406 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Dec. 13, 1888. 



NOTES ON WESTERN FLORIDA. 



VI.— CRUISING DOWN THE COAST. 

 [Continued from page 88k.~\ 

 H^HE nights at this season were wonderfully clear and 

 X beautiful, the sky being perfect in its transparency, 

 while the stars shone with a brilliancy seldom seen in 

 northern latitudes. With what real affection one regards 

 the celestial bodies when at sea and separated by long 

 distances from home and Mndred. One comes to looking 

 upon those distant worlds and suns as old landmarks and 

 companions, and the thought that the same constellations 

 shine alike on yourself and distant friends does much to 

 annihilate space, and causes one to feel in foreign lands 

 not quite so utterly alone. What tales we spun by the 

 starlight as pipes were filled and filled again, until at 

 last, one by one, we would drop off to sleep, and silence 

 would brood over that most silent of all things— a sleep- 

 ing vessel. 



During the last night that we spent beneath the kindly 

 rays of St. Mark's Lighthouse a heavy storm sprang up; 

 and we were all awakened at midnight by the shrieking 

 of the wind through our rigging. Black clouds had, like 

 a pall, thrown their sombre folds over the hitherto clear 

 heavens, and our presence became necessary on deck to 

 look after the tossing vessel. The gale for a time blew 

 with great violence, and the sea rising added to our dis- 

 comfiture. The lightning was very vivid and the thunder 

 about as terrific as I had ever heard. After every terri- 

 fying clap the Santa Marias of poor Santo would sound 

 bike an echo, as he prayed to saint or Virgin for protec- 

 tion. 



We passed a most wretched night, tossed about and 

 drenched again and again as the huge waves would occa- 

 sionally wash over our decks. Once the anchor began to 

 drag, and we were obliged to drop another overboard in 

 order to hold our position. Toward the morning, how- 

 ever, the element became quieter, and before daybreak 

 all was once more serene save for a nasty running sea; 

 the sun rose in an unclouded sky, and by 8 o'clock we 

 were once more bowling along before a stiff western 

 breeze. It is a lazy, lounging life that one leads on board 

 ship when the wind is favorable, with nothing to do but 

 lie around and look at the sky or the sails. We used to 

 stretch out full length on top of the little cabin just under 

 the main boom, and, sheltered from the sun by the sails, 

 pass the bright hours in dreaming and dozing. I never 

 could read at sea; the author, be he novelist or sage, is 

 always forgotten in the vast monotony of the heaving 

 billows, and my eyes will leave the page, be the tale 

 never so thrilling, to seek the simple but endless beauties 

 of Nature's grandest work. 



The Eock Islands are two little lone rocky keys that 

 lie five miles off the coast at a distance of some thirty 

 miles from the mouth of the Waukulla River; they are 

 uninhabited bits of rock of an aggregate area of not over 

 twenty acres. A sparse growth of palmettos has col- 

 lected on the summit of each, and from a short distance 

 they are rather picturesque, reminding one somewhat of 

 the atols of the South seas. 



We anchored that night some three miles off these islets 

 and proceeded to make ourselves as comfortable as a 

 somewhat heavy sea would permit; everything was made 

 snug for the night and then we all sat around the hatch, 

 little heeding the occasional flying of spray, and sang or 

 told yarns to our heart's content. The conversation 

 drifted during the evening to the subject of storms; and 

 I asked Santo the reason of his unusual fear of lightning, 

 deeming it strange that that tough and hardy seaman 

 should so fear a fate that no action of ours can either aid 

 or avert. He gave us an account of a catastrophe, after 

 which we could well understand the dread that he felt. 

 It seems that he and four others while returning one fall 

 from the sponge reef were overtaken by a thunder shower 

 when in sight of Apalachicola, and one of the relentless 

 bolts struck the mainmast, completely wrecking the 

 vessel and killing two of the unfortunate men, while 

 Santo h imself was stunned for some hours from the force 

 of the shock. 



That night we were indeed rocked in the cradle of the 

 deep, though the weather was perfect and the stars shin- 

 ing with accustomed brilliancy. I love to go to sleep 

 watching these myriad worlds strewn in such profusion 

 over the boundless vault of Heaven. After a hard day's 

 work one can get such a feeling of rest; all care and 

 trouble and fatigue are forgotton in the grandeur of the 

 sight; and this earth seems humbly to take her place 

 among the millions of greater sisters. The skies always 

 seem nearer when thus viewed, and one sinks off into 

 unconsciousness with his eyes fixed on those ever wake- 

 ful sentries, and his thoughts centered on things infinite. 

