THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



TerWB »Four Dollars a Year. I 

 Ten Cents a Copy. f 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1877. 



/ Volume 9.— No. 10. 

 INo. Ill Fulton St., N. 



For Forest and Stream and Rod and Gun. 

 AN UNKNOWN WRECK IN LABRADOR. 



TTERE, on the lonely Labrador, 

 •*-*- Half buried in the shelly sands, 

 Deserted on the idle sliore, 



The wreck of some lost vessel stands. 

 Its iron stancheons, ribs of oak 



And solid decks are rent and torn ; 

 Its sides are shatter'd by the stroke 



Of surges, seam'd and Boarr'd and worn ! 

 Who shall the awful tale relate 

 Of the dead crew, their names and fate V 



Here in the elemental gloom, 

 The hapless vessel met her doom ; 

 Helpless on Labrador's bleak coast, 

 The temp'sst-beaten ship was tost. 

 In vain, amid the grinding ice, 

 Beneath the iceberg's precipice, 

 By jagged reef and sunken shoal 

 Where white the frothy billows roll, 

 In midnight gloom, in frantic gale, j 

 The mariners would spread the sail, 

 But iron rocks and cruel wave 

 Whelm'd them in unrecorded grave 1 



The brooding midnight hung ita cloud 



Of gloom above them like a shroud ; 



Only some evanescent gleam 



Fell haply from some pale moonbeam ; 



No sun to pour its royal blaze, 



No star to glitter with its rays, 



To pierce the thick fogs and the haze. 



That ever, llke^a sable pall, 



Athwart the dreary ocean fall . 



The next morn came. Thro' falling sleet 

 An Indian comes with wandering feet, 

 Beholds aghaBt the fatal wreck, 

 The splinter'd mast, the broken deck, 

 And stretched along the beach outspread, 

 The drifting corses of the dead ! 



Year after year its dust will strow 



About them on that desert shore ; 

 Year after year, the ebb and flow 



Of tides shall o'er their relics pour, 

 But none may know the hapless tale 

 Of those who perish'd in that gale. 



Isaac McLellan. 



For Forest and Stream and Rod and Gun. 



fyclfittQS from the J@*gt 

 of 4gtorii». 



BY THOMAS SEDGWIOE STEELE. 



§omt 



(Continued.) 



TITUSVILLE, on Indian Eiver, contains one church and 

 seven houses, and to the long wharf, which extended 

 out into the water some distance, were moored a number of 

 sailing craft. In addition to the regular business of the saw- 

 mill, located here, beautiful walking-sticks of crab-tree, man- 

 grove and other woods, are turned for the curiosity shops 

 ffhich abound at all the ports on the St. John's Eiver. Col- 

 onel Titus, the celebrated, from whom the town takes its name, 

 will be long remembered " For ways that are dark," as con- 

 cerned in the past outrages of "bleeding Kansas." From 

 that State he migrated to this far-off land, and was engaged 

 by an English company to oversee the canning and shipping 

 of turtles and oysters, for which this river is noted. Wit j in a 

 year he managed to break the company, but retired rich him- 

 self, and with his gains now luxuriates in ease and comfort. 

 I was told he once was what is called " a handsome man " — 

 tall, erect, and of tine carriage, so that even on Broadway 

 people turned to look at him as he passed. But now he is very 

 flross looking, with florid complexion, and heavy gray hair and 

 beard, but the twinkle of his bright black eyes shows that a 

 little of the old fire remains. 



There is a small boarding-house at this place where sports- 

 men can be accommodated, and, by combining breakfast, din- 

 ner and supper, we contrived to get one first-class meal. 

 Turtling is very extensively engaged in on this river. The 

 ■eat green turtle is captured in nets a hundred feet long, 

 ink for three days at a depth of twelve to fourteen feet ; 

 it these nets are frequently damaged by sharks, saw-fish 

 id others, and require constant watching. The turtles weigh 

 »m 800 to 500jpounds, and are caught from October to Janu- 



ary. The flesh is worth six cents a pound on the river, and 

 from twenty-eight to thirty-five cents in New York city, 

 while a canital of one hundred and fifty dollars is sufficient to 

 establish one in the business. The yearly profits are about six 

 hundred dollars, which, in this part of the country, is consid- 

 ered a small fortune. 



| . Our stay at Titusville was brief, and we soon set sail, but, 

 having a head wind, were only able to make a run of five miles 

 before the "shades of night were falling fast," which obliged 

 us to run our little craft inland and arrange our camp for the 

 night. We had barely anchored our boat, waded ashore with 

 blankets, guns and provisions, before it was dark, there being, 

 as is well known, little or no twilight in these latitudes. 



