344 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Nov. 24, 1887. 



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HUNTING IN FLORIDA IN 1874.-II. 



THE log cabin of our teamster was double, the two 

 rooms being connected by a thoroughfare. But it 

 was a palace in comparison with all the other residences 

 in the settlement. A mile on our way we came to the 

 cabin of Tom's companion-assassin, consisting of a single 

 room made of logs loosely piled upon each other, m which 

 dwelt a family of four. A track of loosely scattered 

 feathers leading from a sapling close by the cabin to the 

 swamp indicated where a wildcat had dragged away a 

 hen the previous night, snatching it from within 2ft. of 

 the Bleeping inmates". A mile further on we reached the 

 shelter of Tom's father's family. It was a roof of pal- 

 metto leaves, supported on posts, the four sides entirely 

 open to the air. Here dwelt the father and mother, two 

 grown-up sons, two grown-up daughters and four younger 

 children. A short distance beyond we swam a creek, 

 just narrow enough to save the cart from going to the 

 bottom before the steers gained footing on the other side. 

 Hard by we passed the last evidence of "Cracker" life, 

 consisting of a shelter of boughs in the form of one-half 

 of an A tent, beneath which a hermit had slept for five 

 years. Soon, the trail pursued thus far ended, and fol- 

 lowing the wheel-tracks of our predecessors we struck 

 the Alligator Flats, and during the rest of the day, mile 

 after mile, waded axle deep in the mud and water. In- 

 stead of riding on the cart, as was promised us, we were 

 in constant fear of our oxen giving out from sheer weak- 

 ness, so that Fred and myself carefully avoided adding 

 even the weight of our guns to the load, though Tom did 

 not hesitate to mount his burly form upon the cart-tongue 

 most of the time, pretending that he could discern the 

 guiding track beneath the water better by looking down 

 upon it. As the deadly poisonous moccasin snake, more 

 to be dreaded than the terrible rattlesnake, abounded in 

 the flats and frequently rose up within 6ft. of us, throw- 

 ing themselves into a striking attitude and displaying 

 their crooked fangs in fearful warning, we plodded most 

 of the time behind the cart, that the splashing of the 

 oxen might frighten away the reptiles. At length in the 

 greater depth of the water and thickness of the grass 

 Tom declared himself unable to distinguish the cart-ruts, 

 and it became necessary for Fred and myself to go before 

 and indicate guiding tracks by each taking one and beat- 

 ing it out with our feet. Thus we passed hour after hour 

 constantly whipping the water with long sticks to 

 frighten away the snakes, though occasionally chilled 

 with the sight of a moccasin gliding off a tussock of grass 

 and concealing himself, neither could tell where. Toward 

 sundown we came to a pine island a few feet in diameter, 

 with just enough of dry land for our fire and Tom to lie 

 down beside it. Beyond, being one stretch of water as 

 far as the eye could reach, we haul up, turn the oxen out 

 to feed, bake our yams, barbecue our meat, curl up on 

 the top of our luggage in the cart and go to sleep wink- 

 ing at the stars. 



The next day is but a repetition of the previous, only the 

 wading is deeper and the wriggling snakes are more 

 numerous. "Familiarity," however, "breeds contempt," 

