IN PLOEIDA. 63 



If a man wants to live -well and cheaply let liim go 

 to Florida, there certainly never was such a place 

 for a yachting expedition. When we had boiled a 

 reserve of nearly a hundred crabs, and we had all 

 eaten as many as we could, we ceased crabbing and 

 went to sailing once more. 



Instead of going through the Sisters Creek, which 

 is the shorter course, we stood out to sea from Port 

 George Inlet and ran into the St. John's, a thing 

 which I would advise no man to do unless he was 

 well acquainted with the bars, or had like myself a 

 very light draft vessel, for both the channels are 

 narrow and shoal. When we were once inside the 

 St. John's we got out our nets in order to ascertain 

 just what the waters contained. Although net fish- 

 ing is not so stimulating as that with the hook and 

 line, it is more certain even if both are in skilful 

 hands. 



We were rewarded by some small yearling moss- 

 bunkers and blueflsh, which, while the Doctor looked 

 on them as a disappointment, were valuable as set- 

 tling the question that both of these fish spawn in 

 the Southern waters. A further result of our efforts 

 was, that we hurried on to Jacksonville as fast as we 

 could. On the way we ran over a shad net. It was 

 early in the morning, and there was a sort of haze 

 on the water, so that we did not see the log that the 

 fishermen tie to the end of their nets, to point out 

 where it is. The owners of it were taking it in from 

 the other side of their boat, and even so old a 

 fisherman as Mr. Green was deceived as to the direc- 



