Jan. St, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



BOS 



river Dn an ebb tide and are soon skirting the south sbore of 

 Tampa Bay, with Egmont lighthouse ahead and to the west- 

 ward. We leave the bay and enter the pass between Sara- 

 sota and Tampa bays. Leaving the pass and Longboat Inlet 

 on the west, we see" stretching out before us for sixteen miles 

 the placid waters of Big SarasoLa Bay, a beautiful sheet of 

 water four miles wide, with fine pine lands ten to fifteen feet 

 high on the east side and the west protected from the Clulf of 

 Mexico by Sarasota Key. Crossing tbe bay, we land near 

 the southern end, on "the east bank, at the little straggling 

 settlement of Sarasota and go un to the post office, kept by 

 Mrs. Abbe, for our mail, which we had given directions to 

 be sent here. 



In front of this place and across the bay to the westward 

 is Big Sarasota Pass, ao outlet from the bay to the Gulf. 

 Our skipper tells us that this is a famous place for fishing, so 

 we run across and are fortunate in arriving at low water. 

 While the rest of us arc preparing our lines and bait, the 

 Professor's lady, with the children, go ashore and are soon 

 busy picking up shells, which abound here. The beautiful 

 Panama shell is plentiful here. You find them with their 

 live tenant digging little fm-rows in the sand just above low 

 water mark; lilso the handsome red conch, which can be 

 caught imprudently taking an airing in the same locality. 



The tide has now turned and is running in, and the 

 waters of the narow inlet seem alive with fish and we are 

 soon busy hauling them in. In many cases it is a question 

 which will be hauled in, the fish or the fisher. The Colonel 

 is trying to catch that prince of fishes, the beautiful silver- 

 sided tarpon, and has baited his hook with a whole mullet. 

 The water seems full of them as they rush about coming 

 regularly to the surface to breathe like a porpoise, but they 

 are wary biters and the Colonel is unsuccessful for a long 

 time. At last, just as he is giving up in despair and think- 

 ing of trying for less noble game, his fine is suddenly snatched 

 out of his hands and cuts through the water with a zip as if 

 a fish toi'pedo had been attached to it. Fortunately he bas 

 lots of slack line and has taken the precaution to fasten the 

 end to a palmetto tree. We see him scrambling for the line 

 that is uncoiling like lightning and soon he has it again and 

 ties to check it. We know now what is on the end of it, for 

 the noble fish leaps from the water fully four feet, its sides 

 glistening like burnished silver, and shakes its head defiantly 

 in mid-air. But the hook is fast and down he goes again, 

 almost pulling the Colonel into the water, and he has to let 

 the line run. Back and forth the monster rushes as if it 

 would never tire. Such strength and impetuosity is seen in 

 no other fish in the world, notj excepting the lorSly salmon. 

 Fur fully an hour the Colonel played that fish, hauling and 

 tugging, now gaining a few feet of line, then himself yanked 

 down into the water up to his waist. We all stop our fish- 

 ing and look on, offering encouragement and advice. ' 'Pull 

 him in." "Now you've got him,'^ "Don't pull too hard ; let 

 him run," and so on. At last the Colonel begins to shorten 

 the line. He thinks he has got him now, but whoop ! off he 

 goes again as if but just hooked. This is work I can tell 

 you. The Colonel is getting tired. His face is red and his 

 hands are cut and bleeding. We go to his assistance and 

 the skipper comes with a harpoon. We have the flth now in 

 shallow water and the skipper wades out and after many 

 failures succeeds in striking him with the harpoon or lily- 

 iron. And now he is off again, nearly as vigorous as before, 

 but he has two lines this time to pull against, and faint fi-om 

 the loss of blood he is at last dragged on the beach. A noble 

 fellow he proved— sis feet four inches long— and shaped like 

 a large shad. The skipper takes him in charge and pro- 

 ceeds to scale and dress him. The scales are 3x21 inches 

 long and some of them larger and they have to be taken off 

 with a hatchet. After this exciting episode the Colonel re- 

 tires on his laurels and gives his attention the rest of the day 

 to his hands. 



