192 THE GULF COAST OF FLORIDA. 



audibly The bird objected to that mode of travel at first, 

 but soon succumbed to the inevitable and followed as obe- 

 diently as Mary's little lamb is said to have done. He was a 

 beautiful specimen of the species, and measured five feet nine 

 inches from tip to tip of wings, and four feet seven inches in 

 height. 



We passed a dozen or more of these ponds during the day, 

 and at each of them I got a shot, making a very handsome 

 bag, considering that I was "going somewhere " and not on a 

 regular hunt. 



We arrived at Mr. Whitaker 's house about noon, and 

 remained until the next morning. Mr. Whitaker is one of 

 the oldest settlers on the Gulf coast, having first settled here 

 in 1844. He has a large comfortable house, well finished and 

 furnished, a large orange grove, and is extensively engaged in 

 cattle raising. He has over seven hundred head on the range 

 and sells from two to three hundred head each year. In the 

 evening I engaged Maurice Lancaster, a boy fifteen years old, 

 son of Mr. Israel Lancaster, who lives five miles below, to 

 take us in his sail boat to Mr. Webb's plantation, twelve 

 miles farther down the coast. Accordingly, early on Friday 

 morning the " Sky Lark," with Captain Maurice at the helm, 

 landed at Whitaker 's beach. We hurriedly loaded our 

 trunks, other luggage and ourselves into the vessel, spread 

 sail and stood out down the bay under a fair wind and with 

 buoyant hearts, for we were now on that famous portion of 

 the coast of which we had heard so much, from which we 

 anticipated such rich sport, and in which, as the sequel will 

 show, we were not to be disappointed. 



Whenever we pass over shoals where the water is less than 

 six or eight feet deep, we see myriads of beautiful fish of 

 various kinds, among which are mangrove snappers, red-fish, 

 sheepshead, mullet, drum-fish, grunters and many others. 



