216 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



A tree that has been felled or uprooted while in full 

 vigor will in a few months be found riddled with small 

 round holes, and with larger ones, where the beetle has 

 entered to lay its eggs, and where the larvae has finally 

 emerged ; and then, if with a sharp hatchet a broad ring 

 of bark is removed, fine, plump sawyers will be uncovered. 

 Any prostrate tree, if it has not lain on the ground for 

 more than a year, will furnish the angler with an abun- 

 dance of bait. 



Along the coasts, and in the salt-water bays and inlets, 

 fish are extremely abundant, of fine quality and of all sizes, 

 from one pound to over two hundred pounds. As for oys- 

 ters, those famous shell-fish of the Northern markets, the 

 sea-coasts and inlets furnish them ad libitum, and no ' ' sec- 

 ond-class articles" either are the Florida bivalves, as those 

 settlers who are so fortunate as to be near the source of 

 supply, or who dwell along the numerous lines of railroad 

 now reaching out all over the State, can certify. 



No less toothsome also are the clams which are abundant 

 along the coasts, while the salt-water mullet, a fish some- 

 what resembling the mackerel in taste, wdien similarly 

 cured, is a splendid fish also, when fried, fresh from the 

 water. 



The inland lakes, both large and small, are not only the 

 homes of many kinds of fish other than the trout or bass, 

 such as bream, perch, pike, cat-fish, gar-fish, but of two 

 species of turtle, which are less easily caught than the go- 

 pher, it is true, but still well worth the trouble of capture. 

 One of these is a soft-shell, and an ugly fellow he is both 

 to look at and to handle. He weighs any where from two 

 pounds to twenty, has a hard, round, black center-piece 

 on his back, a veritable shield, and around its edges a wide 

 margin of leathery - like substance, soft, but extremely 

 tough ; from beneath this attractive attire protrude four 