The Professor and myself are content with smaller fry, 

 and succeed in catching a quantum suffi-cit of mangrove snap- 

 pers and the everlasting sharks. Some of the latter are 

 lively fellows. We caught several four to six feet long, and 

 it was only good fortune that saved us from hooking any 

 larger ones. They played sad havoc with our lines, breaking 

 them and straightening the hooks. We found it useless to 

 attempt to fish without having the line well wired from the 

 hook about three feet. 



The Professor caught a fish about four feet long that 

 looked like a cross between a haddock and muscalonge, 

 which the skipper called a snoot or ravalle. We did not 

 eat him, as the skipper said these fish had a flavor of turpen- 

 tine. Well, we had fried fish and baked fish and broiled 

 fish after that, and very nice we found the tai-pon and 

 snappers. 



We had had enough fishing, ao we took advantage of the 

 flood tide and sailed back up the pass and into the bay again, 

 and ran down the lower end, where we dropped anchor for 

 the night on a flat with about four feet of water. In the 

 morning when we turned out of our little cabin we found 

 the crew had been up before us and had procured about two 

 bushels of gigantic dams, which abounded on the flat where 

 we anchored. They were similar to the quahogs of the New 

 England coast, the Venus soUdissima, and they were well 

 named, for their shells might well be called sohd, being 

 fully one-half an inch thick, and they had to be opened with 

 an axe. Many of them measured five inches in diameter, 

 and although so large, we found them very good eating and 

 no tougher than their smaller comrades. 



That day we passed down through "The Mangroves, " 

 which is a labyrinth of mangrove islets, with overhanging 

 ibranches, where the channels ended in the bushes, and the 

 boat had to be poled through, the branches sweeping the 

 'decks. The Gulf Coast Canal Company will have to cut 

 about half a mile here through the islands, about five feet 

 ■deep. Then we entered Little Sarasota Bay, which is long 

 and naiTow and full of islands, reefs and oyster bars, 

 through which only an accustomed pilot can find the chan- 

 nel. At Judge Webb's, on the east side, we stopped to post 

 letters. This post oflice, Osprey, is the last post office until 

 Punta Bassa is reached, on San Carlos Bay. 



We found an abundance of fine oysters in this bay, and 

 we learned a fact new to the Professor, which was that the 

 oysters here are good at all seasons. That is the oyster is 

 good, except when spawning, and different beds in the same 

 bay have different spawning times, so while the oysters on 

 one bar ai-e poor and unfit to eat, on the next bar we found 

 them fat and luscious. There were a few settlers on the 

 east side of this bay, on the mainland, and the shores looked 

 pleasant and inviting. The islands or keys all along this 

 part of the coast have never been surveyed by the Land De- 

 partment, and only recently by the Coast Survey, so most 

 maps of the State do not show them, and an entirely new 

 impression is given of this coast. Passing down to the lower 

 end of Little Sarosota Bay we come to Casey's Pass, which 



is a small outlet to the gulf. Here wc will have to go out- 

 side and make a run of fifteen miles in the Gulf of Mexico, 

 past Horse and Chaise Point. Our skipper wishes to start 

 early in the morning on this vnn, ;is that part of the day is 

 generally best for outside sailing and less likely to be squally, 

 so we anchor close to the bank just inside the pass, and im- 

 prove the opportunity to go up "to Mr. Higle's place on the 

 point. Mr. Higle is an old man-of-war's man, who was for 

 many years a sailor in the Coast Survey service, and has now 

 cast "anchor in this out of the way spot, where, with his wife 

 and family of six boys, he enjoys a truly pastoral life. 



We found he had a nice new house and a fine large orange 

 grove, the trees covered with the golden fruit. Mr. Higle 

 was a hospitable host and we soon''felt at home, and while 

 we were hstening to his intere'^ting anecdotes of life in this 

 remote quarter the Colonel took his new gun, bon-owed a 

 dog from Mr. H. and started off in the woods, one of Mr. 

 Higle's sons accompanying him. About sundown he re- 

 turned with two wild turkeys, a raccoon and a wildcat. He 

 reports a fine pine land country and says he was nearly run 

 down by a couple of deer, which, frightened by the dogs, 

 rushed out of a little bayhead thicket and nearly run over 

 him. Of course his gun was loaded with bird shot just 

 then and he had to let them go. 