 even in the matter of exposure to the cold, clammy touch 

 of a snake and danger from its deadly fangs, as well as 

 in dissimilar experiences of human nature — a contempt 

 leading Fred and myself to often ease our blistered feet by 

 throwing our high-Lopped boots upon the cart and sub- 

 stituting brogans, or even going barefoot. A disting- 

 uishing feature of these water-prairies is an occasional 

 stretch of cypress-clumps — clusters of trees presenting 

 beautiful rounded outlines, very appropriately termed 

 ' 'Blue Mountains. " Thei r attraction, however, is entirely 

 upon the outside, and in the far distance. Approached, 

 their blending foliage separates to the view and becomes 

 scragged, while their bases are sunk in a most forbidding 

 morass. Through such a "cypress-slue" we forced our 

 way, and emerged upon a clear, open prairie, where we 

 camped for the night. Crossing this, we found ourselves 

 during the forenoon of the third day entering an old mili- 

 tary trail and on solid ground. Surmising that we must 

 be near the fort, Fred at 11 o'clock pushed forward, and I 

 saw no more of him till sundown, when he returned and 

 reported an interminable prairie three hours in advance 

 and no signs of the Kissimmee. Not much like overtak- 

 ing the advance party, we thought; but there was no al- 

 ternative, and while we were deliberating what was best 

 to do on the morrow, the double-yoked team hove in sight 

 on its return, having that morning left the Explorer 

 and his party at Fort Bassinger as agreed, but found the 

 fort sixty miles from the lake, instead of ten. Nor was 

 there any neighbor's boat at the deserted fort, the Indians 

 having probably stolen it, etc. , etc. The truth now flashed 

 upon my mind, and I needed no more proof that the 

 teamster's story was manufactured for the purpose of 

 alluring me on to secure his four dollars per day. Lesson 

 third in "Cracker" honesty. 



Our encampment for the night was near a creek whose 

 bed was dry, but in which our teamster affirmed he had 

 sometimes found water flowing south, and at other times 

 north, according as the region on either side of the east 

 and west trail had received more abundant supplies of 

 rain. A careful observation of the whole region fully 

 convinced me that here we find in the wet season one 

 (perhaps the most southern) of the many affluents of the 

 mighty St. John's. So little, however, is the change of 

 level that out of the same reservoir, and by the same 

 channel, there heads, at times, another creek taking a 

 southward direction into St. Lucie Sound, and on the 

 northwest border of the same reservoir is found issuing 

 at high water an affluent of the Kissimmee, by whose 

 channel a portion of the waters of this same great central 

 reservoir find their way into Lake Okechobee, from whose 

 more exposed surface excessive evaporation is constantly 

 going on. This opinion is sustained by the rain charts of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, which "show that the penin- 

 sula of Florida is the region in which the rainfall is 

 heaviest east of the Rocky Mountains, and further, that 

 in the peninsula itself the curves of the greatest rain en- 

 croach upon the headwaters of the St. John's, though 

 still more upon those of the rivers flowing south into 

 Lake Okechobee, and west into the G-ulf of Mexico." 



Fred and myself had hardly erected our tent when it 

 began to drizzle, with indications of abundant rain, but 

 fortunately for us, not realized. Ere we slept, a brother 

 of the teamster appeared from beyond the Kissimmee 

 with his mother, wife and seven children ranging in age 



from three weeks to twelve years, all riding in a cart 

 drawn by a single yoke of oxen. Two of the older chil- 

 dren were shaking with the fever and ague, to whom my 

 prescriptions of quinine brought speedy relief. The chil- 

 dren found shelter during the night beneath the cart, 

 while the adults lay down upon the damp ground, 

 wrapped in blankets. Long before light we were cooking 

 our breakfast, preparatory to an early start, when a de- 

 mand was made upon our scanty store to feed the hungry 

 mouths of the. new-comers— a hospitality we were poorly 

 prepared to extend, but which it was not in our heart to 

 refuse, especially when pleaded for by the wistful looks 

 of the little innocents. 



Relieving our jaded oxen by tranf erring to our cart one 

 yoke from the teamster's unladened wheels, it fell to me 

 to handle the ropes and goad. So long as I kept in the 

 rear of another team all went well; but if I essayed to 

 lead, my Yankee brogue was utterly unrecognized by the 

 half-tamed creatures. Halting at noon beside a forsaken 

 log-house, I amused myself with catching lizards, tree- 

 toads and ant-lions, wb.de Fred left his dinner half-eaten 

 to bag a flock of Carolina parrots, the first and only ones 

 we met in Florida. True to their reputation, curiosity to 

 know what had happened to a fallen companion seemed 

 to keep them lingering around till all were shot without 

 the shooter hardly stirring from his first chosen position. 

