March. 8, 1681.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



85 



.JACK FROST IN A FLORIDA GARDEN. 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



Among the visitors this season at St. Augustine, Fla., was 

 Ma honor, Jack Frost He was a belated traveler, tor tbe 

 thermometer at 11:30 midnight quieted all apprehensions Of his 

 visit, marking 84 uegs.- two degrees higher than his entrance 

 ticket numbered. 



I arose at (i, December 80, to find the thermometer at 20 de- 

 ltccs. I rushed to the orange grove. Alas for human hopes ! 

 Every leaf was curled by our frosty barber. Jie had rubbed 

 his clammy bauds over the cheeks of every orange— sending 

 back to their very heart's core every vestige of their'glory. The 

 curled locks were only a prelude of the destruction to follow. 

 Orange leaves admire to slaud straight out, lifting their glossy 

 faces to the sun. (Juris didn't suit, and they would rather be 

 cast out altogether than to seem to be what they were not. 



This leads me to my garden. Pass Ibis little wire gate. 

 The first lamentation 1 offer you is: I .ook at these black guavas ! 

 Tbey were my pride. Two years they have fought, with all 

 tbe variations of weather, having recovered from a well-nigh 

 death blow in 78. Tbere, they stand, 15 ft. high, as dead as 

 your walkiugstick, and tbe fruit, which was ripening on Chi ist- 

 mas Day, still clings ruined. This tree, rearing its bead 

 above its leafless neighbors, is a " green bay tree." The fra- 

 grance of its lacerated leaves suggests bay rum. Like the or- 

 ange, its leaf is dark green and glossy, and so are many of the 

 trees South. 



Here is a shrub of two summers, Duranta, which hears long 

 sprays of lavender-colored blossoms, the yellow waxen berry 

 at the bise end contrasting finely with the petals at the tip. 

 II too shares the fate of the guava. Possibly both may strug- 

 gle for re-life, but it will be at the very root of themselves. 



That trellis holds a vine grown from Hawaiian, seed. 

 Though coming from tbe tropics it holds i»s own, and next, 

 summer you shall see large clusters of bloom with white petals 

 and pink stamens. 



Had you been here last winter you would havosccn all these 

 geraniums intoxicated with their own vivid colors. Ball- 

 goers will find few blooms this winter to light up their raven 

 i resaes. 



This broad-leafed plant, with each leaf sharpened to a pin 

 point, is the American aloe. Its sister, the century plant, has 

 white edged leaves, and will not grow half as fasl. Near by 

 is the Yucca Filamcntosa, bear grass; this and the aloe each 

 sending up a flower stalk wliieb I have seen grow a foot, a 

 day— the aloe stopping at thirty feet, the bear crass at ten 

 feet. 



The aloe throws out on its llower stalk lateral branches at 

 right angles with greenish, yellow flowers, the hear grass 

 flower stalk forming a pyramid of pendant, tulip-shaped white 

 flowers; base of the pyramid a foot in diameter. Tbe grace- 

 fulness of this Myrsiphyllum Asparagoides (Smilax) vine 

 drooped as old Jack suddenly passed by her, and again fairy 

 dresses will miss the green festooning amid their folds. It 

 was wonderful to see how the Olea (tea-olive) laughed at Jack's 

 cold looks. She peeped out from behind her glossy sentinels 

 and kept her own white petals pure and sweet as ever, as did 

 her cousin. 



Just over there Jack had it all his own way. lie. took full 

 possession of that group of Alpinca nutans, and the broad 

 leaves are dried upas though a furnace had found shelter in 

 its thick foliage. As late as November I cut from it one of 

 its own beauties. The blossom shoots from the base of the 

 terminal leaf ou a pendant spike with amber and eteamy 

 shell-tinted flowerets. The helmet shape of the llowerci 

 gives it its common name of dragoon plant. Fortunately 

 this Tradeseantia of Nassau was covered so it will revive again 

 with its odd shaped (lowers, its liraets forming a half open 

 mouth showing the rows of white flowers within ; these bract 

 cups growing all around the plant, hugging close to its centre 

 under its purple-lined, lance-shaped leaves. Those borders 

 of " witch lilies" — so called because the flower shoots up in a. 

 night after a summer shower— around the beds, were saved 

 from the ravages of a curious caterpillar, long, smooth, black, 

 with white rings the entire length of the body. 



