202 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March i8, 1899. 
A Trip to Georgia. 
Baltimore^ March 2. — Early in November I was invited 
by my friend Mr. Pascal N. Strong, of Savannah, to 
take a cruise in his schooner, and try the fishing in 
the salt waters of Georgia, near Savannah. I left this 
city on the A. C. Line train at 2:25 P. M., and arrived 
in Savannah the next morning, and found my friend 
waiting for me at the depot. After getting breakfast 
and making a few arrangements for our cruise, we 
.started for Bieulieu,' which was to be our- point of depart- 
ure. We toolc an electric car, which carried us six miles; 
then we changed to a tram road, the equipment of which 
consisted of one car, which was drawn by a mule, and 
driven by a small boy. When we boarded this car. I 
noticed a double-barrel gun up by the front door, and a 
mongrel pointer lying on the floor. After we had pro- 
ceeded about two miles the boy who was driving, wound 
up his brake most furioush^ bringing the car to such 
an abrupt stop that half the passengers were thrown 
from their seats. The conductor rushed through the 
car in an excited manner, seized the gun, and asked the 
boy where they were. I could not imagine what was the 
matter, whether it was an attempt to hold up the car, 
escaped convicts, or what it was. But my fears were 
allayed when the conductor with true Southern hos- 
pitality handed the gun to my friend and asked him if 
he would not like to take a shot, at the same time 
pointing out where a covey of partridges had alighted 
in the scrub palmettoes. Mr. S. took the gun. got out 
of the car, the passengers all waiting patiently, and killed 
one of the birds, which the conductor added to a string 
of five he had shot on previous trips that day. 
We finally arrived at a cross-road, where we left the 
car, and a short walk brought us to our destination. 
Here Mr. Strong has established a very large terrapin 
farm, which is called Bieulieu. The place is beautifullj' 
situated on a wide salt-water river, and contains a good 
many acres. There are several substantial buildings, and 
the immense "crawl" for the terrapins. Several years 
ago there was a very large and handsome dwelling house 
on the place which was occupied by Mr. Strong's 
family, but unfortunateh-^ it was destroyed by fire, with 
all its contents, the occupants barely escaping with 
their lives, anci my friend, having to make his escape 
by the aid of a sycamore tree that grew near the house. 
The crawl was an object of great interest to me, and 
T never expected to see so many diamond-back terra- 
pins in one place as T did then. The crawl is several 
hundred feet long, and about 6oft. wide, and contained 
at the time I saw it about 40.000 terrapins. On the 
north side there is an incline covered with cement, 
Mfhich leads up to a Avide shelf or bench, also covered 
with cement. On the south side is a wide ditch of 
mud and water, the tide flowing into it through inlets 
from the river. The terrapins of all sizes crawl np this 
incline and lie basking in the sun on the bench. When 
we entered the inclosure, there were thousands of them 
upon the bench, nearly all of which on our approach 
turned tail to get away. But notwithstanding this ap- 
parent fear or shyness, they become more or less tame 
in confinement, and when feeding time comes will crowd 
like a flock of chickens around the person feeding them. 
These terrapins are all grown when placed in the crawl, 
and are not bred in there, as many suppose. There are, 
however, some few hatched in the crawl, and after the 
last severe hurricane that visited the Georgia coast, quite 
a number of very little fellows were found, not larger 
than a nickel. The terrapin are purchased from men 
who make it a business to catch them, which they do in 
nets from 15 to 25ft. long. They row slowly through 
the salt creeks, and ocassionally rap on the gunwale 
of the boat with their oars. This noise attracts the ter- 
rapin, which stick their heads up to see what is making 
such a racket. The catcher, who is keeping a sharp 
lookout, as soon as he sees a head, shoves down in the 
mud near shore a pole, to which it attached one end of 
his net. He then rows his boat rapidly in the direction 
in which his knowledge of the ways of the critter tell 
him is the right one to catch it, and endeavors to get 
his net around the space occupied by the terrapm. He 
then gathers up the net in shore toward the first pole, 
and generally finds he has entrapped his prey. The 
terrapin are bought by 'count, the bottom shell being 
measured with a notched rule, and all measunng 6in. 
or over are called 'counts." Those of less than oin. 
and more than 5 are called three-quarters, and eighteen 
of them are called a dozen. Those under Sm- and more 
than 4 are called halves, and two dozen count as one. 
Those under 4in. are classed as bulls, and command a 
very much lower price than the larger ones. 