 There can be little doubt that this bird, once so abundant 

 in all the Southern States, and even ranging into New 

 York State, is fast becoming extinct east of the Mississippi 

 River. After dinner, while waiting for our lazy teamsters 

 to snooze, I still further amused myself with skinning a 

 sandhill crane, in the midst of which operation rapid 

 stinging sensations about the naked ankle, caused an in- 

 vestigation, only to reveal a centipede or scorpion amus- 

 ing himself with my nervous system. The application 

 of hartshorn to the half dozen puncture reduced the 

 swelling, and in two or three days I was no longer re- 

 minded of the insect that menaces with its head, but 

 wounds with its tail. 



The monotony of the afternoon drive was varied about 

 four o'clock with the cry of "turkey ahead." Fred and 

 Tom undertook the task of providing us with fowl for 

 supper, and with such success as to bring in a bird apiece. 

 Just as we were congratulating ourselves on something 

 better than hog and hominy, a party of six more, parents 

 and children all told, overtook us and fastened themselves 

 upon our party. The cracker's coach— the inevitable ox- 

 cart—bore four of them, while two rode ponies. Taught 

 by the experience of the morning, the dreams of Fred and 

 myself vanished, and we resigned ourselves to the thought 

 of little more than sniffing the perfumes of the savory re- 

 past. The larder of the latest comers proved as lean as 

 that of the earlier, and when all had partaken sparingly 

 of the supper, the teamster declared that such as had 

 horses, including himself, must push on at midnight, and 

 leave the rest on short allowance, to reach his home by 

 sundown on the following day, as not more than a spoon- 

 ful of hominy to each was left. On further consultation 

 it was decided for all to start at light and make a few 

 miles before breakfast. After a brief repast at the foot of 

 a tree, our oxen were yoked and all fell into line. A 

 wildcat springing out of the path was soon overtaken by 

 the dog, but instead of being held by the dog, it turned 

 the scale and held the dog, till Tom came up and released 

 its victim by a charge of buckshot. Skinning the cat at 

 our next halt, and throwing the carcass into the low 

 scrub. I was surprised to find both the turkey buzzard and 

 the Caracara eagle gathering around it in large numbers 

 in less than twenty minutes, though when thrown away 

 there was not a bird in sight. 



Both in going out toward the Kissimmee and in return- 

 ing, wherever the water had dried away upon the prairie, 

 numerous hillocks of freshly-formed pellets of sand, five 

 or six inches in height, were discovered. Digging beneath 

 the Mils would invariably discover a small crayfish, that 

 evidently maintained its home in the moist earth by keep- 

 ing beneath the influence of drought. 



As we neared the home of the teamster, Tom whispered 

 in my ear, "We are going to have a party at our house 

 to-morrow night," and as he said it, I observed a smile 

 upon his countenance for the first time since w r e had met. 



Excursion No. 1 from our camping base on Ten-Mile 

 Creek proving fruitless, so far as seeing Lake Okechobee 

 was concerned, and Fred being disinclined to spend any 

 more time searching for it, I undertook the matter alone, 

 and bargained with the teamster — whom we will here- 

 after call Mr. J.— to provide me with a mule, and guide 

 me at the beginning of the week to the Indian village 

 some forty miles distant, and reputed to be in the vicinity 

 of the lake. 



Our provisions being exhausted and one kind of shot, 

 it was necessary for Fred to go to Fort Capron to replen- 

 ish our larder and ammunition. We also hoped to receive 

 letters, as we had heard notlung from home to this time. 

 Tom's services were again secured, but this time as driver 

 of a mule cart, which could, however, only reach Bell's 

 grocery, a mile short of the post office grocery, where our 

 ammunition was stored. Under the disappointment of 

 no letters for either of us, Fred undertook to carry by a 

 tangled foot path to Bell's grocery two bags of shot, five 

 pounds of coffee, and a handleless j ug containing two quarts 

 of sugar syrup for hominy, neither grocer having any 

 sugar. A boat was at hand, but the boatman must 

 have a dollar and a half for the mile of sailing; nor would 

 he help cany the load on land for less. Being "Yankee" 



Stuck against "Cracker" generosity, the former triumphed, 

 ut a kind Providence threw a man in his way soon after 

 starting — probably one of the loungers about the grocery — 

 who for fifty cents relieved Fred of a part of his load. 