That reminds me, strangers from the North have most 

 amazingly crude ideas about raising orange groves or roses, or 

 anything else. Just as though Gehesisiii.,19, did not apply 

 as much to the tiller of the ground below Mason and 

 Dixon's line as above it. One thing convinces me of the 

 unity of the race : that, curse is shared alike by all mankind. 

 ' ' Do you enrich the soil auy ?" they ask me. ' ' Do yon have 

 any insects ?" If there is a place ou God's earth where eternal 

 vigilance is the price of liberty it is just here in Florida. 

 You admire the oranges, the "roses, the lilies; but you shall 

 go to your garden some lovely morning and find a cluster of 

 rarest rose buds gimlet-bored to the very centre by some 

 patient insect. One side of your bud shall look so tempting, 

 but the other is pierced to the heart. You shall find flic 

 caterpillar crawling leisurely along the edge of your lily 

 leaves. You shall imagine to yourself that next fall you will 

 have a pecan tree to make sport for you as did the 'hickory 

 tree in your youthful days at the North, but suddenly you 

 awake to the fact that a secret foe is getting his fun first, 

 and despite your efforts at discovery he day by day cuts off 

 branch after branch as clean as eouid your pocket knife. 



There are half a dozen acacias, some bearing white button 

 ball flowers, of Northern white clover fragrance. This shrub, 

 with locust tree-like foliage has clusters of gay yellow and 

 red flowers, called by the Spaniards Walkamiah, and by the 

 Sonth Sea Islanders Pride of Barbadoes. The Rousollia 

 junceu, with its sprays of red fairy drops and needle-like 

 leaves, is burned like a wisp of tow, but here and there a 

 green shoot tells us it was not, quite conquered. The Virgin 

 lilies, called so from blooming in Mary's month, convince 

 doubting critics that the artist in the figured long tube of the 

 lily was true to nature. In the month of May high carnival 

 is held among the flowers in honor of Mary, and the cathedral 

 is a font of lilies 



Here, too, on Easter Day, in striking contrast with the 

 snowy rosebuds, you will find the Amaryllis Johmoaii, with 

 its outspoken crimson face penciled with white. Those trees, 

 with grace in every branch and twig, are the pepper from 

 California — not the pepper of commerce, though its leaves 

 are very aromatic. Here are palms of various varieties, and 

 St. A. might become a modern Jericho. Must I tell you of 

 the banana! If there was anything above another to give 

 you a glimpse of a South Sea island home it was the waving 

 fronds of the banana, standing fifteen feet high. But they 

 made their obeisance to the northern king and have not dared 

 to lift their heads again. 



Right there, to combine utility with beauty, to gratify the 

 palate as well as the eye and the nose — right by the side of 

 my roses — I had strawberries. We were on a strife, my 

 neighbor and I, to be first to set, out the luscious fruit on Our 

 tea-table in December. But they, too. have stepped back- 



ward. It was the safest way to avoid being annihilated by 

 that cold foot. 



There was one flower, so modest that Jack did not deign to 

 notice her — the English violet — so she laughs merrily at the 

 jov she perfumes through the air. There was one glory in 

 my garden that, defied the artist's brush— the PoiiisKlJa, ten 

 feet "high, with its great face of scarlet, bracts and yellow 

 flowers. It must have made old Jack exult to see how easily 

 he could just blot those beauties out of my garden picture. 



This front piazza stands a monument to the energy at Jack 

 Frost, lie was not satisfied with walking over the grounds, 

 but climbed these vines and tent their barks from top to toe ; 

 and the biguonia, with its dark foliage and scarlet trumpets, 

 and the. Mexican creeper, with its almost etherial sprays of 

 rose-colored dots, will not cheer us again this winter, though 

 the festooning ivy mocks at the cold intruder. 



I suppose some people will say there was agrcatspot on the 

 sun's face that made this cold wave, but 1 know one thing- 

 it will take months and years to undo what the chill king did 

 in a few hours, though doubtless he has killed some insect 

 pests as well. I cannot, speak of the Japan plum, of the 

 PibiStmS, of the "turkey turban," etc., etc., that fell victims 

 to his cold sword. But Florida does not despair, for the rose 

 hushes only gave their roses aud buds to the destroyer. There 

 will yet bVSarnarquc, Cloth of Gold, Marshal Niel, Arch 

 Duke Charles, Duchess de Brabant, Tea Sylphide, SaQ'rano. 

