494 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



"The tarpon's mouth opens vertically and its jaws close 

 like a pair of shears, and are nearly as sharp, hence the 

 necessity for using a chain, wire or braided snell. Its 

 mouth is quite tnny, with but little flesh or loose bMq 

 about it for holding the hook, so tbat it is a rare occur- 

 rence to safely play and land a large one so hooked, as 

 the fish in its extr lordinary and wonderful leaps and 

 violent shaking of its head and jaws is pretty sure to free 

 itself. 



"Tarpon of from 10 to 40lb=(. run up the streams to 

 brackish and f resh water, where I have had grand sport 

 taking them with a large, gaudily-colored artificial fly 

 and a heavy fly-rod. It does not matter about the color 

 or the pattern "of the fly if it is gay anil attractive in ap- 



Eearance. Of course, but one fish in a dozen or mor % e 

 ookpd, is landed, but it is fine sport all the same. On 

 the St. Sebastian and St. Lucie rivers on the east coast, 

 and the Caloosahatehie and Myakka on the Gulf coast, 

 and on Biscayne Bay, I have had such sport with tarpon 

 of these weights that the hooking in the gullet of the 

 giants of the bays pales before it as the morning stars 

 before the rising sun. I say this in no captious spirit of 

 comparison, for it i* indeed a feat to be proud of, and to 

 boist of, to hook, play and land a fish of 15i)lbs. with rod 

 and reel, but as I said before, I do not particularly fancy 

 that kind of angling " 



The Sea Catfish (Galeiehthys felis).— Welcome or un- 

 welcome, this is one of the angler's tithes in Florida, and 

 must come into the array with more desired forms. Blue 

 cat and salt-water catfish are names applied to this 

 species. 



The sea catfish is accredited to our east coast from New 

 York to Mexico; in the Northern States, however, it is 

 not common. Florida has it ad nauseam, as will be ob- 

 served while reading the remarks of Dr. Henshall later 

 on. The species is, apparently, not recorded from en- 

 tirely fresh water, although it runs into the rivers for 

 some distance. 



This is a bottom fish, which lives upon worms and 

 crustaceans, and will refuse nothing in the shape of flesh. 

 As a grunter, the sea catfish cm give points to the grunt, 

 the drum, croaker, cavalU, mademoiselle and other ven- 

 triloquists. Stearns complains of many nights on the 

 water made sleepless on account of the noisy catfish. 



Twelve pounds is the maximum weight recorded for 

 this fish, but the average size is much smaller. 



The most striking peculiarity of the species is its habit 

 of carrying the fertilized pggs, which resemble white 

 grapes in size and shapp, in the gill cavity. Protected in 

 this manner, they reuidin until the young are sufficiently 

 developed to support themselves. 



There is a second species of marine catfi a h, known as 

 the gafftopsail cat from the peculiar shape of the first 

 dorsal fin; this fish comes northward more frequently 

 than the one just described. The gafftopsail has large 

 eggs and is similar in habits to G. felis. 



"The marine catfish is omnipresent on the coa«ts of 

 Florida, rather more so than the angler desires, and often 

 to his extreme dis°:u-t; for it takes both bait and fly in- 

 tended for other and more desirable species — though it is 

 more readily taken toward dusk or after dark. Any- 

 thing in the way of bait will answer for the catfish, as it 

 is not at all choice or fastidious in its tastes and desires, 

 and will grunt its satisfaction just the same, when in the 

 angler's possession, whether chewing up his best fly or a 

 bit of white rag. 



"I have never known it to be eaten. I tried it once as 

 a matter of experiment, and, although my curiosity was 

 satisfied, my palate was so outraged and disgusted that I 

 have ever since been almost ashamed to look one in the 

 face. And n ally I have no gastronomic use for a fish 

 that maki s a cradle of its mouth by carrying its eggs and 

 young in it. 



"There are several fresh-water species, any of which 

 can be taken with any kind of bait and almost any kind 

 or tackle; the only difficulty with the angler is to avoid 

 taking them." 