Lying out in the stream in front of Bieulieu was the 
trig schooner Doris, in which we were to take our cruise, 
and WQ were not long in going aboard. "Get under 
way!" was the order given by Capt. Strong, as we. 
stepped upon the deck. We had a spankmg breeze, and 
went skimming along the deep river, through the salt 
marshes. The first thing I did was to get off my store 
clothes and tumble into a flannel shirt and old sun, 
and then I felt like lounging about the vessel and en- 
ioying the varied changes of the landscape. These in- 
land waterways of the Georgia coast are wonderful 
There is a network of creeks, slews, guts, rivers and 
bays that would prove a perfect labyrmth to one un- 
acquainted with them. All the coast and Sea Island 
, negroes in this section are fine sailors and pilots, and 
on? crew was no exception. To illustrate, we would 
be sailing along with a fair breeze m one direction 
which seemed to me to lead exactly to where we wanted 
to -o but suddenly our course would be changed the 
vessel' brought np into the wind with a tremendous 
slashing of ropes, hammering of blocks and slappmg 
of canvas, and we would glide into a narrow creek the 
vessel's sides almost touching the marsh, and away 
we would go at a tremendous pace on a course at right 
angles to the one we had been sailmg. On asking Jake 
our mate for an explanation, he would say, Dis >er 
crTk heads up da,' or "dis is a cut-off " but day or mgh 
he never failed to find them, nor faltered a moment 
. in his way. Bijt it b-no% 3II ^^tich plam sailing, for 
there are many banks, points and shallows that have 
to be avoided, all of which were well known to our 
crew. In fact, most of these negroes know these creeks 
and rivers just as well as a boy of sixteen knows the 
streets of the town he was raised in. 
We stopped at several places as we went along to 
try the fishing, but did not have much success, The 
negroes call these places "fishning draps," they never 
say fishing. One day we anchored opposite St. Cather- 
ines Island, and made arrangements with a coal black 
fellow named Lewis to drive us across the island to a 
celebrated fishing place called Bluff' Creek Hammock. 
As it was necessary to make an early start to catch the 
right tide, we breakfasted at 3:30, and on rowing ashore 
found Lewis waiting- for us. His wagon wa.s an old 
four-wheeled affair, with every tire tied on with wire, 
each wheel having a different squeak of its own, and each 
hub l6oking\as it it had never known what grease was. 
Pascal (who is generally called Pat for .short) and myself 
sat on a board, that had quite a good spring under it, 
and Lewis sat on a box to drive. But thcJunniest part 
of the whole rig was George, the motive power. He 
was a crcam-colored mule, a little larger than a jack 
rabbit, but as tough and strong as a steam engine. 
He trotted along sideways, with one eye on the road and 
the other on Lewis. The latter was armed with a long 
supple switch, with which he larruped George the whole 
time, and every time he brought that switch down on the 
mule's ribs it sounded like hitting an empty flour bar- 
rel, and caused George to jerk back his enormous ears, 
switch his tail up and show a disposition to let fly his 
heels. Lewis got out at one place to let down some 
bars and handed me the lines to drive through, When 
we were through I tried to stop George to let Lewis get 
aboard, but stop he would not. Pat and myself both pulled 
as hard as we could, but the mule walked steadily on. 
pulling the wagon by the lines. Lewis seeing the situ- 
ation, yelled out, "Whoa, da. mule, doan' T tole you 
stop." and the mule stopped as if .stnu-k by lightning. 
The trail we took across the island led us through the 
wildest and most beautiful thickets of semi-tropical 
growth. Interspersed with enormous live oaks (fes- 
tooned with the beautiful Southern moss), magnolias, 
pines and other trees. The ground was covered with 
scrub nalmettocs, ferns, many beautiful flowers and 
coquina bushes, with dark green leaA^es and bright red 
berries and several varieties of creeping vines. These 
woods and thickets abound in deer and rattlesnakes, alli- 
gators and other varmints. We at last reached the place 
where Lewis had his boat, and started for Bluff Creek 
Hammock. This place is at a shai-p bend of Bluff 
Creek, where the tide has eaten away the banks of the 
hammock, and undermined the trees, which have fallen 
into the water. The trees soon become encrusted with 
barnacles and oysters, and sheepshead and other fish 
come here to feed. Such a place is a very trying one 
to fish in, as the fish when they are hooked niake for 
the stumps and branches, and it is very difficult to 
keep from getting hung. We had not beeti fishing long 
before I was fast to a sheepshead, which \ knew by his 
tremendous pull was a large one. Lewis became very 
much excited, and kept calling out to me, "Gie him up, 
boss; ^ie him up." But it was easier to say "gic hirri 
up" than to get him up. but a steady, strong strain 
lifted him free of the snags, and after a fight of five or 
six minutes 'I landed him. He was a beauty^ and weighed 
close on gibs. We spent four days' fishing at this place 
and another called McQueen's Hummock, and had 
magnificent luck, catching 216 fish: sheepshead, stag 
bass, drum and trout. 
