THE AMERICAN SPORTSMANS JOURNAL. 
[Entered According to Act of Congress, In the year 18T9, hy the Forest and Stream Publishing Company, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.] 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1879, 
A HUNTING SCENE OF THE OLDEN TIME. 
A correspondent of the Williamsport Gazette and 
Bulletin, writing under date of Sept. 6,1879, says :— 
The Sinnemahoning creek, one of the principal tributaries 
of the West Branch of the Susquehanna, runs through a 
very wild and broken portion of the Alleghenies, and four 
miles along its banks the soenery is of the grandest de¬ 
scription. The valley is exceedingly narrow at many 
points, and for severel miles below Driftwood, itB average 
width will scarcely exceed 3,000 feet, bounded by moun¬ 
tains on either side that rise from 1,200 to 1,400 feet in 
height. Owing to the large number of small streams that 
empty into the creek from both sides, the mountains are 
broken by deep ravines, down which the rivulets flow, and 
the conical peaks which rise at the points which jut into 
the creek, give them a bold and rugged appearance. As 
this was almost an impenetrable wilderness settlers 
came here slowly. The only roads were narrow Indian 
paths which ran along the banks of the stream, or climbed 
over some bold mountain promontory. This narrow val¬ 
ley was a favorite hunting ground of the Indians, and 
here they came in large numbers to fish and hunt, when 
they held the country'. When the valley below began to 
fill up with hardy pioneers, those of a more adventurous 
disposition pushed up into the mountains and settled at 
intervals along the stream, built rude cabins and seemed 
to enjoy thhmselves in these almost inpenetrable wilds. 
Years rolled away and quite a numerous settlement was 
found along the vale of the Sinnemahoning. 
To illustrate the condition of the first settlers, the fol¬ 
lowing poem, writen and published nearly sixty years ago, 
in a paper down country, is quoted :— 
There is a place called Slnnemhoaan, 
Of which but little good is known ; 
For sinning, ill must be Its fame, 
Since Sin begins its very name. 
So well indeed, its fame la known, 
That people think they should begin 
To drop the useless word Mahone, 
And call the country simply Sin! 
But to my tale—Some years agone 
The Presbytery—having heard 
Of the sad state of sin—resolved 
To send some one to preach the word. 
And Mr. Thompson was bid to see then 
To the conversion of the heathen . 
I shall not linger long to tell 
Of all that on the way befell; 
How he was lost among the bushes, 
And floundered through the reeds and rushes; 
Or, how, when hungry, down he sat 
To corncobs fried in ’possum fat I 
How his black coat’s unusual hue, 
Caused a grim hunter to pursue 
And cock his gun to blow him through, 
Believing, as I’ve heard hhn.swear, 
Our missionary was a bear. 
“ ’Tis true,” he said, “ I never oounted 
On seeing such thing as a bear 
Upon a good stout pony mounted; 
But yet I can with safety swear 
That such a very wondrous sight 
We might expect by day or night, 
Bather than, in our hills, to note 
A parson with a rale black coat I” 
The news soon spread around the land, 
That Parson Thomson, on next Sunday, 
Would in the school-house take his stand, 
And preach to them at least for one day. 
The Sunday came, and with it came 
All of the ragged population; 
Men, women, ohildren, dogs to hear 
The tiding3 of salvation. 
The women came in linsey-woolsey, 
And tall wool hats increased their stature; 
The men In shirts and leather logglns ; 
The brats and dogs in dress of nature I 
The men who seldom stop at trifles, 
Brought tomahawks and knives and rifles. 
Servioe began—the parson wondered 
To hear the singing that they made— 
Some Yankee Doodle—some Old Hundred— 
The hounds astonished, howled and thundered 
Until the forest shook with dread. 
The singing o’er—the prayer was said, 
Bnt scarcely had the text been read, 
When, panting with fatigue and fear 
Rushed past the door a hunted deer. 
Prayer, hymn and text, wore all forgot— 
And for the sermon mattered not— 
Forth dashed the dogs—not one was mute— 
Men, women, children, followed suit. 