A FLORIDA RETROSPECT. 

 {Concluded from Page h86.) 

 should put his dwelling elsewhere. About the time I re- 

 moved from Fort R»ed an elegant tract of high hamak 

 was being offered tor sale in lots to suit on the south side 

 of Lake Jrt-up. What I thought was an exorbitant 

 price was asked for it; but I went through it, and rode 

 around the edge of it, through the pine woods, search- 

 ing for a suitable bit of pine land for a home, but failed 

 to find what I sought. I did not wish to live miles away 

 from my grove. Col. Whitner purchased twenty acre's 

 in that hamak and planted a grove after great labor in 

 clearing off the dense growth of trees and vines, living 

 at his home at Fort Reed. He was ably seconded by his 

 son, Capt. B. F. W., an old Confederate officer, a chip of 

 the old block, who was, and is, one of my dearest friends. 

 On that twenty acres is to-day one of the finest groves I 

 ever saw, and very profitable. It might have been 

 money in my pocket had I purchased there and it might 

 not. Col. W.'s arduous labors ana exposures in that 

 hamak and journeying to and fro no doubt shortened 

 hiss useful life. Capt. W. still cares for the old grove, 

 and in addition has a fine one of his own adjoining. 

 Many a very pleasant visit I made there Avith him, where 

 in the little cabin, around the camp-fire or table at meal 

 time, with our pipes in the evening, deer driving with 

 a neighbor in the adjacent woods, or fishing at the 

 mouth of Soldier Creek, we passed some mighty happy 

 hours. On Dec. 20, 1878, we left his boat landing for a 

 duck hunt across Je-up and up the St. Jolms. The day 

 was "just too lovely for anything," though the ash breeze 

 that kept us company was a trifle warm, and as we 

 skirted the sawgrass, pulling in a bass here and there or 

 bowling over a duck now and then, stopping at noon to 

 lunch in the warm sunshine, I thought the situation 

 could not easily be improved. Emerging from the lake 

 we entered the river, and rowed along up easily until 

 sunset warned us to camp. We found an unfurnished 

 cabin back a pi^ee from the shore on dry ground in the 

 woods, roofed and sided, but frontleiss. Under the pro- 

 jecting roof at one end, where the outside chimnev was 

 to be piaced, we made our bed on the ground, built a 

 fire, brought up some extra wood, got supper, and after 

 pipes and a chat turned in. I harpent d to be on the 

 windward tile, though tlere was scat cely any wind then. 



A day or two before a blizzard had organized a raid 

 away up among the ice and buow and other features of 

 Hudi-on'a Bay, and with all the " imps of the air " started 

 for the identical spot where our innocent and unsuspect- 



ing selves were slumbering, gaining impetus as it hummed 

 past Baltimore until, in the vernacular of the engineer, 

 it " pulled her wide open " at Jacksonville, and some- 

 where about midnight struck our camp, as Uncle Remus 

 says, " ker-blam." I had b'ren dreaming for an hour. I 

 suppose, as the temperature fell, that I was lost in a snow- 

 storm on the plains, and that, overcome by the cold, the 

 process of congelation had begun in my limhs, when 1 

 awoke to find that I had kicked the blanket < ff and was 

 about to fret ze to death on the spot. I was nearly stiff- 

 ened out, but alter a while managed to get on my feet, 

 when wiih chatterine: teeth I beat my arms across my 

 body, and braced against the wind that drove the rain 

 like No. 10 shot from a chokebore at forty yards. Suf- 

 fering Nicodemus ! I was never so cold iu my life. My 

 very bones cried out, and I don't know as it was to be 

 wondered at, for I had on no underclothing. Presently 

 I got control of my fingers sufficiently to seize the ax, 

 which I grasped for in the darkness, and though the wind 

 had blown most of the fire bodily away, I succeed in re- 

 building it, andafter thawing out awhile turnedin asrain, 

 only to repeat the experience before morning, when Capt. 

 W. wielded the ax. We did not get ducks enough on 

 that trip to pay for our trouble. 