 Solfiture, Duchess of Orleans, Zelia Pladclle, Souvenir De 

 Malmaison, Gloria de Rosamond and many others. "Oranges 

 on the ground free to all !" And all sizes aud ages and colors 

 and kinds flocked into Dr. Anderson's grove with wheelbar- 

 rows and pails and baskets aud bags, school satchels and 

 whatever could hold, and ran riot over the orange-carpeted 

 acres. One colored brother was overheard to facetiously re- 

 mark to another, as he saw the youngsters Hying the oranges 

 in every direction, tit every conceivable target i " In that day 

 shall a measure of flue flour be sold for a shekel," etc. The 

 Doctor calmly pockets his loss. 'Twas all Jack left for him 

 or us for tlie oranges ho ate. One of the Victims. 



' A TRIP THROUGH THE PROVINCES." 



"Snfcuingr is easier than to 

 drains, no eiiaraeter fire 



ii'-.-s. Hut tlio.,0 who are 



have little time for murium 



"Fori am not tilne It uol i 



ili-tincltng. Notillent.no 



,c," I hen 

 usal of hi 



•lily 



ie! Menial, no 



ambling Inisl- 

 e to do U'uod 



I the 



To my aimable critic, "Mie-M 

 above texts suggested by the pa 

 akd Stkeam of Feb. 21 concerning mine of Feb. 10. He 

 evidently belongs to the same school of critics as my quon- 

 dom reviewer, "Manhattan," and by his own confession ap- 

 proves of this method of imparting information to the read- 

 ers Of FOBEST ASI) STREAM. 



If it shall happen that anything I have written shall mis 

 lead or deceive any brother sportsmen no one cau regret it 

 more than the writer. If stating my own experience as a 

 fact and giving "hearsay" as hearsay is misleading then I 

 fail to see it. But let us see for a moment whether tbe criti- 

 cism is just. First, with regard to salmon, ;"Mic-Mac," in 

 assuming the role as critic, exhibits his credentials to the ef- 

 fect that he has "passed the last three autumns in the country 

 spoken of." Well, the writer has also spent three seasons 

 there, and traversed almost the entire line where salmon 

 abound, and with special reference to fishing. Two occasions 

 were in the spring and one in the fall. Ilpou my fall trip 

 which was my first I was advisid that it was "out of season for 

 salmon," that they only rise to a fly, to any extent, in thespring 

 from tlie 10th of June to the middle of July and sometimes a 

 little later. Now, isn't it presuming a little in a critic to 

 venture upon criticism when confessedly he has never been 

 "in tbe country spoken of" during the fishing season, but has 

 confiued his observations to a small portion of trips manifest- 

 ly projected for hunting purposes. Aud c.e netdntilitte, must, 

 not his information be not personal but hearsay? His in- 

 formants advise him that there are few or no salmon, and 

 mine, that there are many, coupled with our experience of 

 taking eight salmon, each of which weighed over twenty 

 pounds save one. This was in 1870 ; has it been noted in any 

 sporting paper that that was an exceptional year? 19 it so 

 that salmon catching is so rare that to have a fair catch is an 

 exception? Then truly those New Yorkers who paid "thirty 

 odd thousand dollars" for "Eraser's pool" were most woefully 

 deceived aud takenin, and yet there are numbered among them 

 some whose reputation for shrewdness has brought them a 

 mint of money. But they are probably deceived, misled 

 perhaps, by my former article, and went straight wa} r and 

 tooled away §30,00D on six miles of waste water where sal- 

 nTon are rarely taken. And yet the fact, still stares us in the 

 face that, New Brunswick alone sends more salmon to market 

 than all Canada and Nova Scotia combined. It is useless to 

 discuss the question as to whether salmon abound in consid- 

 erable numbers in the Restigouche, Miramichi ami Nepisi- 

 oi 1, rivers of New Brunswick. To deny it shows a woeful 

 lack of information. For authority that they do I wonld re- 

 fer my critic to "Hallock's Gazetteer," pp. 200, 201; "Apo. 

 Cyclop." vol. xiv., p. 509; "Forest Lite in Aeadic," by Har- 

 dy, p. 238, el acq., aud inshort toevery sporting book published; 

 and every sportsman knows that no streams in N. A. are 

 ise I have named. I appeal to authority 

 l is attacked. 



