Apro. is, 1899.] 
In the FIatwoods"of Florida. 
Doctor and I left Auburnclale one morning for 
Brown's Clearing, near the headwaters of the Withlia- 
coochee, and in a flatwoods region which Sike had re- 
ported to us as overrun by "sky-oodles" of game^ a 
forceful statement that aroused anticipations by its vague- 
ness. Sike, Drury, and Drury's son George, three sea- 
soned knots of hunting timber, were to meet us at the 
end of our journey and pilot us about through the most 
confusing section of the forest in the central part of the 
State. 
Knowledge of where deer were to be found was neces- 
sary to insure a successful hunt. Existing local condi- 
tions affected the movements of game. Favorable possi- 
bilities were likely to be inversely proportional to tJie 
amount of previous hunting that had occurred in various 
parts of the wilderness and directly commensurable with 
the supply of forage. Frequenter we were compelled to 
traverse great distances that we might secure meat, but 
on a few occasions we discovered it almost at our doors. 
Our hounds started four deer one morning while I cov- 
ered a nearby stand, from which I could hear distinctly 
the crowing of chickens on surrounding farms. Sike 
spent much of his time in the woods and could supply 
us with valuable information at any time concerning flic 
whereabouts of the game. 
The twenty-five-niile trip from Auburndalc to the flat- 
woods was a panorama that changed gradually from bril- 
liant attractiveness to sombre impressivcness as we pas.^ed 
frotn the home surroundings of lake and pine forest, glo- 
rious under the morning sunlight, into a region of great 
cypress swamps that were stupendous in the gloom caused 
by an overcast sky. The accumulating of clouds during 
the journey gave the landscape at times only prettiness, at 
others radiant beauty, at others a dark sublimity. The 
forest in the changing lights was grand. 
We stopped about 2 o'clock to eat dinner near the well 
of a meeting house. The 30 by 50ft. structure stood on 
the last pine ridge fourteen miles from town. The rough 
lumber used had probably been hauled from the mill a 
few miles back on the road, and the work performed 
by the congregation. Such a building was as sermon in 
itself and gave a religions aspect to that part of the wil- 
derness. Indeed, as we sat there the small house of wor- 
ship assumed proportions that seemed to encompass the 
civilized world. 
Pleasant visions of rural devoutness were suggested to 
us as Ave lunched. The logs at the crossing a short way 
back on the road had been worn bare by the feet vi 
pedestrians. Fodder scraps and corncobs under trees near 
B the well indicated that many people came here on preach- 
ing Sundays either to stay or from a long distance. 
J^atriarchs had tramped bare spots on each side of the 
single step as they lit up the entrance with their beaming- 
visages-. Those nests of whittlings under shady trees re- 
vealed character. Artists who had worked with a free 
bold hand had cast shavings far and wide, while those 
who had wrought with care had accumulated their waste 
into diminutive heaps. There was an object lesson in 
these remnants of wood-carving. 
Open pine forest surrounded the church. The contour 
of the ground on both sides of the doorway sloped to lovv 
country, where there were glimpses through the forest 
of lagoons extending to gray cypress swamps. There 
were a number of places within sight where our hounds 
had started deer. Perhaps the older members of the 
congregation, even, while gazing out those windows, have 
thought up remiscences to tell afterward out by the whit- 
tlings. Perhaps forest-born Nestors cannot throw a shav- 
ing and wriggle a beard— well, perhaps. 
The road from the church to the clearing led by only 
one house, a log mansion overtopped on the door side 
by a cluster of enormous bananas. The small patch of 
growing cane in the far corner of the lot added by its 
fresh green color to the attractiveness of the little home. 
A large covey of bare-legged children followed their 
mother as she approached the bars to answer our iri- 
quiries in regard to the way. Some of these youthfid 
wood nymphs stood about as mute statues, some of them 
twiggled their finger, some of them dug holes in the 
sand with their big toes, but all of them scrutinized us 
with a penetrating glare hard to face, while their mother 
responded to us in tones that were full of either half con- 
cealed pathos or partly veiled humor. Perhaps the blank 
faces of that family veiled a lively glee at my coming to 
' the woods arrayed in collar and necktie. My slight ef- 
fort at adornment may have been a source of amusement 
to these new friends for days afterward. 
We had hardly recovered from the stare of those chil- 
dren when we met the mail carrier. These officials are 
almost the only representatives of government in that 
part of Uncle Sam's dominion. As I had spent a num- 
ber of years in an office directly across the street from 
the Po.st Office Department at Washington, the sight of 
this man of the leather sack was reassuring and caused 
me to feel that home was not so far away after all. The 
reach of our dear Uncle Samuel is wonderfully long when 
he would gather in his mail items. No doubt his aged 
servant on the cart drawn by the rat-tail pony felt bur- 
dened with great reponsibilities as he pursued his way 
bumped by prirnitive roots through the lonely wilderness". 
Our three friends did not arrive at the rendezvous 
till after nightfall. Our meeting place was uncheerful. 
Ruins that stand in bleak surroundings and show id- 
vanced decrepitude become inspired architecture when 
viewed by day, but that broken-backed house and those 
upset outbuildings were horrible after night. Black 
streamers of moss draped every possible lodging place. 
