242 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. 18, 1888. 



THROUGH OKEECHOBEE TO THE GULF 



ii. 



WE woke before day, as our little Dot was rolling and 

 pitching, and found a fearful gale blowing from 

 the southwest, and when daylight came the bosom of 

 Okeechobee was white with foam. After breakfast we 

 took one of the metal lifeboats and pulled out into the 

 surf, but were glad enough to get back, as the seas were 

 rolling high. The gale kept us there two days, and we 

 put our time in overhauling the engine, cleaning up and 

 going out hunting; but as there was no shore to get on to, 

 only swamp, swamp as far as eye could reach, we could 

 not see a solitary thing but a few water turkeys. All was 

 solitude, desolation — vast, gloomy desolation. Never 

 have I seen such utter loneliness, such an utter Godfor- 

 saken place in my life. 



The morning of the third day after our arrival we 

 started across the Okeechobee. After clearing the bar 

 we headed southwest, and by 10 o'clock were just out of 

 sight of land. We could barely make out the tall tops of 

 cypress trees to the westward, and were going along in 

 good shape, when our first serious accident happened. 

 A packing in our steam pipe blew out, nearly scalding 

 Harry. Of course, there was nothing to do but to draw 

 our fire and blow out. Then as the little Dot came broad- 

 side to the sea, she did roll. The sea had not gone down 

 from the two days' gale, and she rolled her cabin windows 

 under water. Had we been caught in a gale at that time 

 we must have gone to the bottom, for we were helpless 

 until we patched up the bad place. This we did, and had 

 steam on her in two hours' time; and just at dusk we 

 reached the other side about where we hoped to find an 

 outlet. 



There we anchored, and the next day began our search 

 for the outlet to the coast. We steamed around all day 

 until afterroon, when we could see no escape. Then I 

 took a boat and went ashore, or rather, begau to row 

 along near the edge. Of course we didn't know where 

 we were. It was all guess. At last Harry said: "Let's 

 try a few miles further south." But I was afraid we 

 were too far south already, and while I was poking around 

 with the lifeboat I ran "into a swift, narrow channel, so 

 deep I could not touch bottom with an 8ft. oar. It ran 

 directly west, and I felt as though this must run out. It 

 was very narrow, scarcely loft, wide, but terribly swift. 

 We got steam up and made for the opening. In we went, 

 and by turning the engine slowly for steerage way, we 

 shot through the deep, narrow channel at fearful speed 

 for such a narrow, unknown place. On we went, fairly 

 holding our breath, for we did not know what moment 

 we would strike a log or some other obstruction, but we 

 had hit the outlet in what is down in the map as Big Saw- 

 grass Outlet, and before dark we were in what must 

 have been Lake Hicpochee, and anchored for the night. 



The next day we found the outlet and got into what 

 finally turned out to be Caloosahatchee River. The fol- 

 lowing morning we came to the first solid ground we had 

 seen since leaving Fort Bassinger. As it was very early 

 and we had had no breakfast, Harry said he would catch 

 a mess of trout, if I would go get some game. So I took 

 a boat and dropped down stream a quarter mile, and I 

 started to wade toward some high ground. I had got part 

 way and was in water up to my waist, when I stepped on 

 what I thought was a log, but as there was no big timber 

 near there I reached down to feel what it was, and 

 grabbed the biggest alligator by the nose you ever saw. 

 It seemed that I had put my boot on his head, and started 

 him, but when I grabbed him by the nose he meant fight. 

 Well, of course, all this happened in less time than you 

 could count five, and I can only tell you of the fight I had 

 for my life. He was a huge fellow, plump 11 or 12ft. 

 long, for I have shot dozens of them and can guess at 

 sight of one about his length. As I put my hand on his 

 nose, he reared up, knocking me on my back. As I fell 

 the muzzle of my gun ,a double breechloader loaded with 

 sixes, dropped into his open jaws a3 he was making a 

 lunge and a snap at me. By a lucky accident he shut 

 down, on the barrels with a snap and a twist, yanking 

 the gun out of my right hand. He gave his head or 

 jaws a swinging motion, making the stock of the 

 gun describe a circle. The jerk he gave the gun had 

 jerked me back on to my feet. As I saw the butt of the 

 gun coming toward me I made a frantic grab for it. fori 

 knew that without my gun I was "a goner." I clutched 

 the barrels just forward of the hammers, and for about 

 ten or twenty seconds no man who ever lived fought 

 harder for life. Remember I was up to my waist in mud 

 and water, and only had hold of my gun forward of the 

 hammers. The 'gator used his hind feet to push himself, 

 while he clawed at me with those horrible short forearms. 