The beach here is sandy, the fine trees growing close to 

 the edge, and the bluff is about eight feet high. Horse and 

 Chaise Point is about a mile south, so-called by navigators 

 from the fancied resemblance to a horse and chaise, when 

 seen from a vessel several miles out in the gulf. On the 

 beach here I found several fossilized bones of the fossil ele- 

 phant {Elephas columM), and Mr. Higle showed me some 

 monster vertebra of the same animal, on a large Indian 

 mound at the foot of his garden on Robert's Bay. These 

 remains, Avith the fossil stag, bear, hoi'se and monster turtle 

 and manatee with sharks' teeth of the ancient Plesioswurus, 

 abound in the bed and banks of Peace Creek. 



Casey's Pass is small and the water only about four feet 

 deep on the bar. It is not much of a place for fishing com- 

 pared with the other passes, but the beach is an excellent 

 one for bathing, and we found it very warm and pleasant in 

 the surf on the 25th day of January. 



The next morning we are awakened before sunrise by the 

 rattling of the sails and creaking of cordage as our sailors 

 get under way and sail boldly out into the Gulf and steer 

 south along the shore. The morning is bright and clear, 

 and just cool enough to be pleasant and invigorating. The 

 water is clear, and as we cross the bar we see hundreds of 

 sharks rushing about. The Colonel throws out a long trol- 

 ling line with a white rag on the hook, and soon has a little 

 shark about three feet long which is hauled aboard and dis- 

 patched. Then he catches a jackfish which is a handsome, 

 clipper-built fellow, two feet long, but not considered very 

 good eating, so he tries again and this time it is a fine 

 Spanish mackerel. 



We get no more fish until just as we are crossing the bar 

 to enter Stump Pass into Lemon Bay. Here the fish are 

 numerous and we put two lines out, and as we rush rapidly 

 through the water, impelled by a strong north wind, we 

 have a lively time hauling in crevalle and also a few salt 

 water trout. The tide is running out but we sail in against 

 it, and are soon in smooth water round the point and anchor 

 against a steep bank on the north side of the pass to wait 

 for a flood tide. While waiting here the Professor and his 

 family go on shore, and return laden with beautiful conchs, 

 calico, Panama and pompons shells. The skipper takes his 

 cast net and wades along the shore of the bars, and soon has 

 a lot of fine mullet and that incomparable fish, the Southern 

 pompano, esteemed by epicures as the best fish in American 

 waters, always excepting the brook trout. The Colonel took 

 the small boat and one of the crew, and rowed up among 

 the Mangrove Islands in Lemon Bay, of which Stump Pass 

 is the outlet, and we hear the report of his gun at frequent 

 intervals. In the mean time I take my doublebarrel and 

 walk up the beach, and soon have a large bag of plover*, the 

 godwits and gi-eater yellow-leg snipe predominating, with a 

 few killdeer plover and sandpipers. 



When the Colonel returns he shows us two beautiful pink 

 curlews, called by ornithologists the roseate spoonbill — a 

 handsome reddish pink bird as large as a small turkey. He 

 also has a number of herons and ibis, of which there is an 

 endless variety. He saw several flocks of ducks, but did not 

 succeed in shooting any. 



When the tide turns we up sail and pass on south through 

 a narrow channel just inside the beach ridge, past Bocilia 

 Pass and Boca Nueva, and through the Narrows into Gas- 

 parilla Soimd. Lemon Bay, that we have just quitted, is a 

 fine sheet of water, interspersed with mangrove and palm 

 islands, with pine lands, on the east side, and several fine 

 cabbage palm hamak islands. There are only two settlers 

 on the bay. One, Lopez, a Spaniard from Cuba, started, 

 several years ago, a large lemon grove here which is now in 

 full bearing. This bay was formerly known as Kettle Har- 

 bor, and it is currently reported that the old Spanish buccan- 

 neers buried a large treasure on its shores in olden times. 

 Just where it was buried is unfortunately unknown, so we 

 reluctantly abandoned for the present all thoughts of open- 

 ing a new bank account and continued on our cruise, passing 

 down GaspariUa Sound to the inlet of that name, which is 

 large and deep. On the south side of this inlet wc go ashore 

 at a fishermen's camp on GaspariUa Island to get water. 