 You cynical reader! I fancy that I can hear you laugh at 

 what you take to be the "gush" of a first experience of 

 camp life; you, who have, perhaps, passed through all 

 the vicissitudes of a campaign in the Adirondacks or Cats- 

 skill, often two or even three miles from a house, and 

 who have returned to town brown and blase, a thorough 

 woodsman after a month in the wilds. But although a 



freater part of my life has been spent in the wilderness, 

 have yet to see the time when nature was not fascinat- 

 ing or when some new beauty could not be discovered in 

 the handicraft of the Creator. Men there are who have 

 no appreciation of the glories of the natural world, but 

 few are they indeed; for in the roughest and most de- 

 praved of the human race will be found an innate love 

 ot nature. Even the Indian, who, notwithstanding 

 Cooper, is the most matter-of-fact creature on earth, has 

 m him a fondness for nature that supplies the place of a 

 more intricate system of theology. Nature is the savage's 

 only religion, and in civilized man it is but less, though 

 fanatics and bigots would cry against it as the adversary 

 ot the Bible, as if the harmony of the two were not im- 

 perceptible to them alone. 



Early the next morning we sailed toward the islands, 

 wnich lay about three miles to the north of us, but the 

 water shoaled so rapidly in the last mile that we were 

 obliged to lay to about half a mile away. One has to be 

 very careful m navigating these waters, where shallows 

 are so frequent and the bottom is composed of adaman- 

 tine rock, whose slightest touch is destruction to a vessel. 

 So we had to row the rest of the way in the dinkv 

 tlirough water not pver 3ft. deep and as clear as crystal 

 flaying near the islands in this shaUow water were quite 



a number of porpoises. This is a favorite resort with 

 them, and they are often killed here, but we were unable 

 to get within rifle range that morning, as the great beasts 

 were very shy and at our approach gave tremendous 

 snorts and made for deeper water, leaving broad trails 

 of foam in their wakes; 



We spent a couple of hours on the island. They are 

 composed entirely of lime rock; which the ever active sea 

 has worn and pounded into a thousand curious and fan- 

 tastic shapes: shells, sponges and bits of coral strew the 

 edges of the rock (there are no beaches), and of these we 

 gathered some rather handsome specimens. I came very 

 near being struck by a stinger ray as I reached into a 

 pool to secure a conch shell, the sharp sting just missing 

 my hand as I instinctively withdrew it from the water. 

 These torpedo-shaped fish are very plentiful in the Gulf; 

 and their sting is greatly dreaded by the sailors, for it 

 produces a most violent inflammation that has, in certain 

 instances, terminated, fatally. The remains of some 

 crawls that were formerly used by the spongers are about 

 the only vestige of man that is found on these lone 

 islands, but we felt quite like castaways as we wandered 

 over the tiny rocks, completely surrounded by the ocean. 

 Why is it that a small island 'possesses for most people 

 such a charm? There is a certain fascination for every 

 one, I think, in the fact of being completely for the time 

 cut off from the rest of the world and in being able at a 

 single glance to scan all of one's domains. Cormorants 

 were very abundant and we enjoyed some rifle practice 

 at them, as they were too wary to permit of an approach 

 close enough for work with a shotgun. We managed to 

 pot several, which at Santo's suggestion we had cooked 

 the following day, but though they had twelve hours' 

 soaking in brine and a very long boil afterward, the treat- 

 ment was not sufficient to eliminate the very fishy taste, 

 and they were voted a failure by all save Santo, who 

 seemed to enjoy his dish very much. 



The water in the neighborhood of the island is won- 

 derfully clear, and we can see the bottom at 10 or 12ft. 

 with perfect distinctness. Long grass everywhere covers 

 like a carpet the bed of the sea, over which the sunbeams 

 in their descent through the crystal flood dance and 

 sparkle like diamonds. Occasional branches of snowy 

 coral reach out like limbs of submarine trees, fish dart 

 abou,t like living meteors, while starfish and the thousand 

 creeping things of the sea make a picture of wonderful 

 beauty, and give one a glimpse of that wonderful range 

 of life which everywhere exists beneath the waves, a cre- 

 ation a thousand times more prolific than that that we 

 have on land, and of whose beauties we can but see the 

 barest surface. 



Santo related a rather curious incident that happened 

 near the island some years previously. He and a party 

 of his fishermen were returning from the reef to their 

 crawls, when one of the crew, who was standing by the 

 jib, fell overboard, and though the water was but 8ft. 

 deep and as clear as crystal, no trace of the unfortunate 

 man was ever seen again. This is all the more extraor- 

 dinary when it is considered that the bottom is here 

 of apparently solid rock, over which the grass grows 

 scarcely rank enough to conceal a human body. I con- 

 fess that my powers of credulity were somewhat put to 

 the test, but I was forced into a partial belief of the cir- 

 cumstance, sworn to, as it was, by several witnesses. 