The men prepared the deer to slaughter— 
The girls to head it to the water, 
None staid but lame old Bllly.French, 
Who sat unwilling on his bench, 
Not for the sake of hymn or prayer, 
Did Billy keep his station there; 
But, as he said, with rueful phiz— 
“ For a darn spell of roomatiz I ” 
The parson gronued with inward pffin, 
And lifting up his hands amain, 
Cried dolefully, “Tis all in vain I” 
Up starting nimbly from his bench, 
“ ’Tis not in vain,” cried Billy French, 
“When my good hound, old Never-fail, 
Once gets his nose upon the trail, 
Ther’s not a spike buck anyCwhere, 
Can get away from him, I’ll swear 1 ” 
Many of the old settlers say that the real name of the 
young minister was Rev. Daniel M. Barber, whilst others 
claim that the incident occured before his day. All agree 
however, that the meeting was held in a log cabin not far 
from where Driftwood now stands. It is disclaimed 
that “ Old Billy French ” was the only one who remained 
behind. There were several others—among them Captain 
Overturf, a sturdy old German, who kept intently looking 
out of the window, and when the preacher exclaimed, 
“tis all in vain,” he promptly replied. “I tinks dey vill 
catch him yet! ” Capt. Jordan was also present and as Ins 
boys were remarkable for swiftness and daring, it was his 
delight to call them his ‘ ‘ hell hounds, ” and as they were in 
the chase, he informed the young parson that the deer 
could not escape from them. And it was caught, but 
tradition fails to record whether the parson resumed his 
discourse where he left off so suddenly. 
finfar in j§nst Florida. 
(NINTH PAPER.) 
“ BISCAYNE BAY—THE EVERGLADES—L’ENVOI. 
W E remained on the charming shores of Lake Worth 
two weeks, hunting, fishing, and visiting the set¬ 
tlers. The boys had now become quite stout, hearty, and 
rugged, and proposed to walk to Biscayne Bay, instead 
of sailing, as we found that tramping the beach was a 
mode of travelling quite common between the two pla¬ 
ces ; and we were assured that the journey would be quite 
interesting, and that many rare shells ana valuable mar¬ 
ine curiosities could be picked up on the beach. The dis¬ 
tance is about sixty miles from Lake Worth, with three 
life-saving stations between where we could sleep and 
procure the necessary provisions. Only Frank, Ben, and 
myself decided to make the trip, as the others were so well 
satisfied with Lake Worth that they concluded to remain 
there until our return. 
Accordingly about 4 o’clock on the afternoon of .Febru¬ 
ary 22d we set out, lightly equipped for the journey, car¬ 
rying only a poncho and a pair of blankets each, with a 
small camping axe, some fishing lines, and our hunting 
knives and pistols ; in the use of the latter the boys were 
quite expert, as alas, most Kentuckians are. We were 
accompanied by Walter L-, a young farmer from 
Ohio who had arrived at Lake Worth a few days previ¬ 
ous on his way to Biscayne Bay. He was a well-informed 
young man with rather a romantic turn of mind, and was 
looking for a location where he could realize his dreams 
of a life in a tropical clime. 
Two miles below Lake Worth, just over the beach 
bluff, we found a small lake of good water near the edge 
of a little hammock ; and under the bluff, near the lake, 
was a roomy,rocky cave, suggestive of pirates and buccan¬ 
eers to Walter, who searched it thoroughly for doubloons 
and Spanish milled dollars ; he found nothing, however, 
but an owl and a colony of bats. Three miles further on 
is U. S. Life-Saving Station No. 3, kept by Mr. Stephen 
Andrews, where we put up for the night. These stations, 
of which there are five on the east coast of Florida, are all 
built upon the same plan. They are constructed of wood, 
with a broad verandah manning entirely around the build¬ 
ing formed by the projecting roof which slopes upward 
from the four sides m true tropical style. There are four 
rooms below, withalarge airy loft room above; in the latter 
are some twenty iron oots with mattresses, bedding, and a 
supply of clothing, and such provisions as salt pork and 
beef, hard tack, coffee, sugar, eto., all in sealed packages 
and only to be used in cases of the direst necessity for the 
relief of shipwrecked mariners. Each station is provided 
with two life-boats, a large one and a small one, and 
other appliances for rendering assistance to wrecked ves¬ 
sels. 
This was the first night we had slept under a roof for 
two months, and though the large windows in each end 
were open, with a fresh breeze blowing through, it 
seemed “cabin'd, cribb’d, and confin’d.” After breakfast 
we took a look around the premises, and admired Mr. An¬ 
drew’s garden, hogs, and poultry, in which he takes great 
delight. 
The Florida hog is put up on much the same model 
as some of our fishes ; semi-elliptical in outline, an elon¬ 
gated head, and a body much compressed and keeled on 
both edges; add to this four long legs, a corkscrew tail, 
and a liberal supply of black bristles, and we have an ani¬ 
mal especially designed for navigating the palmetto 
scrub. The meat, however, is very sweet, with a wild 
or gamy flavor, quite unlike our Northern pork with its 
unctuous, pig-stye savor. In a hammock near the sta¬ 
tion is a wild orange grove where we procured some bit¬ 
ter-sweets to quench our thirst during the day. We re¬ 
sumed our tramp at 10 o’clock, on the grass above the 
beach, where were acres of pink and white verbenas, and 
yet some people tell us there are no flowers in Florida, 
simply because they have made the astounding discovery 
of that threadbare historical fact, that Florida does not 
mean “ Land of Flowers,” but that it was so named be¬ 
cause Ponce de Leon discovered the peninsula on Palm 
Sunday, which is called in Spanish Pascua Florida. 