But the nicest, easiest duck hunting I ever did in Flor- 

 ida or elsewhere, was over by Sylvan Lake, three or four 

 miles from my place, shooting wood duck. Early in the 

 fall the young ducks had a fly-way from their roosting 

 place in some inland lake to the St. Johns in the morn- 

 ing and back in the evening. Driving o\er about 3 P. 

 M., and hitching the horse to a tree a little distance back 

 in the woods, I took my stand by a tree near the margin 

 of the lake, where I had a good view out over the water 

 and could see the incomers afar off. They skimmed 

 along above the treetops just a "zoonin," and when the 

 gun spoke, if killed, they letl on the pine carpet just in 

 the rear. If winged, thpy could not escape; and it' they 

 went along unhurt, why, I had a shy at them some other 

 day. No dogs, no wading in mud and water, no shiver- 

 ing in a Wind, no lying spitted on one's back in a boat 

 until half frczen, or blinded looking into the zenith, no 

 chasing diving cripples — no trouble or annoyance of any 

 kind. When the flight was over, pick up your ducks, 

 put them into the wagon, and mocey off home as com- 

 fortable as ycu please. 



For turkeys I went to Sulphur Creek Hamak, five 

 or six miles away, sometim< s starting horseback long 

 before day, so as to be oh the ground when the turkejs 

 flew down; and again fire-hunting for deer down through 

 the flat woods with a companion, camping in the edge of 

 the hamak about midnight. I started one morning 

 on muleback on a hunt of this kind, when the fog was so 

 thick that it trembled like jelly on each side as I rode 

 through it; and I had not been on the trail, just outside 

 my gate, five minutes when the mule wandered off at his 

 own sweet will somewhere else, and by the time I had 

 seized the fact I was, as I found out later, away down at 

 the lower end of my place, half a mile away from the 

 trail, and as completely lost in the pine wood sameness 

 as if I had been set down in the Okechobee swamps; and 

 Dt-fore I found myself I had run an oak limb in my eye 

 and was too late to go turkey hunting. Gray squirrels, 

 called there "cat squirrels," were very numerous in that 

 ha mak, and I have shot as many as twenty in an hour. 

 They do not frequent pine woods, and the lox squirrel is 

 not iound in hamaks. The latter is as large as his North- 

 ern congener, but the former smaller, as are rabbits, quail 

 and deer. 



But time and space fail me to tell of the many, many 

 happy hours spent in the vast stretches of pine lorest or 

 shady depths of hamak, in the almo-t impenetrable 

 "scrub" or on the far-reaching prairie sentineled by pic- 

 turesque round-headed palmetto trees; of excursions to 

 inland Jakes for fish, on camp hunts for deer, or of trips 

 to the Upper St. Johns, Lake Harney and Indian River, 

 and the comfortable camps by the shore beneath wide- 

 branching oaks with their swaying canopies of moss, where 

 the moon and the owl looked down upon us, and the great 

 blue heron hoar<-ely squawked to his following mate as 

 he leisurely led the way in search of fresh pastures. 