Now, with regard to fishing them. I fished upon nil of 

 the rivers named without, objection and without license, ex- 

 cept on the Restigouche, in 187G, and both the Restigouche 

 and Miramichi last year without license or pay whatever. A 

 nominal license is required, and a gentleman I met showed 

 me one given him by the warden of the Miramichi, but for 

 which he said no fee was exacted. Our party had none and 

 no questions were asked. 



But enough upon this head, my article guaranteed uothiug 

 aud advised nothing — I simply said, and repeat again, that 

 previous to last year salmon were yearly taken with a fly in 

 the rivers named in sufficient quantities to repay the, sports- 

 man aud that one experienced no difficulty in obtaining per- 

 mits. Now, I will venture that "Critic" never took a sal- 

 mon in his life and, second, that personally he knows little 

 of the rivers named as regards their fishing qualities. 



A word in regard to hunting in New Brunswick and Nova 

 Scotia. Personally I know nothing about it and did not pro- 

 fess to in my article, and the careful reader knows it ; and a 

 critic certainly should. I wrote: "Moose and caribou are 

 said to be plenty ; deer not quite so much," etc. " As to the 

 place to go for game, 1 was told you can hardly go amiss." 



Will Critic point out wherein the " way of misleading" 

 occurs ? 



But wiil my friend deny that, game is very plenty tbere of 

 all kinds except "deer" aud " quail" ? 



more noted t 

 because my i 



The very number of Forest axd Stream in which his 

 s'rictures appe:r, on page 70. is a communication from St. 

 John, N. B., in which appears, v.z.: "Moose have been 

 quite plentiful, cauliou very numerous and numbers of ani- 

 mals that are scarcely ever seen so far south as Nova Scotia 

 have fallen before the hunter's gun. John Cotuiell, of Barti- 

 bogue, in two days last week killed eleven caribou." 



Does ye amiable. Critic think the reader wonld deem 

 h'msclf mislead by the writer if he found no deer if he got 

 caribou? As to feathered game, does Critic mean to in- 

 tinuate they arc not plentiful ? 



If so, then Ids expericuce has beeu "exceptional." Tbe 

 ouly trouble is its tameness, and you may pass near lo it with- 

 out putting it, up unless yon have a dog. Three years ago a 

 parly J was with came upon seveu partridges and we shot 

 them all, one by one, before they would fly, and that has a 1 - 

 ways been my experience in the deeper wilderness. And in 

 conversation with the natives upon my last, trip i l,cy advised 

 bringing bird dogs for bird shooting. They said the dogs 

 there were "no good," aud I fail to see why, if we go West, 

 with our dogs, which is getting to he quite common, we 

 should not -if our purpose is bird shouting - take our (logs to 

 New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, however Critic may view it. 



Now, tiword with regard to the expense of the trip, time 

 required, etc. First as lo time. Critic is very solicitous of 

 the happiness of our " hard- worked ycting clerks," etc. 



Now I assume at the outset that there are as many hours 

 to the day in New Brunswick as in the United States. Hence 

 if a clerk has ten days, or two or three weeks for Cape Cod, 

 he has tbe same number for New Brunswick. My article, 

 however, was written for the especial attention of those who 

 yearn to go to the woods, and as only one day more is con- 

 sumed each way in going to New Brunswick, than in going 

 to Rangeky, for instance, 1 see no special difficulty as re- 

 gards time, as the sporting grounds of the rivers named are 

 all within three hours' ride from the stations on the Inter- 

 colonial Railroad. 



With regard to expenses of the trip. When Critic says he 

 isin doubt whether 1 meant #100 "apiece" or SJ100 for the 

 "whole party," he displays the same lack of careful observa- 

 tion as he does elsewhere. A school-boy, by adding up the 

 fares and hotel charges, would learn (bat it meant " ,$100 

 apiece." When I gave in my table the distance " Boston to 

 Bangor, 211 miles," I meant" that each man must travel 244 

 miles, and the oilier tabulated items are equally plain to any 

 one not willfully critical. But he says if J mean Sin per day 

 for three, then trout "dies not seem to me to be so verv 

 cheap." Well, suppose it don't, what of it? That "clerk" 

 I would impose upon may think a trip from Boston to St. 