 One may ask, why did not you shoot him? I could not 

 change my grip on the gun, for it took all my desperate 

 strength to hold on and prod the 'gator. Once he let go 

 and I only saved myself from his jaws by a quick poke, 

 striking him in his eye. His tail flew round toward me, 

 while he threw himself to one side with the pain my bar- 

 rels made when I punched him in the eye. 



During this struggle 1 had been forced to swallow water 

 and as he threw himself to one side and I saw his tail 

 coming, I whirled and jumped out of the way. Then my 

 first chance to shoot offered, but I knew No. 6 shot, even 

 at such close range, was not a safe charge to shoot a big 

 alligator with. At this time the monster was sideways 

 to me, as the force of his tail in striking at me had turned 

 him round. We were about five feet apart, and with the 

 poke I had given his right eye, he was half inclined not 

 to fight. At any rate all this passed through my mind in 

 a second, and I saw my advantage and whirled and ran 

 as only a man can run for his life under circumstances 

 like those I was in. I don't know what the 'gator thought 

 and don't care a continental. I simply legged it for shore 

 for all I was worth. I ran under a big tree and down I 

 went, weak as a cat. 



I guess I lay there a half hour before I had strength to 

 get up. Then I noticed about thirty big wild turkeys 

 looking at me. It seems I bad run under a live oak and 

 the turkey were feeding on acorns. They did not seem to 

 be afraid, but were looking at me with necks stretched 

 out. I brought my gun up and knocked down a fine 

 gobbler with each barrel. Then the rest went; and you 

 know how a wild turkey can go when scared. I took a I 

 oundabout way to my boat, but this time I had buckshot ' 



in, and if I had caught sight of my saurian friend I 

 should have finished him. When I got back to the Dot 

 Harry was cleaning three fine trout. The smallest woxdd 

 weigh 41bs. After a breakfast of fried trout and young 

 gobbler, and biscuit and coffee, I stripped to see if I had 

 any marks from my fight. My shoulder was black and 

 blue, but I had noticed when I shot the turkeys my gun 

 kicked me nearly over. On examining my gun I found 

 the alligator had put his teeth nearly through the barrels 

 near the muzzle, and the rib on top was creased and 

 marked just as if by steel tools. It, did not seem possible 

 that an alligator's tooth could peel iron as it did. I 

 pounded out the dents and the gun now shoots better 

 than ever. 



Deer were plentiful; we killed three one day inside of 

 twenty minutes, but our haste to get through to tbe coast 

 kept us from stopping much to hunt. A party of four 

 went out hunting near Charlotte Harbor, were gone a 

 week and killed twenty-three turkeys and nine deer, but 

 I consider that butchery, as game will not keep there 

 over three days; and turkeys, if fat, will not keep twenty- 

 four hours. 



The waters of the rivers and swamps of interior Florida, 

 especially the deep ones, are excellent to drink. It looks 

 black, but it tastes good; in the morning it is cool and 

 good, and a more delightful cruise, climate and hunting 

 considered, does not exist on this earth than a cruise 

 with the proper kind of a boat, the right sort of an outfit, 

 and a half a dozen jolly sportsmen " not afraid of hard 

 work. January is a better month than October, and Feb- 

 ruary or March better still. Young plume birds are in 

 full plume in March. There are more different kinds of 

 beautiful birds in that far Southland than we ever hear of 

 in the North. 



We got our mudhook tip and commenced to work our 

 way toward the coast, I should say south westward, but we 

 were several days in that section. To get stuck in the 

 mud or on banks was our lot twenty times a day, and it 

 was no small task to carry our 60lb. anchor in one of our 

 boats out to the end of the cable, jam it in the mud, 

 then by reversing our engine at full speed and pulling on 

 our cable until we could see stars, we would get off. At 

 times we had to put all our heavy stuff in the boats, load 

 them down so as to lighten the steamer, then get a strain 

 on the cable, throw the engine wide open, and pile over- 

 board up to our waists in mud and water and pull and 

 tug and sweat. And when it was getting stuck on banks 

 or bars, the propeller would ball up with grass or lily 

 pads. Then we would have to pile overboard with knives 

 and cut the stuff off. But we arrived at Fort Thompson 

 all right. That is another fort without a fort; — only a 

 plantation with one or two houses. 



From Fort Thompson we had clean sailing. The Ca- 

 loosahatchee River is a fine, deep, swift river, but fear- 

 fully crooked. Along that river for 100 miles lies the 

 finest land in the State of Florida. The high banks are 

 well timbered with oak, cypress and pine. We arrived 

 at Fort Myers, about forty-five miles from the Gulf, in 

 just sixteen days after leaving the railroad at Kissimmee. 

 We had traveled nearly 6C0 miles by wa ter, for the crook- 

 edest rivers on earth run through central Florida. Then 

 we wasted so many days in the dead rivers and in find- 

 ing the proper routes. Yet with a jolly party and a small 

 sidewheel steamer not drawing over 15in. of water, I 

 should like to go over the same waters again. 