St. Catharines Island is about eighteen miles long 
and from two to four miles wide. It is envned by Mr. 
Rauers, of Savannah, who keeps it solely as a game 
preserve. He has a fine mansion on the island, and 
entertains the friends Avhom he invites to share his sport 
most hospitably. While we were there fishing, he had 
four gentlemen from vSavaUnah deer shooting with him, 
and they killed ten deer in the four days. Mr. Rauers 
has bored several artesian wells in different parts of 
the island, all of which are flowing wells and supply an 
abundance of fine water to the many head of stock he 
has grazing, and also to the dee-r. One well near his 
house flows a steady stream into a tank in the second 
story. There are about twenty-four hundred acres of 
cleared land on this island that formerly produced abun- 
f^ant crops of the finest Sea Island cotton, but now 
nothing is raised. 
As we had had about fishing enough, wc continued our 
crnise to a place called Harris' Neck, which is a tract 
of many acres, owned and occupied entirely by negroes. 
Pat expected to get some terrapins at this place, as 
many of the negroes follow catching them for a living. 
On arriving we had hardly gotten our anchor down 
before the "Coota niggers" began coming aboard. 
They filled the cockpit, and all jabbered at once until 
Capt Strong demaneled silence and proceeded to busi- 
ness. Lie has a black man at this place named Grant, 
who acts as his agent, and who is far above the average 
negro in shrewdness, but is just as full of superstition 
as any of them. It is his eluty to measure the "cootas" 
(as the blacks call terrapin), which the catchers bring 
in bags. Each terrapin as it is brought out is held 
against a notched measure, and Grant would call 
out the .«;ize to Pat, who would put it down 
in his book. Grant would hold up a terrapin and 
say "count," the next one being short of the 
measure, he would say "three-quarters" ; then the 
fellow who caught it would make a great fuss, wanting 
to see it measured over again, and trying in every way 
to stretch it to a count, but Grant was inexorable, and 
what he said first went. These fellows in the height of 
the season make from $15 to $20 per week. 
While at Harris' Neck we heard of some fine lumber 
that has been picked up adrift after the last hurricane, 
and Pat concluded to buy some of it, and return to Bieu- 
lieu with a deck load. As soon as loaded we got under 
way, and had a pleasant sail until we entered St, Cath- 
arines Sound. Night was fast approaching as we entered 
the sound, and there were indications of the weather 
thickening up. Our course was S.W., which we had 
to hold until we were below a can buoy that marked 
the outer edge of a large and very shoal bank that 
ran o"tit several miles from the shore. After passing this 
bijoy ovtr course would have been S.E., we woul4 
have had a clear run across to Ossibaw Island. The 
weather continued to thicken, and we were soon in a 
dense fog, but having held our S.W. course for quite a 
while, we thought it safe to haul up toward the eastward. 
We had hardly changed our course before the piping 
voice of Cleveland, our cabin boy, sang out, "Dat center- 
borle done drug," and we were hard aground. The 
swell was coming in pretty lively from the ocean, and 
on our starboard quarter we could hear it breaking. 
We got out a kedge anchor and tried to work the vessel 
oft", but could not budge her. Every large swell that 
came in would lift her, and cause her to pound the 
bottom. Fortunately the tide was coming in, and we 
knew that in about an hour she would float. After 
rolling and pounding for sime time, we got her off into 
deep water and anchored to wait for daylight, 
I was particularly struck wit'h the blackness and ig- 
norance of the negroes we were thrown in contact with 
on our cruise. They have a lingo of their own, and 
one not accustomed to hear them talk cannot understand 
^them. I asked one of them one day how old a particu- 
larly venerable looking darky was, and he said, 
"I can' rightly tole you, boss. When I come here 
I be chillens, and he be old mon." 
