236 THE GULF COAST OF FLORIDA. 



twice a week from Cedar Key to Manatee, and after reaching 

 that point the sportsman cannot fail to find fish and game 

 abundant at every turn. 



Then, as he proceeds south along Sarasota Bay, Charlotte 

 Harbor, Oyster Bay, San Carlos Harbor, Cape Romano and 

 Ten Thousand Isles, the field grows richer all the time. At 

 Manatee a small schooner can be chartered to take a single 

 person or party of five or ten to Mr. Webb's, a distance of 

 forty-five miles, for $10. Or, if notified by mail a few days 

 in advance, Captain Will Webb will meet the steamer at 

 Manatee with his new schooner, the "Vision," and take 

 passengers to his father's house free of charge. Here first- 

 class accommodations can be secured at five dollars a week, 

 including use of small boats for fishing, jack-lights and spears 

 for fire-fishing, etc. Will charters his schooner to parties at 

 five dollars a day, including his services and those of two 

 other men, and two small boats for running up small streams 

 into the interior of the country. No better or pleasanter 

 outfit than this for a coasting expedition could be imagined. 



The schooner is new, is thirty-six feet long, thirteen feet 

 beam, has a capacity of nine tons, and draws but two and a- 

 half feet of water! It has sleeping accommodations for ten 

 persons, is strongly built and substantially, so as to be thor- 

 oughly sea-worthy in any weather, and yet is of such light 

 draft as to be able to ascend the larger streams and run into 

 small bays and inlets where many vessels of less capacity 

 could not go. By taking along a small supply of provisions, 

 a party of five can live comfortably on this vessel for four to 

 five dollars a week each. 



Captain Will and his brother Jack, who always accom- 

 panies him on these expeditions, are both competent guides 

 and know every foot of the ground, so that no additional 

 expense need be incurred in this direction. In a cruise of 