We received letters at Fort Myers, dropped down the 

 river, cut wood and wooded up, and soon reached Punta 

 Rassa , at the moutb of the river. We went north bet ween 

 Pine Island and the mainland to Charlotte Harbor. From 

 there we went outside in our little Dot and made a run 

 of sixty- five miles in the Gulf, reaching Sarasota Pass at 

 night. We picked up some beautiful shells along the 

 route on the islands and keys: feasted on oranges, ban- 

 anas, mullet and rock crabs as big as a lobster. The 

 oysters are small, but make good soup; the clams are ex- 

 cellent. We spent several weeks along the coast. Our 

 bill of fare consisted of baked mullet and roe, clam frit- 

 ters, oyster soup, banana fritters, orange short cake, pine 

 apple dumplings with wine sauce, coffee and biscuit, corn 

 bread or pancakes. We lived high after reaching the 

 coast. We arrived at Tampa in the last of November. 

 And now good-bye until I get more time to describe the 

 coast and islands of the Gulf and shark fishing. 



Arthur Lovejuv. 



Atlanta, Ga. 



THAT CAMP. 



XCAN see it yet, and its wild surroundings, though 

 more than twenty-five years have elapsed since Will 

 and I camped there. We reached the place about noon, 

 and after a hurried lunch of bread and butter, prepared 

 to erect it. A camp had stood there the year before, or 

 a "shanty," as Will would persist in calling it. This had 

 fallen down, or had been crushed by the weight of the 

 winter snows. Now all that remained were the pieces of 

 its bark roof. Two of these had been crushed and broken, 

 while lying on the damp ground since spring had in no 

 way improved the other pieces. 



But the first thing after lunch was to get out the poles 

 and set up the frame. Our plan was to build the camp 

 first, then get everything ready for the night, and then 

 go and catch fish for supper. This we carried out in every 

 particular. 



But now the camp, and first its situation. It stood on 

 a bluff (if we may call it that) about sixty feet above the 

 river. That is, the high bank of the river on our side 

 came close to the edge of the water, while the low inter- 

 vale through which the stream ran was at this place not 

 more than a quarter of a mile in width. The river itself 

 was about 50t't. wide and not over a foot deep, except in 

 places. The intervale was filled with yellow birches, 

 alders and all those trees which go to fill up the b ttom 

 lands of a rushing stream in the northern part of New 

 York State. From the place where we stood we could look 

 over the tops of the trees, though of course we could not 

 see the water, and the hills on the other side as we faced 

 eastward were in plain view. They were crowned with 

 spruce, hemlock and fir, the same as the bluff we were 

 encamped on. Of course the view up stream was shut 

 off. There would have been no chance to look down had 

 it not been that the land to the east receded from the 

 river. It was this that made the bluff and opened the 

 view down above the birches and alders. This, too, let 

 the morning sun in on us to dry the camp, and then in 

 the afternoon the place was cool and shaded. 



Front the camp we caught a gleam of the pool at the 

 foot of the hill below us, and as we looked a little beneath 



the trees (for there was no underbrush on the hillside) the 

 patches and bubbles of froth were seen hurrying on, soon 

 to be dissolved into water and then again to be churned 

 into foam. 



A good deal of this foam came from a large rock that 

 stood amid stream, almost dividing it into equal parts, 

 just above the camp. This split the rushing waters and 

 caught from time to time a good deal of the brush and 

 sticks that floated down from above. It never held on 

 very long, though. The water was too rapid. From be- 

 hind this rock we took out several nice black-looking 

 trout that were very pink when they were fried. It was 

 this rock that helped to make the plashing sounds that 

 were heard during the still evenings and at night. Not 

 a rippling nor a rushing noise, but a kind of dashing, 

 somewhat as though children were bathing and trying to 

 plash water on each other with their hands. The sound 

 was all the time changing although it was always very 

 much the same. As I heard it that still afternoon of the 

 day of our arrival, while I was stripping twigs for our bed, 

 and saw the gleam of the pool, what pleasant anticipa- 

 tions came into my mind — a place I had never been, a 

 stream I had never waded, a pool I had never fished. 

 How could I wait? But I did. 



Around the camp the trees stood thick and large in all 

 their pristine beauty. Great hemlocks that seemed to 

 smell of porcupine even with all their fragrance, and 

 spruces that you did not have to ask "to give you of their 

 balm," and a fir whose smooth bark was swelling out 

 with balsam. Yes, that bluff was a fragrant place, and 

 it almost seemed as though all its fragrance was concen- 

 trated around the shanty. Perhaps it was because the 

 odor of the leaves of the small birch that we cut when 

 they were drying aided their perfume to the spruce and 

 fir boughs that were used in constructing the sides of the. 

 camp. At any rate, there was a pungency and aroma 

 about the place that new-mown hay never knew and that 

 only drying of ferns and wild grasses can produce when 

 they are assisted by the evergreen tribe, with a hot sun 

 to draw out their fragrance. 