 This is known as Cash's fish camp and consists of two pal- 

 metto cabins where the fishermen live with their families. 

 They seem to be doing a good business, judging by the fishy 

 smell that pervades the camp and the appearance of their 

 large fishing boats. 



Having replenished our water supply at their well, we 

 keep on and are soon in Charlotte Harbor and sailing past 

 the broad inlet for Pine Island Sound. 



This harbor is just now assuming prominence. The Flor- 

 ida Southern Railroad are building their road to Punta 

 Gorda, on the east side of the harbor, and intend to have a 

 through line to Key West and the West India Islands, by 

 means of steamers. Peace Creek empties into the upper end 

 of this harbor. This "creek" is a river a hundred miles 

 long, flowing down from Bartow and Fort Meade. Fort 

 Ogden, a thriving town, is situated about eighteen miles 

 from the harbor, on Peace Creek, and two new towns have 

 been laid out on it, called Liverpool and Cleveland. Char- 

 lotte Harbor Post Office is situated near Hickory Bluff, at 

 the mouth. Charlotte Harbor is large and spacious and 

 perfectly landlocked, but wiU accommodate only vessels 

 drawing about nine to ten feet at low water, and the tide 

 rises only one and a half feet. 



We are now entering Fme Island Sound. On the left is 

 Pine Island, a long, rather low island on which several large 

 cocoanut groves have recently been started, and the new 

 city of St. James has been laid out there, which will be a 



gi'eat resort when the railroad and ca,nal is completed, and a 

 point for the shipment of cocoanuts. The island is sur- 

 rounded by a flat salty level, called by the Spaniards the 

 "Salinas." On the north end of the island the Florida 

 Southern Railroad Company are surveying and cutting out 

 the right of way of a branch of their 'road, which will give 

 them a deep-water terminus. They cross Matlacha Channel 

 to the island. There are several large Indian or pre-historic 

 mounds on the north end and a lemon grove on the mounds. 

 There is also an old pre-historic canal cut clear across the 

 island, east from the mounds. What the purpose of its 

 builders was is not very clear, but it was probably used for 

 boats. There is another of these canals leading from Lake 

 Flirt at the upper end of the Caloosahatchee River, about 

 throe miles long, to several large mounds in the pine woods. 

 This canal is about eight feet wide and four feet deep, and 

 the earth is thrown out on each side. There are large pine 

 trees growing up in the bottom of it in places. How the 

 pre-historic men who built these canals made them a flnan-' 

 cial success would be interesting to the promoters of the 

 great Florida ship canal. 



On entering Pine Island Sound we pass by several small 

 but high and fertile islands — Mandorigo and TJseppa on the 

 left, the last a corruption of the Spanish Josepha, and Pal- 

 metto on the right. On these islands are several families of 

 Dagos or Deigos, of the Spanish race, from the West Indies, 

 who live by fishing and sponging. Their cosy-looking 

 palm-thatched cottages peep out from among the cocoanut 

 trees and oranges and lemons. There is a flue spring of clear 

 water on Useppa, which is resorted to by all the fishing and 

 sponging vessels in these waters. There are several fine little 

 schooners engaged in gathering sponges. They are continu- 

 ally cruising about searching for new sponging grounds. 

 To find the sponges they carry a "water glass," which is a 

 tube a foot or so in diameter with a piece of common glass 

 fitted in the lower end. Patting this in the water they are 

 enabled to scan the bottom and detect the sponges, which are 

 then hauled up by hooks fastened in the end of long poles. 



