28 THE IKLAXD PASSAGE. 



single event ; when running across St. Simon's 

 sound in a fog, we passed a large steamer yacht, 

 called the " Gleam," one of the largest and finest 

 of Herreschoff's productions. We found her again 

 in Jacksonville when we reached there. She had 

 left Savannah on the second of January, we had left 

 Charleston on the tenth; she had arrived two days 

 ahead of us, so that by being able to keep inside 

 out of the storms and fogs of the Atlantic, we had 

 actually gone nearly double the distance in six days 

 less time. 



The personnel of our party was made up of a 

 sporting medical man, Mr. Seth Green, the famous 

 fish-culturist, the ladies of the families and myself. 

 We went without any restriction as to time, which 

 is a most essential point in a yachting trip, and we 

 stopped where we pleased, and as long as we pleased, 

 we shot where there Avere birds to shoot, we fished 

 where there were fish to catch, and where there were 

 neither, we lay in the shade of the awning, if the 

 weather was warm, and smoked, or ate those globes 

 of concentrated lusciousness, the grape fruit when 

 we felt too energetic to loaf, and not energetic 

 enough to fish or shoot. Our trip was something of 

 an exploring expedition, and we had possible dangers 

 and inevitable inconveniences to encounter. Other 

 parties had gone to Florida in the same way, but 

 they had left no record of their adventures, no 

 guide-posts for those who should come after them. 

 So far as we were concerned, the country from 

 North Carolina to the Land of Flowers was a terra 



