AN ADVENTURE IN FLORIDA 331 



assure you, perfectly safe, there is a chance of dead calm. However, I 

 think that we shall get through Lake Worth, where we again find steam- 

 boats. . . . 



My impressions of Florida are more favorable than at first. . . . The air 

 is extremely enervating, but has a curious quality of peacefulness. The 

 people are mostly new folk, very few of the Southern quality. 



The country is a vast sand-heap (at least on the surface), a white, beach- 

 like sand; but it grows oranges in a wonderful fashion. I have seen 2500 on 

 one tree and 10,000 have been counted. So great is the area of gain that 

 we shall have to double our appetites for the fruit in order to provide a 

 market. 



The principal crop is consumptives ; quite half the population consists of 

 folk who have fled from that wrath. It is the dismal side of the business of 

 travel here. The nearer I get to the tropics the more I turn with pleasure to 

 our grim Northern clime. This is the worst of nature full of blandishments 

 and over-sugared things. There, it is a hard-fought field which I verily be- 

 lieve to be the better place. Please secure a first-class northeaster for my 

 refreshment when I escape from this land of ease and laziness. . . . 



JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, , 1888. 



. . . I have lamented the duration of my journey each night and morning. 

 There has been but one consolation, that when it is over I shall have a long 

 breathing time at home. 



I would write longer, but I am very very weary and have to rise again 

 to-morrow at dawn. I have seen the sun up for thirty days or so. ... 



It was at this time, while carrying on some researches on the 

 Florida coast, that the boat in which Mr. Shaler and two of his 

 students were sailing was capsized in a heavy gale, and for 

 some hours, while clinging to the upturned craft, trusting to 

 the waves to wash it ashore, the party were in serious danger 

 amid the heavy surges, especially since one of the men was 

 unable to swim. It was the testimony of all who shared the 

 catastrophe that not for a moment did Mr. Shaler lose his head 

 or cease to cheer and encourage the others, helping each one 

 in turn as he seemed to need assistance. The shore was finally 

 reached, and, in a state bordering on exhaustion, without food 

 and almost without clothing, the party set out on a long tramp 

 for Lauderdale Station. The walk along the shelving, sandy 



