THE OOLOQI8T 



145 



Orange Park probably 12 or 13 miles 

 below Jacksonville. We camped that 

 night in the most dreary, dismal, 

 muddy place that I had ever been in 

 my life so far, and it poured all nigh' 

 which made it worse, although we 

 were under the canvas hood of our 

 boat. 



Early the next morning we rowed 

 over to Orange, (I guess the river was 

 three miles wide here), and bought 

 some provisions. 



In about two hours our first favor- 

 able wind came up and we sure did 

 travel all that day under our leg-o- 

 mutton sail. 



That night we landed near Colee 

 which was a better camping site, but 

 with considerable dead goats laying 

 around the woods and we were much 

 aroused by "Rags," stirring one up. 



The next day we sailed two hours 

 but had to row all day after that. We 

 were quite a while finding our way 

 out of a large bed of water hyacinths 

 at a sharp bend in the river but finally 

 got through. 



We reached a negro settlement that 

 night near a place called Fairview, a 

 very pretty pla'ce, but we were 

 bothered all night with "razorbacks." 

 They were sure hungry and I was very 

 cautious in not leaving any of my long 

 limbs exposed to their ravenous 

 mouths ! 



The next day (Jan. 19th) at half 

 past ten we reached Palaka and bought 

 some fresh brea'd. This was quite an 

 enterprising little town 



After racing hard all day we reached 

 and camped at a spot Worthington 

 thought was Mosquito Landing, near 

 Buffalo Gap. That night we were 

 aroused by the hardest looking speci- 

 men of a "razorback," I ever saw. We 

 couldn't drive him away and he was 

 some savage too. 



It was here that I first saw the re- 

 mains of a shell bank, so common in 

 parts of Florida. There were also 



several deep holes dug, I guess by In- 

 dian relic hunters. 



The next day we reached Welaka, 

 after a hard row nearly all day. We 

 stopped here for our mail and then 

 started out again and camped about a 

 half mile up the Ocklawaha, the mouth 

 of which is in sight of Welaka on the 

 St. Johns. We had to chop down sev- 

 eral bushes and then sleep in the boat 

 drawn up on the mud. Talk about 

 mosquitoes! 



The next day we started out and 

 rowed up the Ocklawaha for about 10 

 or 12 miles against a whirlwind cur- 

 rent, in a scalding sun, and were burnt 

 as red as bricks. When night came 

 we were all in, and couldn't sleep with 

 mosquitoes. We couldn't use our 

 mosquito bars right and it was slow 

 torture. I covered myself with my 

 blanket and let my nose stick out, but 

 as I have a rather prominent nose it 

 soon was the target for their opera- 

 tions. 



I believe the Ockla"waha is the 

 crookedest river in the world, there 

 are very few dry camping places along 

 it. We expected to be held up by the 

 water hyacinths but the currents took 

 them into other eddies than ours. 



There was plenty of water lettuce, 

 too, but we failed to see any gallinules. 

 We expected to find plenty of limpkins 

 on the Ocklawaha with anhingas and 

 other water birds but failed to see even 

 one. 



The natives claim that limpkins 

 have left the Ocklawaha of late years. 

 I saw plenty of Herns, a few wood 

 ducks, large turtles and some snakes, 

 but I guess it was to late for "gators." 

 "Wards" Heron was quite plentiful 

 and the Owls and other wild life made 

 an awful racket after dark. 



The river is full of bass and they 

 leap and splash all night but don't 

 make half as much noise as the 

 mosquitoes! 



There is some good semi-tropical 