From Useppa we have a pleasant sail of fifteen miles 

 through Pine Island Sound and into San Carlos Bay, which 

 we cross and ai-rive at Punta Rassa, a corruption of Punta 

 Ro.sa. This is a low point of sand backed by a mangrove 

 marsh, and has only two dwellings, the house of Mr. Jacob 

 Summerlin, a Florida cattle king, and the house of the tele- 

 graph operator and signal service officer, who is also steam- 

 boat agent for several lines, postmaster, deputy customs 

 officer, and keeps a store and billiard tables, 



Punta Rassa is a shipping point for cattle to Cuba. The 

 water is deep at the wharf, but the bar at the entrance of 

 San Carlos Bay has only nine feet at low water. We see 

 several fishermen's cottages on small islands in front of the 

 landing, and to the westward looms up the tall lighthouse 

 tower on Sanibel Island. This island, by the way, will well 

 repay a visit, for on it are found the finest shells of any place 

 on the coast, and the deer are numerous also, as indeed they 

 are on Pme Island, the southern extremity of which is 

 directly opposite. Several steamers stop at Punta Rassa 

 regularly on their way between Key West and "Tampa and 

 Cedar Keys, and the steamer Manatee, of the Gulf Steam- 

 boat Company, stops here on her way to and from Fort 

 Myers. The little beach here is covered; yes, actually 

 covered with an army of fiddle crabs, at low water, which 

 are perfectly gorgeous in their bright colors, red, yellow and 

 purple. It is impossible to walk without treading on them. 

 We laid up at the wharf here and had good sport fishing. 

 We caught redfish, groupers, crevallie and jewfish. The 

 first is excellent eating, and all of them are good. The jew- 

 fish run from 40 to 400 pounds. All along this coast from 

 Cedar Keys to Punta Rassa there are excellent fishing 

 grounds, off shore on ledges, where rare sport can be had 

 catching red snappers and groupers, the former weighing 

 from 20 to 40 pounds. 



Punta Rassa is the southern terminus of the proposed Gulf 

 coast canal, from Tampa, which passes through GaspariUa 

 Sound, Charlotte Harbor, Pine Island Sound and San Car- 

 los Bay, and is 160 miles long. 



The Caloosahatchee River empties into San Carlos Bay 

 about two miles above Punta Rassa. The Okeechobee 

 Drainage Company have cut a canal 6^ feet deep and 46 

 feet wide from its headwaters, through Lake Flirt and Lake 

 Hickpochee into Lake Okeechobee, and a steamer 150 feet 

 long, the Bertha Lee, has passed up through the latter lake 

 to the Kissimme River and up to Kissimme City. 



This river has very fine, rich hamak lands on its sides, 

 but they were subject to inundations twelve to thirteen feet 

 deep. The canal of the Okeechobee Company has now 

 stopped these overflows, and the lands are reclaimed and will 

 prove very valuable for sugar cane and oranges, and the 

 river banks are rendered inhabitable. 



We all concluded to take a run up to Port Myers, and on 

 the following day we set sail and arrived there in the after- 

 noon. We found a charming little village of about 500 m- 

 habitants, with large stores, school house, church, masonic 

 hall, etc. The town is regularly laid out and lots are selling 

 rapidly. Schooners drawing eight feet come up to the 

 wharves. 



This is the residence of Captain Hendry, one of Flor- 

 ida's great cattle kings, and he and Major J. Evans are the 

 fathers of the place. We were shown here the identical log 

 cabin in which General Sherman Mved when stationed here 

 before the war, and a large date palm is pointed out as 

 having been planted by him. This used to be a military 

 post of some importance, but the troops have been long ago 

 withdrawn and the name of the town changed to simply 

 Myers. All that remains to show its former military occu- 

 pancy is the General's cabin and the little military burying 

 ground, with the headstones of some of the brave boys who 

 were laid here. 



We had now completed our trip, and we discharged our 

 vessel and sent her back to Palma Sola, while we waited 

 and lounged in the hammocks under the cocoanut palms for 

 the anival of the steamer Manatee to take us back to Tampa 

 and the big world. Ardea. 



A Bray from BooNATCLiiE.— The Boonville Herald 

 urges: "Bury beneath pubhc contempt a newspaper like 

 Forest and Stream that purports to be a sportsman's jour- 

 nal and with a treachery unparalleled betrays the gentle- 

 manly and genuine lover of the woods into the hands of the 

 pot hunters. Their misrepresentations, their title of butchers 

 to all who secured theu* venison by the chase, and their 

 favorite mythical and farcical 'club' argument are worthy of 

 a place in the library of the Pennsylvania pot-hunters and 

 their coadjutors who have been so merciless in their slaugh- 

 ter of deer for 8 cents a poimd. 'Pulverize the paltiy pot- 

 hunters' may also apply to such pernicious persons as the 

 pencil-pushers of Forest and Stream," Hi, hi! 



