340 John Bachman. 



miles there may be no settlement, yet you cannot 

 divest your mind of the idea that you are'in a finely 

 cultivated country. The prairies look like farms ; 

 the Live Oak and Orange groves, cause you in- 

 voluntarily to look for the farm-house. Moreover, 

 the whole country is full of cattle not wild ; the 

 shepherds drive them up, and mark them, at least, 

 twice in the year. This was the country for the 

 lazy Indian ; fish most abundant, game plentiful, 

 the Kunty-root for bread, plenty of light-wood, herds 

 of cattle, Indian ponies, pumpkins, melons, ground- 

 nuts and sweet potatoes the latter remaining in 

 the ground, and growing larger with age. Then 

 the rich hammocks fifty bushels of corn can be 

 raised to the acre. 



I have been much gratified at finding many 

 specimens in Natural History that the world knows 

 of only by'name, and several species of undescribed 

 plants. The Deer are not plentiful they have 

 been killed by the disease called " black tongue." 



They are fast clearing out the Cougars in this part 

 of Florida we staid with a gentleman who has 

 killed upwards of ninety. We saw their tracks and 

 those of the Bear at Withlacoochee. Here the Par- 

 roquets fly about like Wild Pigeons, and I found 

 the Florida Jay breeding here; I saw about fifty 

 Whooping-Cranes, examined their nests and hope to 

 bring home their eggs, of which Naturalists, as yet 

 know nothing. 



I have given the Colonel a lesson in Wild-cat 

 hunting, that I think will enable him to rid himself 

 of these pests. The boys go out at daylight with 

 the dogs, and the Cat is treed. They blow the horn ; 

 then we ride up, rattle the buck-shot around his 

 ears, sling him behind the saddle and go home to 

 breakfast. 



I wish that you could have seen us bobbing for 



