THE BATTUE ON BOND A KEY. 117 



bat and droning sea, some canine tyrant would infringe the 

 etiquette of the brotherhood, and immediately there would break 

 out a fiendish turmoil of snarls, yells, bays, howls, growls, and 

 yelps, intermingled with the babble of the negroes' voices and the 

 whacking of sticks, and when fully awake, and you had seized 

 your gun, or a paddle, determined on deeds of revenge, peace 

 would be declared in a loud voice ; in some such phrase as — 



"Ketch you yowlin' again. Tink I'se got a stick here for 

 nuttin', eh ? " 



Bonda Key was perchance half a mile in width at its widest 

 part, and three miles in length, where we were encamped. The 

 thickest growth of trees and shrubbery stood at our end, and near 

 the outer side was a long pool of water, formed by the sea throw- 

 ing up a bank of sand and leaving this isolated pond. The nearest 

 land adjoining this island was at the two ends, the sides being 

 bounded without by the open ocean, and within by the sheltered 

 bay, which, dotted with islands of different sizes, extended to the 

 broad mouth of the river and to the mainland. 



Thus much for the geography of our temporary home ; as to its 

 geology, it might be said to be, in the words of Mike, " sand-some ;" 

 its botany was represented by sword-grass, palmetto, sea-wrack, 

 some wild plums, and a few water-oaks and pines ; by the pond 

 the reeds and joint-grass grew very closely, and in the centre we 

 could see a close tangle of vegetation, that would defy the best 

 hunter in the land to crawl through. As to its conchology, I can 

 only say it produced excellent clams, and a kind of conch shell, 

 that Scipio manufactured into a species of annoyance called a 

 dinner-horn, and which, when blown, made all the dogs on the 

 island howL As to its zoology, man seemed absent, and every 

 other created thing had its representative, particularly those classes 

 that preyed on man, which seemed the more voracious from being 

 so seldom gratified by visitors. 



I am thus particular as to the peculiarities of this place, that 

 the battue we adopted the morning after our arrival may be under- 

 stood. On our arrival in the evening, the hounds had all been 

 tied to prevent them coursing over the island, and the negroes 

 had been restricted to a narrow range in the collection of firewood 