Our run back from the islands was uneventful, a strong 

 breeze was on our quarter and the Geline fairly flew 

 along with a "huge bone in her teeth," now rising high 

 into the air, then plunging with the swoop of an eagle 

 deep into the trough of the seas. How near a thing it is 

 to flying, to stand on the prow of a bounding schooner, 

 before a strong wind, as with wet sheet and flowing sea 

 she speeds on her course; and no wonder is it to me that, 

 nothwithstanding all drawbacks, once let a man lead a 

 sea-faring life and he will pursue no other; there is a 

 freedom, a pleasure, to be had in the mere fact of ex- 

 istence, while breathing the untainted air that blows 

 across a thousand miles of tossing billows. 



We saw several very large green turtles during the 

 day; they are found all over the Gulf, but the finest 

 specimens come from the neighborhood of Cedar Keys, 

 from which place they are shipped in large quantities 

 all over the country to appear on the tables of the ban 

 vivants. 



The afternoon of the second day after we left Rock 

 Island found us snugly anchored in a pretty little bay in 

 the east end of Dog Island. Here we spent several days 

 hunting over and exploring that barren sandbar. It is, 

 indeed, a desolate spot, worse even than St. George's; 

 and nothing breaks the monotony of the endless perspec- 

 tive of tall pines and dazzling white sand. The few ponds 

 in the interior are literally alive with alligators, while 

 the beach and the occasional marshes afford excellent 

 snipe and plover shooting. We made some good bags 

 while there, or rather we cotdd have done so had there 

 been any occasion for it; but it seemed a pity to slaughter 

 when we had no use for our victims. Even as it was we 

 killed an average of fifty birds per day during our stay, 

 and this to only two guns. Shearwaters were very 

 abundant; they are a curious bird. The unnatural scissor- 

 shape of the beak gives them an awkward appearance 

 when at rest, though as they skim the surface of the 

 waves with the lower mandible cleaving the water like 

 the prow of a ship, their motion is the perfection of grace. 

 Desperate fighters are they when wounded, striking out 

 with their bills in a most fierce and dangerous manner. 



We lived rather well during our cruise. Oyster beds 

 were very abundant, and as we had a pair of tongs on 

 board, we did not want for a steady supply of that most 

 sought after bivalve. Santo used to spear quite a number 

 of soft-shell crabs every morning as they basked in the 

 shallow water, and these, with the snipe and other water- 

 fowl that fell to our guns, made meals that almost any 

 gourmand might have envied. One dishmost characteris- 

 tic of the country, however, was the palmetto cabbage, 

 which we obtained by cutting down a palmetto tree and 

 shucking off the outside bark until only the inner pith 

 remained. This heart of the tree, when boiled, makes a 

 very nourishing and pleasant food, greatly resembling 

 real cabbage. 



We used to sleep on board our vessel to escape from 

 mosquitoes and other insects, and at night the alligators 

 on shore would keep up a most outrageous din with their 

 bull-like bellowing. This would generally begin about 

 ten o'clock. First one old patriarch would start it up 

 from his pool and then would come an answering snort 

 from another, then a chorus from everywhere, while a 

 running accompaniment of the croaking of frogs and 



squeaking of night herons added to the pandemonium. 

 This uproar would continue all night, but it reached us 

 from over half a mile of water and did not greatly dis- 

 turb our slumbers. 



The last night of our stay in this charming spot was 

 truly grand. The moon was full— a tropical moon — and 

 as I spread my blankets on the deck, I would not have 

 exchanged my bed for the couch of a king. Moonlight 

 on the sea has been the theme of many a poem, beauti- 

 ful and otherwise; the one a tribute to its grandeur, the 

 other a desecration and sacrilege. But I know of nothing 

 that comes so near being a natural poem as a full moon 

 at sea. Each thread of moonlight bears unspoken 

 cadences to the dark waters, which reflect from then- 

 depths beauties rhyming with the stanzas of the skies; 

 and as one gazes at the great heavens and on the silvery 

 swelling, which rises and falls like the bosom of a sleep- 

 ing maiden, a feeling of peace comes, I think, to every 

 one. All is so quiet, so restful, that it seems as though 

 it must last forever. One forgets the toils of the day 

 just past, the worries of the morrow ; aye, of life, and 

 lives, like the lotus eater, in the peace and calm of the 

 moment. A small vessel is so sympathetic with the sea 

 and enters so into its varying moods, not like those great 

 hulks of 5,000 tons, whose souls have been beaten out of 

 them by the throbs of their iron steam-driven hearts, and 

 though immovable to the influences of the waters in their 

 gentler moods, own only the terrific force of angry ocean. 

