4758 Animal Traits. [September, 
vines and tough sinuous growths abounded, and although not 
lofty were nevertheless hard to penetrate. Small prairies of a 
few acres in extent were common, and ponds and saw-grass 
marshes were met with frequently. In the wet season the whole 
country was under water. In the dry, tide-water only was to be 
found. Of the wild animals native to these precincts, opossum | 
and raccoon were everywhere; wild cats of powerful physique, | 
magnified specimens of the domestic cat, although very rare, 
lived in the tangles and often wandered to the coast. Foxes of 
such exceeding beauty of shape and grace of motion that it 
seemed a crime to injure them, were met with at intervals, and 
bears, as fat as butter and as lazy as they had a right to be, in 
diminishing numbers, lived in the great hummocks. Rumor in- 
i 4 ~ sisted that the cougar had its lair about the everglades, but in se 
| extensive wanderings through as many “ bogs, fens and briars, 
as ever fabled witch floundered over, I never found either the ant 
: mal or its signs. 
=. The United States, with that unbounded generosity so well 
= known, gave to the State of Florida all “swamp lands.” Ias 
general way land covered with water would be termed “ swamp, 
and if the examination occurred in August the whole country 
would fill this definition ; if in January but a small’ fraction of it 
- would be moist, and so the inferences can proceed with a go 
- deal of certainty on the fact that the State owns practically all We 
land. Itis not held at a high figure; one dollar per acre, grading 
: down to fifty cents with the size of the purchase, will get an 1n- 
vulnerable title. The only drawback to the ownership of pr 
land is, that one seems the poorer the more he has of it, still ] 
purchased a small tract and felt as much like a landed proprietor 
as was possible under the circumstances of the case. 
Not wishing to engage in agriculture to a greater extent than _ 
the satisfaction of curiosity demanded, about one-quarter of an | 
acre was cleared and planted with various seeds, and ieee 
pathway to the house, one hundred yards distant, was cut throug: 
~- The environment of the events following is now sufficiently 
etailed to suit the purpose in hand. ie 
About a year previous to the house-building, on first ge : 
the co , a hospitable cracker had presented gees cats. 
oe a 
A ie ee 
2 
bo ee 
ES 
n in reward for unstinted praise of his 
W 