The scenes of those days in many ways are wonderfully 

 changed. Where then we journeyed by wagon and 

 ground the slow and weary miles out in the yielding 

 sand, beneath a merciless sun, while the great black flies 

 bled the reeking horse unmercifully, leaving the blood 

 trickling in a tiny stream from the pierced flesh, as it 

 flew gorged and heavily away, now the firm rails bear 

 the swift train to its dt stination, the iron horse heeds not 

 the buzzing insect, and the comfortable passengers are 

 whisked across river and prairie, through pine woods 

 and gloomy hamak, by lakes and orange groves, speedily 

 to their journey's end. Where formerlv it took from 

 twenty-four or more hours to go from Jacksonville to 

 Sanford by the snaky coarse of the St. Johns, now bv 

 rail the distance is compassed in four or five. Yet to 

 the stranger the river scenery would be the most 

 interesting and instructive. Villages whh villas, 

 fine schools and churches, gas and water works 

 have sprung up like Jonah's Gourd (let us hope they 

 will not have worms and peii-b). Church bells call 

 to wo- ship; the noise of trade and Iraffic and whirr of 

 mills drown the hoarse bellow of the alligator; the engine 

 bell and whistle frighten the timid deer and su-picious 

 turkey ; and thousands of orange groves dot the land, 

 wherein their owners hoe crab-grass, grub out stumps, 

 set traps for the cunning and destructive gopher, mix all 

 sorts of villainous compounds with which to dose "scale 

 inserts," raise swept potatoes, gather oranges if they can, 

 fight fleas, pick ticks, spend their little all for fertilizers, 

 and do it again, get sand spurs in their legs, swear, hunt 

 wood lice, experiment with all sorts of foreign truck that 

 won't thrive, buy Northern hay in the bale at $30 the ton, 

 ditto oats at ruination the bushrl, have hen lice travel off 

 with the poultry, and attempt the same with the horses 

 on occasions, have roaches run off with the kitchen, 

 scratch jiggers and ho«J, kill 'possums under the house, 

 get Florida sore e) es, congratulate each other that th> y 

 are not covered up by snow drifts, and curse the man who 

 said that five thousnud oranges were grown to the tree. 

 I do not mean to be underwood, you understand, that all 

 these recreations were indulged in every day. By no 

 means. They were sandwiched in with ordinary labor 

 and other pleasures from time to time so as to avoid 

 monotony. 



I have enumerated a few of the entertainments pro- 

 vided for me. As I have intimated, I have had many 

 funny and other experiences in Florida, J have enjoyed 



unspeakably the companionship, assistasce, and enter- 

 tainment of friends and neighbors, without which life 

 would have been a burden, and in their company, when 

 irresponsible cattlemen have set the woods afire, have 

 fought to protpct our groves and fences until reeking 

 with pre-piration, eyes blood hot, throats parched with 

 thirst, smutched from head to foot with grime and smoke 

 of pitch, and on the verge of exhaustion with stride, life 

 was as big a burden as we cared to "tote" hack t>> the 

 houre. This is one of the recreations which I did not 

 mtntion. 



And yet, notwithstanding all the discomforts, I wculd 

 not be robbed of my Florida memories for all the ice 

 palaces and frczfn noses from Maine to Oregon. Toe 

 Florida winters as a rule are incomparably beautiful, the 

 summers incomparably lengthy, and some of the alore- 

 mpntioned occupations incomparably incompaiable. 



There is probably no one locality on tht« globe that 

 has every imaginable requisite for profit and happiness 

 and not a single exception, excepting Calfomia. (For 

 excursion rates see small bills.) We can not all lo k 

 on these things plike. For those who are suited with 

 Florida, that is just the place to suit them. For in- 

 valids whose health is benefited by that climate. that 

 is their Mecca. For hotel keepers and land agents it is 

 more of a "gold mine" than an orange gTove. For 

 tho-ewho are in limited circumstances and who go down 

 there expecting to amass a fortune in a pine land grove, 

 it is a delusion and a fenare. For those who have gone 

 there from other sections and having burned their 

 bridges behind them, can't get away, it is a lovely place 

 to cultivate patience, endurance and economy. For the 

 owner of a large and profitable grove it is an admirable 

 place to raise oranges, while for any who have abundant 

 means to "monkey" with a pine land grove and not feel 

 it, or purchase one in a hamak, having a winter resi- 

 dence at Lightwood Villa and a summer ditto at Bar Har- 

 bor, I am willing to act as legatee if they will act 

 promptly. O. O. S. 



CHARLOTTE HARBOR. 



FOURTH PAPER. 

 " The stormy March is come at last 



With wind and cloud ai.d changing skies: 

 I htar the rushing of the blast 



That through the snowy valley flies. 

 "Ah 1 pas-ing few are those who speak, 



Wild, stormy month, in praise of thee. 

 Yet, though thy winds are loud and bleak, 



Thou art a welcome month to me. 

