PRIVATE DOUGHERTY A^D THE BASS. 141 



nificent place for the big bass of the great St. Johns, 

 some four hundred miles in length, in places miles broad, 

 deep, abounding in small fish, lily pads, etc., to congre 

 gate annually for spawning and other purposes. But 

 the proof of good fishing lies not in appearances always, 

 for these are often very deceptive, as the fisherman well 

 knows. No better proof lies in the actual trials made 

 here by myself and one other Private Dougherty, of 

 K company, second United States dragoons. He was 

 the &quot; Peter &quot; of his company, and fished for over sixty 

 men ; and when I think of these times and recall the 

 facts, it almost makes my now old gray hairs stand on 

 end. This may be a weakness, tis true, but yet the tales 

 lose none of their interest with me. I trust younger 

 sportsmen will at least admire my veneration. If not, I 

 am but the mirror of their fate, and true to life. 



And now to my story, which is short, sweet, true, 

 and very conclusive. With a slight preface, so as to 

 reveal the scene behind the curtains, I will say, that in 

 1838, during the Florida war, I doffed the ever-memor 

 able &quot;gray and bullet-buttoned coat,&quot; for the more 

 envied long-tailed blue. I was at once ushered into ser 

 vice by being stationed that fall, winter, and spring at the 

 above-named post ; then two days time from any other 

 civilized place, steamboat time at that, and as for &quot;com 

 mon time,&quot; in which I had been drilled, why, we had 

 no logarithmic tables there to calculate it. Suffice it we 

 were seventy strong right in the heart of Florida, and 

 about ten days travel from all signs of civilization, I 

 landed here by ( - ( walking the plank &quot; from a small steam 

 boat, thence into the pine barren. Glorious, indeed ! 

 Story ! your story, anon ! 



Well, one morning I went to inspect the company s 