At the rear of the camp was a fallen monarch of the 

 forest, perhaps the victim of a storm he could not breast 

 or a stroke that no tree could withstand. However he 

 may have come there though, his arms furnished us with 

 a good deal of fuel and saved us considerable labor. The 

 spring was a pretty little rill. It came trickling down 

 the receding bank as it fell back from the river, about 

 30yds. from the camp. It would have been a good place 

 to have built the camp had it not been that the ground 

 was considerably lower than the site we selected ; and 

 then it seemed damp and spongy, and only birches and 

 hard woods grew near it. 



It was here that the hermit thrushes sang so sweetly in 

 the evening, and the Canada flycatcher, with a host of 

 others almost as pretty ar. himself, lisped and fluttered in 

 the morning sun. Then those little recesses in the rock 

 were such cool places to keep fish over night, while the 

 butter jar was almost as cold as though it had been housed 

 in a refrigerator. Ah, that camp, it was a lovely place; 

 trout for breakfast, and trout for dinner and trout for 

 supper, too, if we wanted them. The little pond below 

 furnished some of the best- none though over eleven 

 inches long and very many not over eight. Here the 

 birds sang for us in the early morning, and the owls 

 hooted for us as the daylight closed, or again at dawn. 

 Here we saw the shides of night fall and the reflections 

 of our camp-fire flicker and dance among the dense 

 foliage of the treetops, or lighten up one side of their 

 dark trunks. Here the round moon in all her silent still- 

 ness rose upon us, flooding the lowland with her mellow 

 light and bringing out the rising mist in all its softness. 

 Here Will smoked his evening pipe while I played in 

 weird melody the songs of a past day. Here we slept in 

 undisturbed ' s- lumber in woods unbroken by the axman, 

 near a stream unconfined by dams, waters unsoiled by 

 sawdust. Stlllaboy. 



BREEDING GRIZZLIES IN CONFINEMENT 



nPO one thoroughly in love with his calling, and in 

 -L charge of a large zoological collection, I know of 

 no more alluring, but delusive, undertaking than the 

 attempt at breeding and successfully rearing wild ani- 

 mals in captivity. So long as one confines himself to 

 what are commonly known as "the hay-eaters," such as 

 deer, camels, etc., there is not so much difficulty; but 

 when he goes a few steps higher in organization and en- 

 deavors "to increase and multiply," he will soon find out 

 that "the flesh-eaters," such as lions, tigers, etc., will give 

 him cause for a deal of disappointment and mortification. 

 Lions breed without much difficulty, but many of the 

 mothers either devour or refuse to nurse their progeny. 

 If one happens to have a good mother, he will find that a 

 very large percentage of the young never reach matur- 

 ity, but die from such diseases as rickets, scrofula, etc. 

 Tigers do not breed so freely as Hons, nor does an equal 

 proportion of mothers make any attempt at nursing. It 

 is a well-known fact that traveling menageries are more 

 successful than stationary zoological collections in breed- 

 ing and rearing lions, and the reason usually given for it 

 is, that in the traveling menageries the animals receive 

 much rougher usage and get more exercise, consequently 

 are stronger and better able to bear healthy progeny. 

 My own opinion is, that it is not reasonable to Iook for 

 natural results with unnatural surroundings; or to put it 

 differently, one cannot expect outraged nature to act 

 naturally. Perhaps what follows will serve to illustrate 

 my meaning more fully. I once had under my charge a 

 pair of grizzly bears (Urms horribUis) which bred' fre- 

 quently, but the following record will show that I never 

 succeeded in rearing a single young one: 



Jan. 19, 1876, 2 born; died Jan. 19, 1876. 



Jan. 17, 1878, 2 born; died Jan. 20, 1878. 



Jan. 14, 1879, 2 born; eaten by mother Jan. 16. 1879. 



Jan. 10, 1881, 3 born; died Jan. 13, 1881. 



Jan. 13, 1882, 3 born; died Jan. 16, 1882. 



Jan. 16, 1883, 1 born; died Aug. 11, 1883. 



Jan. 18, 1885, 3 born; died Jan. 21, 1885. 



From the above it will be seen that in every instance 

 except one the young ones died, either from the neglect 

 or cannibalism of the mother. As the period of gestation 

 was always within a few days of nine months, I knew 

 just about when to expect the young ones, although the 

 mother did not show pregnancy by any increase in size, 



