad they were constructing from Everglade to Deep Lake 

 in order to be able to market the thousands of cases of fruit which 

 had heretofore been allowed to rot on the ground. The railroad 

 had already been constructed to within half a mile of the grove 

 and Mr. John M. Roche, the principal owner, very kindly took me 

 over the line on his "private car," a small flat car with a settee 

 tied onto it. The rails were laid on ties of almost any kind of wood, 

 laid flat upon the surface of the prairie, with long trestles over the 

 numerous bog holes, and bridges over the creeks. As we traveled 

 south from Deep Lake the cypress swamps rapidly dwindled both 

 in number and in the size of trees, and gave place gradually to the 

 mangroves, both black and red. The swamp immediately about 

 Deep Lake seeming to mark the southerly boundary of the large 

 cypress. 



The southern terminus of the railroad was on the north shore of 

 Allen's Creek, about three quarters of a mile above Everglade, 

 where besides a few scattered houses, there is a postoffice, store 

 and a little hotel, all run by Mr. G. W. Storter. 



On March 8th, as we had found no signs of Ivory-bills and as the 

 sick ox seemed considerably better, we yoked up the cattle and as 

 the water had dried up considerably, were able to make the entire 

 twelve miles to Van Agnew's in one day. Nothing of particu- 

 lar interest happened on the road except that I slew a large mocca-. 

 sin, the second largest I have ever seen. He was five feet six inches 

 long, about three and one half inches in diameter, and contained a 



