132 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



After that I frequently reminded him of his 

 promise to eat the alligator crop. 



We tramped through the magnificent forest of 

 Paradise Key, leaving our equipage beside a very 

 tall royal palm where we entered. Soar skinned a 

 rattlesnake which Eaton shot and I collected a 

 large bag of rare orchids ; then we started back to 

 our outfit but, after searching an hour, we were 

 unable to locate it. At last Eaton climbed a tree 

 and saw it just to the right, we having passed close 

 to it a number of times. We had intended to 

 camp on the key but for some reason Soar and 

 Eaton thought it better to return to Camp Jack- 

 son, so we started about sundown. On the way 

 Soar became dreadfully ill, probably from the 

 offensive odor of the snake, so Eaton hurried on to 

 a clump of scrub ahead, hung up his load, and 

 returning took that of Soar. He said he would 

 push on to an incipient hammock we had passed 

 coming in and we would make camp there. 



As he disappeared in the darkness I took his 

 bearings by a star and slowly followed. The sack 

 containing my orchids weighed about forty pounds 

 at starting, but gradually increased to the size and 

 weight of a freight car. I constantly fell into pot 