A description of one night's camp will answer for the entire 

 trip, as there was little variation from day to day, and we were 

 so fortunate as not to be visited by rain, for Florida without 

 the sun is doleful enough. 



Being without a tent, we usually located our camp under 

 the shade of a wide-spreading palm-tree, its great leaves being 

 a protection from the dew, which is almost equal to a rain in 

 this region. Then came the cutting of light-wood, mangrove, 

 and other hard substances for camp fire ; and for producing 

 an appetite, or as a preventive of dyspepsia after a hearty 

 meal, allow me to recommend to the reader the cutting of man- 

 grove or iron-wood trees. On account of the luxuriant growth 

 of vegetation, it was often difficult to gather enough dry stubble 

 for fire, and our experiences in northern woods were of little 

 service to us. After supper on hard-tack and salt pork, varied 

 by an occasional duck, we sat about the fire preparing the 

 skins of birds for additions to our cabinet, or wrote in our 

 journal of the day's adventures. Then we gathered the grace- 

 ful palmetto leaves for our beds, divesting the trunk of the 

 same tree of its rough, shaggy bark (sometimes ealled "boots") 

 with which to renew our fire during the night, and drawing 

 our rubber blankets over us were soon lulled to sleep by the 

 hooting of the owls in the distant forest. 



Our time being limited, and desiring to penetrate as far 

 south as possible, we took but a short nap at our first camp, 

 and, the wind hauling around into the north, we arose at mid. 

 night and again set sail. Pushing out into the river we took 

 our camp-fire for a beacon, and it was not lost from sight until 

 after many points had been doubled. For miles during that 

 dark night we coasted along the western shore of Merritt's 

 Island, and my guide, hoping to make time pass quickly, and 

 soothe me to sleep[(as I lay stretched out on the bottom of the 

 boat eking out my night's rest), told me cheerful stories of 

 murders that had happened along this river when "might 

 makes right." finishing his anecdotes by recounting one deed 

 in which he was the principal actor. This last story, and the 

 thought of my present situation, drove all sleep from my eye- 

 lids, and it would have been very thoughtful in my guide, to 

 say the least, if he had only mentioned this little fact before 

 starting. 



Indian River is from two to four miles wide, but in [some 

 parts narrower. The width of the eastern shore or reef is 

 one to two miles, and the roar of the surf ontside can be 

 distinctly heard. The fresh breeze had now increased almost 

 to a gale, and it was with great difficulty we could keep our 

 little craft from swamping as sea after sea dashed over us. 

 Never was the sun so welcomed as, after the long hours of the 

 night, it arose in all its glory on our arrival off the mouth of 

 Banana River, which flows on theeast[side of Merritt's Island. 

 The scenery along the river was a little monotonous. We 

 missed our northern hills and mountains, but occasionally we 

 passed groves of palm trees from 30 to 40 feet in height, while 

 m the tops of the cypress grew lovely bunches of mistletoe. 



Reefs extend out from every point, their sharp edges, in 

 some places, appearing above the surface of the water, so we 

 had to be constantly on the watch, or our boats would suffer 

 inconsequence. This river abounds in immense oysters. These 

 bivalves were from four to six inches in length, were fair eat- 

 ing, but needed cultivation— the writer can produce some of 

 the shells— but, alas, not the oysters. 



A number of hermits, tired of the world's busy life, have 

 resorted to this region, and with game and fish on every hand, 

 find no difficulty in obtaining a living, and are never annoyed 

 by a daily paper or the changes of fashion. 



But we cannot recount the incidents of each day as they 

 passed, suffice it to say, that every moment was occupied in 

 some new enjoyment. We frequently landed for a tramp back 



in the woods, after strange>irds, curious bulbs and parasites. 

