Favorite Fish and Fishing 



Florida up to j have not been in Florida since the win- 



ter of 1896-7, but even then it had greatly 

 changed from the old Florida I knew as far 

 back as 1878. At the present day my old 

 cruising and camping grounds near Rock- 

 ledge, Lake Worth and Miami are famous 

 winter resorts, with large and commodious 

 hotels whose luxurious appointments and 

 service are unsurpassed in the world. 



Both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as 

 well as the interior of the State, are now 

 well-populated by Northern people, mostly 

 engaged in raising sub-tropical fruits and 

 early vegetables. Marshy lands, once the 

 resort of innumerable water-fowl, have been 

 drained and cultivated. The pine forests 

 and flat woods where once the cowboy 

 reigned supreme, and where the deer and 

 wild turkey roamed at will, have been deci- 

 mated or destroyed by sawmills and turpen- 

 tine stills. The rookeries of the cypress 

 swamps and wooded keys have been laid 

 waste by the plume hunter, so that the 

 flamingo, pink curlew and egret are now but 

 empty sounding names. 