 This deposited in the cart, it started homeward, while 

 Fred made a detour of three miles to get at another grocery 

 five pounds of hominy and his singlebarreled gun he had 

 left there when first starting for the lake. In a little time 

 the paper hominy -bag gave way, and the contents com- 

 menced marking his track. In this exigency he remem- 

 bered the big pocket in his hunting coat extending over 

 the whole back, and designed as a receptacle for game. 

 Into this goes the remnant of the hominy and is saved. 

 In swimming Five-Mile Creek the jug of syrup rolled out 

 of the cart and was left in the mud at the bottom. So 

 all the delicacy we had for either coffee or hominy, we 

 hadn't. 



While Fred was gone I skinned a pair of coons, male 

 and female, both secured at one snot. The male had 

 marks of great age, and, judging from his mutilated ears, 

 must have been a hard fighting character in youth. One 

 bone had also been broken square off, and no surgeon 



being at hand to reduce the fracture, it had healed 

 with the two ends lapping, through contraction of the 

 muscles. 



As suggested by Tom, toward sundown of the day fol- 

 lowing our return I observed men, women and children 

 gathering at the cabin, mostly on foot, but some on horse- 

 back and others in ox-carts. At length a man rode up of 

 graver mien and with horse more richly caparisoned 

 than any other I had seen. Soon Mr. J. brought him to 

 my tent,* and taking me aside, said, "This man is a justice 

 of the peace, and has come sixty miles to marry Tom to 

 my daughter to-night, but there is a hitch in the arrange- 

 ment, as the last week's mail has failed to bring the 1 icense 

 sent for. Now what do you advise, as the justice cannot 

 wait two weeks for another mail, and my neighbors for 

 ten miles around arc all gathered to witness the cere- 

 mony?" As the malfeasance would be wholly on the part 

 of the justice, inasmuch as should he perform his part 

 with their consent, they would be legally married to all 

 intent and purpose, it was finally decided that Mr. J. and 

 Tom should give the justice a written obhgation, with 

 myself as witness, to send him the certificate as soon as 

 possible, which document they both signed by making 

 their mark, after I had assured them it was written cor- 

 rectly. Nothing further hindering, Tom and hiS bride took 

 position on the platform connecting the two rooms of the 

 log cabin, while the justice pronounced them, without 

 any questioning or pledging, husband and wife. Tom had 

 exchanged his teaming suit for a similar one, only more 

 cleanly, and his bride contented herself with plain calico 

 without ornaments of any kind, but with shoes and stock- 

 ings—the first time I had seen her wear any. After the 

 ceremony, the bride's mother and grandmother stepped 

 up and shook hands without kissing, and were followed 

 by her father without coat or vest, shoes or stockings, but 

 with shirt-sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and his pants 

 to his knees. After a long pause, I considered it my turn 

 to shake hands with them, though, with all my knowl- 

 edge of their antecedents, and at how fearful a price Tom 

 had gained his bride, I could hardly bring my mind to con- 

 gratulate them upon their union. The ice broken, there 

 was a rush for handshaking, after which Mr. J. brought 

 out a fiddle with two strings and called for dancing. Un- 

 able to aid in this part of the festivity, I soon retired to 

 my tent, though disturbed till daylight with the music 

 and toe-tripping. There might have been some whiskey- 

 drinking, but it was not apparent, nor did I see any one 

 inebriated, though Mr. J.'s prolonged efforts to extract 

 music from the two-stringed fiddle had evidently over- 

 taxed his nervous system and somewhat disguised him. 

