CAMPING FOR ALL SEASONS 319 



how many authentic cases of deaths from snake 

 bites do we hear of? As compared with the deaths 

 from trolleys or from fire they are as one is to one 

 million, yet people walk boldly in front of a troUey 

 and light fires daily with no idea of the awful risk 

 they must surely be running. But camp in Florida, 

 the land of snakes I No, never I 



I have spent many months camping in this 

 terribly dangerous country, sometimes with and 

 sometimes without a tent, sleeping in all sorts of 

 places, shooting in swamps and in pine-lands, and 

 two rattlesnakes only have I seen (both inside 

 a city hmit). Moccasins are common in places, 

 but so slow are they in their movements that 

 they need cause but httle fear. As for mos- 

 quitoes, about which one is always asked, excepting 

 along the coast they are seldom noticeable. A 

 net to cover the bed may be carried, but it wUl 

 seldom, if ever, be needed. More troublesome 

 than mosquitoes or snakes are the turkey buz- 

 zards; these winged scavengers are at times a 

 positive nuisance. Nothing in the way of meat 

 is safe from their searching eyes unless it is 

 carefully covered. So it is well to be provided 

 with a few cheese-cloth bags of different sizes in 

 which meat of any kind may be secured. 



There is but one drawback to Florida camping, 

 that is the difficulty of obtaining good drinking- 

 water. In some of the rivers, as, for example, the 

 Kissimee, the water is good, and, strange to say, 

 cold. But in many it is extremely doubtful. 

 Curiously enough, the very clear water is usually 

 the most harmful. Away from the rivers very fair 



