CAMPING FOR ALL SEASONS 323 



and scarcely more difficult to digest than our own 

 garden cabbage. 



To those who have never been in Florida a few 

 words descriptive of the conditions to be met 

 with may not be out of place. The country is 

 divided into hummocks, prairies, open swamps, 

 cypress swamps, Hve oak woods, palmetto " islands," 

 and the endless and somewhat uninterestino' wastes 

 of stunted pine-lands. Hummocks are thickly- 

 wooded places where the soil is rich, but, owing to 

 the usual dense tangle of briars and scrub, they are 

 more or less inaccessible. In these the shootiiiff 

 is good if you can get at it. Bears, wild-cats and 

 other animals hide in these jungles, knowing full 

 well that they will be safe from the attacks of men. 

 A Florida prairie is a restricted low, sandy flat with 

 a thin and irregular scattering of poor grasses. 

 Here and there are small shallow pools around 

 which birds flock in great numbers. Deer, wild 

 pigs (descendants of the domestic pig), as well as 

 coons and other " varmints," frequent these prairies. 

 They are the feeding-places for the stately whopping 

 crane, and sometimes turkey may be seen along the 

 edges. The open swamps, which form a considerable 

 part of the country, especially of the southern half, 

 are full of water-fowl of many kinds, but it is in the 

 cypress swamp that the finest shooting is to be had. 

 These cypress swamps are scattered throughout the 

 country, being very abundant in some localities. 

 Each of the smaller ones is a pond, frequently 

 seven or eight feet in depth, surrounded by a belt of 

 cypress trees and a scant growth of myrtle and 

 other bushes. On the outer edge of the belt, maple 



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