We soon came to the wreck of a fine Spanish brig upon 
the beach, which had been stripped of her copper, cord¬ 
age and chains by the wreckers. Her figure-head was a 
beautiful woman in flowing white robes, with a scroll in 
her left hand, while her right hand pointed seaward. A 
short distance further on we found a large iron buoy of 
the shape and size of an ordinary seronaut’s balloon, which 
had parted from its moorings on some reef, and had been 
washed ashore. Walter clambered to the top, and by 
right of discovery planted on its summit a flag of old sail 
cloth, on which, with a pigment of iron-rust and char¬ 
coal, Frank inscribed in glowing capitals, “Bully Buoy.” 
Having walked quite slowly, gathering shells, corals, sea- 
beans, etc,, and having made frequent rambles through 
the scrub, it was 4 o’clock before we reached Boca Ra- 
tone, ten miles from the station. 
At “ Buggery Tone,” as it is called by the settlers, there 
is a bold escarpment of rocks running out into the sea, 
and over the ridge is a stream of fresh water, probably a 
branch of the Hillsboro’ River. There was at one time 
an inlet at this point, but it is now closed. As the clouds 
had an appearance of rain, we decided to camp for the 
night. We soon built a palmetto hut, and began making 
provision for supper. Ben struck out down the stream, 
and in less than an hour returned with a yearling doe, 
which he had shot with a Colt’s navy pistol. He spied 
her feeding towards him on a small open space near the 
water, and concealed himself in the brush until she ap¬ 
proached within twenty yards of him. With some “fid¬ 
dlers ” from the beach for bait, I caught a mess of black 
hass and bream from the creek. The venison was broiled 
upon the coals, and the fish were wrapped in pieces of 
wet sail-cloth, picked up on the beach, and cooked on the 
hot ashes. As we had brought a supply of biscuits from 
the station, we made a good supper and breakfast, though 
we missed our coffee. Palmetto leaves did service as 
table cloth, plates and platters ; and we roasted the ' ’ cab¬ 
bage," or terminal bud of a young palmetto, in the ashes, 
but it was not good; boiled, it is quite palatable. We had 
picked up some fresh cocoanuts on the beach, and after 
supper Walter said he was going to have a tropical dish 
for his breakfast—a boiled cocoanut. Accordingly, after 
cutting a hole through one of the eyes of the nut, he 
filled it with the juice of a wild orange and some water, 
and set it hot ashes, where he said it would be cooked 
by morning. In a short time, however, it “ boiled over,” 
when, after moving it to a cooler place in the ashes, he 
turned in. Frank then whittled out a stout plug and 
drove it through the eye of the cocaonut, which he then 
removed to a hot place in the fire, and shortly afterwards 
the balance of us turned in. It was not long before there 
was a loud pop, with a scattering of fire-brands, while 
Queen began barking vigorously. 
‘ ‘ What is that ?” exclaimed Walter. 
“ Scrambled cocoanut!” answered Frank; “a favorite 
dish among the South Sea Islanders.” 
“Eat it while it’s hot, Walter,” chimed in Ben, “or it 
will soon be desiccated cocoanut,” 
We left Boca Ratone early the next morning, and scat¬ 
tered along the beach we saw many huge squared logs 
of pine, some of them nearly a hundred feet long; one 
mahogany log was four feet square and twenty feet in 
length, and some logs of Spanish cedar were nearly as 
large. This timber had floated away from vessel* 
wrecked along the coast. We reached Hillsboro' River 
Inlet, five miles frem Boca Ratone, which we crossed in 
a boat belonging to Mr, Adrews, who had directed us 
where to find it. On the small bay inside the inlet is a 
deserted palmetto shanty and a well of good water. Be¬ 
tween Hillsboro’ and New Rivers, some eighteen miles, 
the beach is broad and level, and at low tide the walking 
on the wet sand is excellent. We found a number of 
“ sun-shells,” a beautiful little oblong bivalve, with alter¬ 
nate rays of pink and white; and some fine and perfect 
specimens of the nautilus, or argonaut. Many beautiful 
varities of algas are washed up on this smooth beach with 
each tide. We also found skate’s eggs, trunk fishes, sea¬ 
horses {hippocampus), sea-urchins, star-fishes, sea-craw¬ 
fish, conch, spawn or sea-necklaces, etc., with many va¬ 
rieties of conch and other shells. 
We arrived at Station No. 4, nine miles from Hillsboro’ 
