230 THE OKEECHOBEE EXPEDITION. 



accommodations. The present route, via Salt Lake, is 

 very tedious, and uncomfortably long. 



We crossed the river one night after waiting two days 

 for a wind. The water was all aglow with phospho 

 rescent light. Every dash of our little boat raised a 

 silver shower, and thousands of fish darted hither and 

 thither, leaving tortuous trails of fire, like those Fourth 

 of July serpents of our boyhood. Rafts of ducks 

 sprang up with noise like thunder, invisible but for the 

 fiery shower they raised upon leaving the water. It was 

 midnight before we reached Harvey s, and anchored. It 

 is six miles across to Salt Lake. There is a settlement a 

 mile from the river, where also is a small boarding house. 

 There is but one building at the landing, a store. Here, 

 for the first time, the visitor from the North sees the 

 palmetto, in the long columnar rows, so characteristic 

 of the Indian river. Two days we passed here and at 

 Titusville, two miles below, awaiting a fair wind. The 

 hotel at the latter place is the only one on the river, and 

 is said to be well kept ; 3 per day is charged for tran 

 sient boarders. Board at the settlement is SI. 50 per day. 

 This is the northernmost of the four post-offices on the 

 river. A mail is supposed to arrive and depart once a 

 week, but it really arrives and leaves with the wind. 

 Very fine specimens of native woods may be procured 

 here, such as the crabwood, royal palm, mangrove, pal 

 metto, and iron wood, made into canes, etc. Titusville 

 owes all of its present prosperity to the indefatigable en 

 ergy of its proprietor, Colonel II. T. Titus. This place 

 is only noteworthy as a point of the arrival and depar 

 ture for more interesting points on the river. For ducks 

 one must go across the river to Dummitt s, ten miles, 

 or to Banana creek, still further. For deer, to Mer- 