 We found three distinct varieties of air plants, and on the 

 beach odd shells and sea-beans. Of course we had to endure 

 the annoyance of mosquitoes, fleas, wood-ticks, sand-flies, 

 no-me-sees-ums and the like, but as they didn't all attack us 

 at once, we were happy. 



One day we stopped at a place called "Barker's Bluff " to 

 refill our cask with fresh water, where we found an old log 

 cabin, and were very politely waited on by a woman with a 

 child in her arms and a pipe in her mouth, to the latter of 

 which, she was giving the greater amount of attention. 



Sometimes the wind was ahead during the day, or failed us 

 altogether, and having a fine moon the last of t the trip, we 

 sailed all night long, each taking his turn managing the 'boat 

 while the other slept. Our enjoyment was greatly increased 

 by the thought that our dear friends at home were huddling 

 around the fire, hourly watching the thermometer to see 

 whether the mercury was going five, ten or twenty degrees 

 below zero, while with us it was over eighty degrees above, in 

 the shade. 



We had the pleasure of examining that peculiar little lizard 

 called a chameleon, and verifying the old stories of its fickle- 

 ness. It would change from green to brown as we placed it 

 on the leaves or the earth, almost as quickly as mennow change 

 their politics. 



No true lover of nature and nature's God can for a moment 

 sit down under the inspiring effect of these tropical forests, and 

 examine their luxuriant vegetation and fauna, without being 

 full sympathy with the poor Indian who felt that there was a 

 spirit in everything. For some time we watched the motions 

 of this chameleon^s it moved before, with its dainty-like 

 manners, drawing itself into all kinds of contortions, dilating 

 and contracting its sides like an india-rubber ball, and wonder- 

 ed if its serpentine tail was as useful as it was ornamental. 



In the last few years M. Paul Bert has, through his researches 

 thrown great light on these curious changes of color, and the 

 mechanism. by which they appear to be accomplished. But 

 it would be out of place here to give a detailed account of all 

 the methods by which M. Bert has arrived at his conclusions, 

 as we did not commence these "Etchings" with the view of en- 

 lightening our readers on the profound subject of natural his- 

 tory. Suffice it to say, that by a series of careful experiments 

 be has discovered that these changes of color seem to be en- 

 tirely under the control of the nervous system, and that the 

 chameleon can no more help their taking place than a toad 

 can help twitching its leg when pinched. By acting in various 

 ways upon the spinal marrow and the brain, the operator can 

 send the color to or withdraw it from any part of the body he 

 pleases. Indeed, a previous observer was able to cause a 

 change of color in a piece of the skin of the animal by acting 

 upon it with electricity; and M. Bert has proved that even in 

 the absence of the brain the usual changes can be produced by 

 exciting the animal in any way, thus showing that they are 

 due to that class of nervous action which physiologists name 

 reflex, and of which sneezing is a good example. M. Bert has 

 made some interesting experiments on the animal while under 

 the influence of anesthetics and during sleep. It was for- 

 merly known that in the latter case, and also after death, the 

 chameleon assumed a yellowish color, which, under the in- 

 fluence of light, became more or less dark. M. Bert has found 

 that exactly the same effects are produced during anajsthesia 

 as during natural sleep, and that light influences not only dead 

 and sleeping chameleons, but that it modifies in a very curious 

 fashion the coloration of the animal when wideawake. The 

 same result is produced when the light is transmitted through 

 glass of a deep blue color, but ceases completely when red or 

 yellow glass is used. To render [these results more decisive 

 Mr. Bert contrived to throw the light of a powerfullamp upon 

 a sleeping chameleon, taking care to keep in the shade a * 

 part of the animal's back, by means of a perforated screen 

 The result was curious .- the head, the neck, the legs, the 

 abdomen, and the tail became of a very dark green ■ while 

 the back appeared with a light brown saddle of irregular out- 

 line, with two brown spots corresponding to the holes in the 

 screen. Again, by placing another animal, quite awake In 

 full sunlight, but with the forepart of its body behind a 

 piece of red glass, and the hind-part underneath blue glass M 

 Bert divided the body into two distinct parts-one of a dear 

 green with a few reddish spots, and the other of a dark green 

 with very prominent spots. From his researches as a whole 