They say that a Georgia man once made a bet with 
a Massachusetts man who had not been accust:omed to 
hear these people talk, that the negroes at a town they 
were approaching talked the Indian and not the Eng- 
lish language. To prove it the Georgia man got out 
of the car and approached an old negro, who was lean- 
ing against a post, while the Massachusetts man hstened 
from the car window. The following dialogue then took 
place, the old negro talking in that deep guttural voice 
peculiar to so many of them: 
Georgia man — Uncle Lish', whA he"? 
Uncle L. — Wha who? 
Georgia man — Ephe. 
Uncle L." Da he. 
The Massachusetts man paid the bet, as the language 
used was as much Indian to him as the genuine thing. 
Edward A. Robtistson. 
The Alum Bank. 
Look, what thy memory can not contain. 
Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt fitid 
Those children niirs'd, deliver'd from thy train. 
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind. 
— Shakespeare; Sonnet TT. 
The Alum Bank was, and is, a steep sloping hillside 
half a mile or so in length, and 150 or 200ft. high, and 
crowned through nearly its whole extent with a precipice 
25 or 30ft. in height. This slope extends to the edge of 
the Conemaugh River, and in my boyhood was thickly 
covered with forest trees. Wild flowers also grew in 
profusion there, asters, sweet Williams, wild honeysuckles, 
the wake robin or Indian turnip, with its bunch of shining 
scarlet berries. The cliff on the summit of the hill had 
crevices and niches in its face, caves, we called them, 
though none of them was of great size, and in these we 
sometimes made fires and tried to imagine ourselves the 
survivors of a shipwrecked crew on some desert coast. 
I pity the boy of twelve years who has never read "Robin- 
son Crusoe" and "Peter Wilkins," or who, having read 
them, can ever forget them. 
Opposite the Alum Bank the country is generally low, 
and stretches with a surface more or less broken across 
the foot of the Chestnut Ridge, two or three miles dis- 
tant. Through this intervale and near the river, the old 
Pennsylvania Canal dragged its slow length along, where 
the white-painted freight boats moved on leisurely under 
the motive power of a solitary crowbait at the end of a 
long towline, and the more gaudily bedecked packets shot 
along at the fearful velocity of four or five rniles an hour . 
under the impulse of a team of three spanking horses. 
The canal has long since fallen into disuse, and few 
vestiges of its former existence remain. Three or four 
years ago was dug up in one of the principal streets of 
Pittsburg, a portion of the forward part of one of the 
ancient canal boats, and it was an object of a good deal of 
interest. It must have been buried there for forty years. 
It was one of the last relics of the raging canawl.- Along 
the further side of the open country and close to the foot 
of the ridge, now stretch the iron tracks of the great Penn- 
sylvania Railroad. In my early boyhood all that region 
which now lies exposed to the sun in cultivated fields was 
a thicket of vines and undergrowth, where were to be 
found fox grapes, wild plums, and huckleberries, in abun- 
dance. Two years ago I wandered over there across the 
fields, and in a hollow I found a remnant of the ancient 
thicket, and I gathered a handful of wild plums ; but some- 
how they did not have the flavor of those I gathered in 
my boyhood. Perhaps the change was in myself. 
It was a fair prospect that showed from the top of the 
Alum Bank. A writer in a newspaper published in a 
distant town more than two-score of years ago, in speak- 
ing of the Alum Bank, says : "This is a bluff of rocks 
at the Conemaugh River, which ascend about 200ft. per- 
pendicular from the water, from the summit of which a 
most beautiful view of the country for miles around is 
afforded. In the distance rolls up in majestic grandeur 
the summit of the Chestnut ridge, at whose base are situ- 
ated some of the finest farms in the country, through 
which winds the Pennsylvania Central Road. The view 
is delightful, and one would not tire of the scenery in a 
day. Here in front, through a fertile valley, quietly glide 
the silvery water of the Conemaugh, along whose mar- 
gin, as far- as sight can reach, are seen waving fields of 
grain, and dotted on the whole expanse are fine residences 
and barns." I like this outside testimony to the beauty of 
one of the favorite haunts of ray early years. 
For a short distance at the lower end of the Ahim Bank 
the conditions are reversed — the cliff being at the foot of 
the hill, at the water's edge, while the hill slopes back to 
the level above. Trees grew on the top of the rocks 
here, and from their branches one could look almost verti- 
cally down into the watsr, which here formed a wide; quiet 
pool or eddy. Upon some of the larger limbs of one of the 
greatest of these trees, Master Parker, the teacher of the 
village school, had laid a slight platform.' and here on a 
Saturday afternoon, when there was "no school," he 
frequefitly repaired to shoot the fish in the wster beneath. 
