THE GULF COAST OF FLORIDA. 175 



In one instance he said a passenger was shooting a Sharp's 

 rifle and using the exposive ball. He hit a very large 'gator 

 just back of the ear, and literally lifted the whole top of his 

 head off. In other instances he hit them in various parts of 

 the body, and, as he forcibly described it, "busted them 

 wide open." 



During the remainder of the day we had fine sport shoot- 

 ing blue herons, white egrets, blue and white ibises, ducks, 

 cormorants, coot, etc., but owing to the motion of the boat 

 (she made about fifteen miles an hour) I made rather a poor 

 score with the rifle. The Doctor with his shot-gun did much 

 better. Game is very abundant all along the river. We were 

 told by numerous settlers at the various landings above 

 Palatka, and with such candor and earnestness that we were 

 compelled to credit the reports, that the deer actually destroy 

 the crops of corn and " garden truck " to such an extent that 

 the farmers have to hang up white flags and other conspicuous 

 objects in their fields to frighten them away. In some cases 

 they even poison them to save their produce. Most of this 

 damage is of course done at night, but occasionally they come 

 into the fields in daylight. They say no fence will turn a 

 deer ; that he will go over a ten -rail fence as easily as over a 

 log. Venison is cheaper all along the river than beef, and 

 there are plenty of " crackers" (native Floridians) who will 

 contract to furnish you any number of deer per week and ful- 

 fill their contract to the letter. 



If any sportsman wishes to engage in deer hunting all he 

 has to do is to go to Welaka, Norwalk, Mount Royal, 

 Volusia, Blue Springs, or, in fact, almost any of the small 

 landings above Palatka and employ a " cracker " at a dollar 

 a day, who will put him on a run-way and drive the deer to 

 him until his appetite for this kind of sport is appeased. 

 Fire-hunting is the most popular method with the natives, 



