226 THE OKEECHOBEE EXPEDITION. 



Any old field will furnish its bevy of quail. Besides the 

 means of communication with Jacksonville, via St. 

 Johns, &quot;costing about fifteen dollars, there is a small 

 schooner which makes the trip as often as the wind will 

 permit ; fare five dollars. The only business of New 

 Smyrna is in live-oak, which, in the hands of one firm, 

 employs many schooners the winter through. On both 

 lagoons are large groves of delicious oranges, noted 

 for their size and flavor. The guava, pomegranate, fig, 

 and banana will flourish here, and have been success 

 fully grown. 



There are several good guides here, and they can be 

 hired at the usual rates by addressing, at New Smyrna, 

 Volusia county, M. Lewis, Dr. Fox, or Frank Grains. 

 The best location for building or camping is at Mount 

 Pleasant, where the channel runs close by the wharf, 

 with sixteen feet of water. We camped there upon its 

 shelly shore, and passed two pleasant weeks. The 

 weather was unusually cold, even closing the jaws, if 

 they have jaws, of the blood-thirsty mosquito for a time, 

 and causing that omnipresent oldest inhabitant to declare 

 that no such had occurred before since the great frost of 

 35. Yet we would have days delicious in their dreamy 

 warmth, when the air of a morning would be full of the 

 music of robin and red-bird. &quot; We,&quot; comprehends my 

 self and a young man, a friend, of my own age, who was 

 to accompany me upon my boat excursions, and remain 

 at camp while I was absent upon my explorations inland. 

 We then had a tent that had done service on the St. 

 Johns, which I had brought more for the good it had 

 done that from any love I bore it. It was called the 

 &quot; lawn tent,&quot; and resembled the tents figured as belong 

 ing to the children of Israel. It was well adapted to the 



