VIII. 



SUPPLEMENTARY HINTS FOE CHEAP 

 RECREATION. 



first consideration to the winter visitor to 

 JL Florida, is the climate, which is delightful. I do 

 not think so agreeable a place can be found in the United 

 States. I am not so good a judge of the winter climate 

 of California, having spent but one winter there, and 

 think the climate of Florida much more dry, five days 

 out of six bright and cloudless ; three, four, and five 

 weeks at a time, clear and bright, and of most agree 

 able temperature, and even as far north as Palatka there 

 are generally but two or three nights in the whole 

 winter that ice is formed. Rain rarely falls, and this is 

 the great charm of winter climate, and enables the 

 sportsman to be comfortable in his tent, when in Georgia, 

 Texas, or California, he would wish himself in the hotel. 

 The whole coast, east and west, swarms with fish, and 

 of a very fine quality ; pompano, sheepshead, grouper, 

 red-fish, king-fish, Spanish mackerel, mullet, turtle, and 

 such oysters for flavor and size they beat anything to 

 be found North. The St. Johns river is also full of fish. 

 Shad are plenty all winter, and in the upper parts of 

 the river black bass were so plenty as to often jump 

 into our boats, and eight to ten pounders are very com 

 mon. Game, except quail, is getting scarce about the 



