XIV. 



BASS FISHING ON SPRUCE CREEK. 



HEARING great stories of the size of the black bass, 

 or trout, as they are called by the Floridians, in 

 Spruce creek, a tributary of the Halifax river, I left 

 New Smyrna with a boat and guide on the 23d of April, 

 at 9 A. M., to test the truth of these fish stories. We 

 sailed down the Hillsboro with a westerly breeze to the 

 inlet, called Mosquito from the abundance of that 

 familiar insect, and passing through a narrow gut 

 between two sand-bars, we saw a large turtle of the 

 loggerhead kind, which having been crippled by the 

 attack of a shark which had bitten oif half of one hind 

 nipper, had crawled upon the sand. It weighed proba 

 bly one hundred pounds, and could have easily been 

 captured, but we had no use for it at the time. Cross 

 ing the inlet, we laid our course up the Halifax, into 

 which, near its mouth, Spruce creek flows. At this 

 place it is wide and shallow, winding through extensive 

 marshes and mangrove islands, and much encumbered 

 by oyster banks, many of which stretch across the 

 stream. These oysters are large and well flavored, and 

 so abundant that hundreds of vessels could be loaded 

 with them. Sailed up the creek for two miles, meeting 

 only one boat, which was shark fishing. Then we 

 stopped to get bait, and Lewis, my guide, with a few 

 casts of his net, procured for me a dozen mullet, the 



