142 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



often attain a weight of from twelve to fifteen pounds, the 

 others are smaller and good for frying ; often also, in these 

 small lakes, a small fish abounds, so tiny as to be cooked 

 like the smelts, or frost-fish, of the Northern winter mar- 

 kets, namely, in one indiscriminate mass. They taste very 

 much like them too. 



Then there are turtle in these lakelets, real genuine tur- 

 tle. We don't claim that they are green turtle, but never- 

 theless they are excellent eating, either in soup, a plain 

 stew, or cooked a la terrapin. There are two kinds. One, 

 a very handsome fellow, with an arched, hardshell back, 

 boldly marbled in orange and black. He is a mild, inof- 

 fensive creature, and very pleasant to interview in the soup 

 tureen. We can't speak so highly, socially, of his brother 

 turtle, who is an unmitigated scamp, with a broad, flat, 

 leathery back, hard in the center and pliable at the edges, 

 and who wears a dirty, blackish, wrinkled coat. He is not 

 mild nor inoffensive ; try him once, and you wdll see in 

 what manner he will dart his long, horny, tube-like snout 

 at your fingers. He always receives very respectful treat- 

 ment from his captors until the opportunity, carefully 

 watched for, arrives, of cleaving the threatening snout 

 from his ugly body, or, perchance, he ends his days in a 

 pail of boiling water, which, after all, is the best and most 

 merciful way of ending them. 



The largest we have seen of either of these turtles 

 weighed about ten pounds, and they, with the fish, are no 

 despicable gifts from the little lakelets to the family table. 

 How are they caught? Well, we wdll come to that in due 

 time. 



Very often, too, water-fowl frequent their smooth waters, 

 and from this source a sportsman can furnish many a wel- 

 come dish for the household. In front of our modest home, 

 with a short avenue of oleander trees leading down to its 