 John, Halifax, and return to Gulf of St. Lawrence, thence to 

 Quebec and through White Mountains back to Boston, cov- 

 ering three weeks' time and 1,757 miles, is cheap, if Critic 

 dou't. Try a trip in the Slates covering ibat. period of time 

 and distance, stopping at hotels, mid see if by comparison 

 this is not cheap. At all events, if one can get a three weeks' 

 vacation for that amount of money, in this U>h\mterm iwxg., 

 he may like to know if. Hence 1 gave it, and will leave the 

 reader to decide that question for himself. 



But 1 do not care to discuss this matter further. I simply 

 wrote this, hoping I might add to some one's pleasure and 

 possibly profit. I wrote for neither money nor fame. I be- 

 lieve tbe Foiskst and Strkam to be doing great good in many 

 ways. I have experienced much profit from it, and would 

 repay in kind if in my power, and I have not assumed to 

 " write as an authority " de. "quail " in New Brunswick, and 

 no one knows it better than Critic. 



If all the writers of Fok-esi axo Stream confined their ar- 

 ticles within the narrow limits of criticism — and that behind 

 the mask — what an interesting, entertaining and instructive 

 sheet wc should have. In a short time we' should have an- 

 other edition of "Junius' Letters." 



My esteemed friend and critic assumes in his article to be 

 deeply concerned in flic welfare of "the number of hard- 

 worked young clerks in shops, railroads, insurance offices, 

 banks," etc., whom he is fearful will be "swindled out of 

 their short annual holiday." 



Now, are you as anxious they should have a good time as 

 you profess? If so have yougiven your mite to aid them ? 

 You assume to know it all, why not try your hand at an arti- 

 cle which shall give naked facts wi'tb no "rose color- 

 ing," and let one know just where they can go, what game 

 there really is and what it will cost? Such articles are al- 

 ways welcome, and then you hold a ready pen, you know. 

 You would not have us believe, I suppose, thatyou have fooled 

 away "five, six and seven weeks in the country spoken of " 

 for "the last three autumns" and found no game or fish. O, 

 no I Of course not. Now, tell us frankly why you went the 

 second aud third time, and especially tell us if you do not in- 

 tend si'd! another trip, and tell us first what you got for game 

 aud about how much your trip cost, for perhaps some of the 

 "clerks" may venture beiug swindled out, of their holiday. 

 It is too generous a thing upon your part, this vicarious sacri- 

 fice and reminds me of the scene in David' Copperfield between 

 David and fie waiter concerning one "Top Sawyer— perhaps 

 you know him." 



" ' He came in here,' " said the waiter, looking at. the light 

 through the tumbler, ' ordered a glass o'f this ale — 

 would order it— I told him not—drank , if and fell dead. It 

 was too old for him. It oughtn't to be drawn, that's the fact. 

 Why, yon sec," said the waiter * * * our people don't like 

 things being ordered aud left. If offends 'em. But I'll 

 drink it if you like I'm used lo it, and use.is everything' * * 

 But it didn't hurt him, ou the contrary I thought he seemed 

 the fresher for it." Perhaps my fiiend will make the appli- 

 cation of the moral. 



I have been a spoilsman in an humble way some twenty r 

 years, have visited most places in the northern United State's 

 where fishing is desirable, including Adiromlacks, Moosehead, 

 Rangclcy, Paruieehene, etc., and have learned two things at 

 least, that, nowhere is everything rose-colored. 



Good fishing is seldom to be had without toots or leas 

 tramping and fatigue, and oftentimes not then; much de- 

 pends upon tbe condition of the water etc. But this much 1 

 have learned, that trout are more abundant at tide wa'er and 

 larger also than in the lakes aud rivuv. However, he who 

 goes into the woods must prepare for disappointment wher- 

 ever he goes. He is no more liable to disappoint ment in New 

 Brunswick than at Moosehead or Rangeley, and perhaps no 

 less so. 



I have also learned that there is a class of sportsmen who 

 always decry places they visit themselves. We had that ex- 

 perience at liesligouche. We found two KnglishmerLcatnped 

 at the junction of the Restigouche and Melapediae awaiting 

 the run of salmon; they seemed quite disappointed when we 

 arrived, assured us we should take no salmon, etc.; that we 

 had better goon than waste our time ; and afterward they 

 were very much ebargrined aud vexed at our success, J, 