 I do not wonder at the universal love of sailors for the 

 crafts that bear them over the seas, their companions in 

 danger, their shelter in times more quiet, and faithful 

 aids in earning their daily bread— inanimate friends, 

 truly, but still dear to the nautical heart. Who ever 

 heard of an "old salt" calling a vessel it? Always she. 



At last one morning, after the several square miles of 

 Dog Island had been pretty thoroughly explored, we 

 hoisted sail and headed for Apalachicola. The wind was 

 favorable during the morning, and 3 o'clock found us 

 just off Cat Point, about six miles from town. Here the 

 wind failed and a tedious calm set in. The water was 

 like oil, and save for an occasional school of flying fish or 

 the agitation caused by the long, dark fin of a shark, 

 nothing disturbed the perfect picture of still life on the 

 sea. But overhead the fish hawks were out in full force, 

 sailing in graceful circles a hundred feet above us, or 

 with clasped wings dropping like arrows from the dizzy 

 height into the waters beneath, to emerge an instant 

 later from the spray-riven depths with then- finny prey 

 tightly clasped in their iron talons. 



It was very aggravating to have to drift helplessly 

 within sight of our destination and yet to be unable to 

 make any progress; but that is one of the vicissitudes of 

 yachting and we made the best of it, sitting under the 

 protecting shade of the lifeless sails and whistling for 

 Boreas. About an hour before sundown a squall sprang 

 up, which fortunately was from the right direction, and 

 drove us rapidly on our way, so that by dark we luffed 

 to, a quarter of a mile from town, and just opposite the 

 orange-colored flag that designated the quarantine station. 

 A little boat pushed off from the dock and a few moments 

 later we were boarded by the health officer, whose mode 

 of inquiry was as brief and thorough as it was taciturn: 

 "Where from?" We told him. "How many men?" He 

 was also enlightened* on this subject. "Any sickness?" 

 No. "Eifty cents." He pocketed the fee, shifted the 

 cigar he was smoking from one corner of his mouth to 

 the other, and fastening his rowboat to our stern was 

 towed ashore without further comment or inquiry. 



Our arrival caused some commotion in the sleepy old 

 town, and every one wanted to know where we had 

 been, and to our*siu-prise we were asked if we had found 

 any treasure! Upon investigation it was found to be the 

 general impression that we had set out for the purpose of 

 recovering some of the gold that is reported to have been 

 concealed by pirates at various points along the coast. 



Treasure hunting is quite an industry in certain por- 

 tions of the country; there are men who have spent 

 their lives in this hopeless task and who still, with the 

 same spirit of the "forty-niners" of California, continue 

 to hunt and hope. It seems to possess a great fascina- 

 tion, this prodding for the wealth buried by those 

 romantic scoundrels of a hundred years ago: of course 

 no one ever finds anything, but then each one thinks that 

 he has discovered the proper clue at last, and your 

 treasure hunter lives in an atmosphere of excitement that 

 is at least akin to pleasure. There can be but little doubt 

 that there is buried treasure on the coast of Florida, but 

 to search for it upon the absurd clues advanced by many 

 men is the height of foolishness, as accident is the only 

 medium by which these spirited treasures will ever be 

 brought to light, A. M. Reynolds, 



[to be continued.] 



NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In a copy of Forest and Stream, issued during the 

 early part of the present year, reference was made to 

 "The Cabinet of Natural History, and American Rural 

 Sports," the first volume of which was published by 

 J. & T. Doughty, Philadelphia, 1830, and the writer of 

 the article informed us that the second volume of this in- 

 teresting and now perhaps rare magazine, formerly in his 

 possession, was destroyed in the "great Chicago fire." 

 It is my good fortune to have copies of both the first and 

 second volumes, each in a good state of preservation, but 

 whether the life of the periodical ended with the second 

 volume, which was published in 1832, is more than I can 

 say. 



It appears that the same questions which agitate the 

 minds of the sportsmen of the present generation, pre- 

 sented themselves to those of that early date, as we find 

 that the men of that day were not only interested in at- 

 tempting the domestication of the ruffed grouse, to which 

 our friend "Jay Beebe" has given so much attention of 

 late, but a spirited controversy appears to have been 

 carried on (and in a most courteous manner, to their 

 credit be it said) in regard to the merits of "holding On 

 or ahead." 



In an article copied from "Lempriere's Natural His- 

 tory" the fact of snakes swallowing their young is alluded 

 to in the following words, under the head of "Poisonous 

 Serpents" : "The rattlesnake is divided into five species, 

 each differing in their external character, size and malig- 

 nancy, of which the Crotahis homdus is by far the largest 

 and most formidable. They are like the viper, viviparous, 

 that is, they produce their young alive and completely 