 " Thou bringst. the hope of those calm skies, 



And that soft clime of suany showers. 

 Where the wide bloom on earth taat lies. 



Seems of a brighter world than ours." 



I HAVE spent four successive months of March at the 

 southern end of Charlotte Harbor: the novelty has 

 passed away, and the place and its incidents have become 

 almost as familiar as my home, and it needs the genius 

 of a Walton or a White to make the rec tal of fa-niliar 

 and homely iEcidents interesting. However, I observe 

 that I eagerly read all stories of Florida journeyiugs — 

 especially when they tell of scenes and regions with which 

 I am familiar — and it may be that there are others to 

 whom some notes of my six weeks' sojourn on Pine Island 

 of the season of 1889 will be of interest, 



The yellow fever scourge of 18S8 had, last winter, 

 thrown a pall over Florida. Northern visitors were very 

 few. The great hot* Is were aim st empty of guests. 

 Many were closed. To emphasize the general glo >oj, the 

 weather was execrable. The whole nothern part of the 

 State was under water. I observed at Sandford that the 

 palmetto trees that used to fringe the shore were well 

 out in the St. Johns, There was one compensation, the 

 trains ran promptly on time, and there was plenty of 

 room. 



North P. Norris, my companion, and myself, arrived 

 at Jacksonville by the West India Mail at noon of Sun- 

 day, Feb. 24. We had taken our t'cket for Pdlatka, and 

 spent the hour's stop at Jacksonville visiting the Sub- 

 Tropical Exposition. The sky was gloomy and the streets 

 deserted. The big Everett was closed; no one was visi' le 

 at the Wind-or; and two persons stood on the v« randah 

 of the St. James. At the Exposition there w<re n > vis- 

 itors but ourselves. A dude flamingo stalked about the 

 ai J.es, turning his toes out with laughable precision, and 

 apparently commenting in hoarse tones upon the exhibits. 

 My old acquaintance, the manatee, was covered with a 

 growth ot moss, but devoured the lily p ids thrown to 

 him with relish, using the little claws which prefect from 

 his nostrils to clutch them, A covey of quail roamed 

 about the building, seemingly very little alarmed, but 

 shy enough to show their faculty of quick concealment. 



A prominent official of the railroad was the only pas- 

 senger in the Pullman, besides ourselves, for Palatba, and 

 learning our wish to reach Punta Gorda as soon as pos;-i- 

 ble, informed us that there was a Sunday night train from 

 Lakeland, near Tampa, and kindly h-d our baggage re- 

 checked for us. We arrived at Punta Gorda shortly after 

 midnight, being the only passengers from Lakdand 

 southward. So we reached the head of Charlotte Har- 

 bor in two days from Philadelphia. 



The next morning gave us typical Charlotte Harbor 

 weather; clear sky, and a warm, soft breeze. The hand- 

 some hotel was admirably kept, as u ual, but there was 

 the prevailing gloom on the manager's countenance, 

 which indicated that there was no profit in the season. 

 In the morning we hired a wagon and drove through the 

 woods five miles to Alligator Creek — a little stream — and 

 took a half dozen black bass, the largest three pounds. 

 After dinner we sailed down to the railroad pier, and 

 witnessed the taking of a jew fish weighing y001b-=. The 

 next noon we arrived at San Carlos Hotel, St. James city, 

 had a handle put on my gaff by the blacksmith, arranged 

 our rooms and prepared for six weeko' fishing. 



There is something very homelike about' this little 

 hotel. I found many of the same pi ople there who wit- 

 nessetl its opening. The hotel itselt was neaily full, but 

 there was no oveifliw into the ancex < r cottages a- in 

 fcrmer years. The service was very good and the tab'e 

 excellent. A professional fish cook had I een brought 

 from Boolon, and the guests could have their fi-h pre- 

 pared in any manner they liked. Spanish mtckerel 

 never appeared on the bill of fare, yet enough of that 

 delicious fish were taken by the guests and prepared by 

 private orders to keep the table well supplied. The at- 