 During the forenoon the guests were scattered about the 

 premises, sleeping off the weariness of the night, and by 

 sundown all had departed, even the guests from beyond 

 the Kissimmee. It was, however, discovered that many 

 equipments had changed hands, either intentionally, on 

 the principle that "exchange is no robbery," or in the 

 confusion of a half -wakeful condition. My own premises 

 were undisturbed except by the wandering hogs, whose 

 long snouts thrust between my tent-coverings rooted me 

 up, and interfered with my slumbers more than the 

 squeaking of the fiddle. 



While waiting for Mr. J. and Tom to sleep off the 

 weariness of the wedding festivities, Fred and myself 

 busied ourselves in preparing skins of such birds and 

 animals as were vicinous to the camp, such as turkey- 

 buzzards, brown-headed nut-hatch, hawks, lizards and 

 snakes. Wliile skinning the coons a buzzard alighted on 

 a branch within 20ft. and patiently watched the opera- 

 tion, expecting, no doubt, to feast upon the carcasses. 

 His sauciness tempted my gun beyond endurance, and an 

 off-hand shot quenched his appetite forever. Dropping 

 into a mass of palmetto scrub, I requested Fred, who was 

 cooking our supper, to bring him in, lest the hogs should 

 appropriate him before I could leave my work conveni- 

 ently. Ever accommodating and respectful, he essayed 



the" stinking thing yourself !"— the first and only 

 patient expression that fell from his lips in all our trip, 

 ft was his first experience of close proximity to the foul 

 bird, while my childhood Virginia experience had made 

 me famfliar with its habits. Instantly suspecting the 

 reason of his disgust, I forgave him in my heart his un- 

 intentional disrespect, and laughingly rallying him on 

 the weakness of his stomach, picked up the bird myself 

 and put it in a safe place from the hogs, notwithstanding 

 the unsavoriness of the ejections from its nostrils. 



The wily "Cracker," Mr. J., having by this time con- 

 cluded he had found the goose that lays a golden egg, 

 began to tell of heronries a few miles away in different 

 directions that would furnish us all the variety of birds 

 and eggs we could desire. To test his word, Fred went 

 with bim the second day after the wedding to the nearest 

 one, Mr. J. on horseback and Fred afoot. Five miles, 

 most of the distance through water from ankle to knee- 

 deep, brought them to the heronry. It was a cypress-slue 

 with tall trees, twenty-five feet in height to the lowest 

 limbs, and thick undergrowth of bushes, ten to twenty 

 feet in height. Most of the nests were in the trees, though 

 some were in the, tops of the bushes. By wading, in some 

 places waist-deep, and climbing the bushes, Fred was 

 able to secure twenty-seven eggs of the snakebird and 

 white heron. The bushes and nests were dripping with 

 the excrements of the birds, giving Fred a second lesson 

 in some of the unpleasant experiences of a naturalist. 

 Stumbling over an unseen slimy log, he dropped his gun, 

 and in recovering that completed the drenching of all ins 

 garment's. On his way out he had shot a snakebird a nd 

 a white heron, and left them to secure on his return. 

 Arriving on the spot a few feathers only were found— a 

 dozen or more buzzards on the trees contiguous explain- 

 ing the absence of the bodies of the game. Nearing the 

 camp, he secured for me a ground rattlesnake, a species 

 about two feet in length and much smaller than the dia- 

 mond, but more venomous. One morning, shaking up 

 my bed of palmetto leaves, I noticed one of these reptiles 

 crawling away from my couch. Wishing to secure one 

 of the larger species, I offered a ten-year-old son of a 

 "Cracker" "passing our camp a dollar if he would bring 

 me one not less than four and a half feet in length. In 

 less than fifteen minutes he returned, dragging at the end 

 of a string fastened around his neck an adamanteus five 

 and a half feet in length and seven inches girth, with ten 

 rattles. Between rattlesnakes on the land and moccasins 

 in the water, it became us to be ever on the alert, 



When making arrangements for the lake, Indian 

 Charley, son of As-se-he-ho-lar or Osceola, the famous 



