202 CRUISING ALONG SHORE. 



portage of six miles will bring the traveller to the banks 

 of Indian river, at Harvey s, or Sand Point, where boat 

 and guides may be hired down the river to Jupiter, one 

 hundred and thirty miles further. The cost of transpor 

 tation from New York to Sand Point will be about sixty 

 dollars. The visitor had better camp, and bring with 

 him such articles of need as a camper-out appreciates. 

 An outfit may be purchased at Jacksonville at a trifling 

 advance on New York prices. It was thus that I pre 

 pared to enjoy the pleasures of Indian river. The 

 middle of March found me waiting at Harvey s for a 

 favorable wind down the river. 



Though the sand that lined the many bays was white 

 as snow, and the palms, with their columnar trunks and 

 dark green fronds, made graceful pictures, I was tired 

 of gazing upon the same ones day after day, and finally 

 persuaded my boatman to visit the upper portion of the 

 river before descending. A north-west wind had driven 

 the water upon the opposite shore two days before, and 

 left his little boat high and dry, with fifty feet of sand 

 flats intervening between her and navigation. But the 

 wind again hauled soutlnvard, deluging the western 

 shore with returning waters and enabling us to get 

 under way. As this wind was contrary for a down-river 

 trip, we headed for a diiferent quarter, purposing to 

 visit the largest orange grove in Florida, so said to be, 

 and the best. Ten miles sailing in a north-easterly 

 direction brought us to the landing. Did you, reader, 

 ever inhale the fragrance of a cluster of orange blos 

 soms ? You remember the exquisite penetrating per 

 fume. Well, add to the cluster tens of thousands more 

 the efflorescence of two thousand trees. The subtle 

 odor enveloped our boat in a cloud of incense, evoked 