The rattling of dry weeds might have been a dirge of 
old bones. The forest near the clearing mourned dole- 
fully. The most cheerful camp-fire would have only 
danced spectres in the terrible windows of that forlorn 
building. The howling of a dog about those premises 
would have immediately ended our hunt. We estab- 
lished camp some distance down the road to secure better 
water facilities. We tried not to think that night when 
our fire went out what the clearing would have been 
under such conditions. 
Our party spent the evening around a cheerful blaze 
of light wood. Sike told yarns. There was a story of a 
garrulous uncle who, while sitting by the fire at night, 
talkative, as usual, had discovered that what he had mis- 
taken for a pricking briar was in reality a biting "ground 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
rattler" on which he was sitting, Snakes were the topic 
of conversation. While I listened I was impressed with 
the difference between our situation and camp-life at the 
North in February. The weather had become oppress- 
ively warm and our fire was only preserved for orna- 
ment. A shrill chorus of katydids contradicted each 
other in the nearest foliage. A sultry autumn night 
seemed to have closed in upon us. Across the water- 
hole in the cypress swamp, where the owls were hoot- 
ing, there were occasional rushes of wind that were after- 
wards responded to by the pine tops immediately above 
our camp. Evidently a storm was brewing. 
The following morning day broke to disclose a drip- 
ping wilderness. When we had eaten breakfast we set 
forth in the rain with considerable reluctance to explore 
the adjacent forest; but once our trousers were thorough- 
ly saturated with wading we marched gaily on regardless 
of consequences. Our courage may have discovered an 
incentive in the fact that the country through which we 
traipsed was the scene of many heroic deeds during the 
Indian wars. The woods within the vicinity of camp 
covered slightly rolling land and great flats. Numerous 
diverging swamps cut up the neighborhood into a maze 
that was confusing on a cloudy day. Indian fighting 
must have been exasperating to the highest degree where 
the natural conditions were so unfavorable to the white 
troops. 
The low sandhills traversed by us were stories of game 
life written in tracks. The turkeys had been especially 
active in recording their movements. These fowls had 
gathered at one point as if for a sociable and had then 
scattered in every direction. Another gang had fed 
widely for a distance, then had closed ranks and finally 
had dashed off with sand-digging strides, a race in which 
two sets of large feet had persevered with great steps 
long after all the other tracks had turned into the nearest 
swamp, prills where deer had written chapter were even 
more interesting. Sike, who had an opinion in regard to 
scribes, shot a buck deader than Homer. 
The rainy morning was succeeded by windy clearing 
weather. Camp was moved during the afternoon to a 
point six miles south of the clearing. The riding was 
over palmetto roots and through flooded swamps, where 
submerged logs shook at the wheels to break our suf- 
fering backs. The dogs flushed a number of turkeys on 
the way. but we paid little attention to them. We had 
been drenched by rain, blown at by wind, and bumped by 
riding till ardor was dead. 
Blanket couches spread around the fire were comforta- 
ble that night. Chilly blasts assaulted us and then passed 
off through the large timber near camp. It was pleasant 
to rest out there by leaping flames that revelled in quan- 
tities of fat-wood, and to gaze above at vast star regions. 
Whiffs of fragrant pine smoke came at us and teased our 
throats and eyes. Sike wept copiously while recalling 
the happy past before railroads, and we wept with him. 
Drury and George concealed their emotion in a hand-to- 
hand struggle with a double-ended provision sack, an in- 
vention of their own, and the constant overhauling of 
this novel "comfort bag" provoked hot family disputes 
that were emphasized by kicks on Leader, their tamest 
hound. The nimbleness of the father's boot was re- 
markable. 
Leader, however, wreaked vengeance on us the next 
morning for all the ill-treatment he had received, by 
arousing our expectations to an intense pitch and then 
leading us senseless races after frightened cattle. But 
the scenery was beautiful. Some of those sunny flats 
with hardly a tree on them were almost hke burnished 
gold. As the heat became more intense they were en- 
veloped in a brilliant haze of refracted light. Dark 
swamp foliage and high gray walls of mossy cypress tim- 
ber formed background for these fields of brightness. 
Leader, with all his tricks, could not make the hunt bar- 
ren of pleasure. 
Drury, son George and I in the afternoon shaped our 
course directly back from camp, while Doctor and Sike 
bore away to our left. We had scarcely lost sight of 
them in the open forest when we heard the reports 01 
their guns and the outcry of their dogs. A noisy chase 
then paralleled our course to cross it a mile ahead and 
enter a large swamp on the right. The hounds with us 
left, shouting vociferously, and my companions rushed 
ahead, to leave me where my heels blazed a trail over 
palmetto roots. Drury and George turned at a point far 
in advance to glide away toward the swamp, and when 
I arrived _ at the place where they had changed their 
course I found a road and saw shortly afterward all of 
our hounds racing headlong through the forest beyond. 
My role amid so much excitement seemed to have be- 
come a minor part. While I was strolling down the 
road leisurely in the direction my companions had gone, 
I came within sight of George wading back and forth 
at an overarched crossing, from shadow to sunlight, with 
his hat at times a flashing helmet, and I halted a few 
hundred yards away from him to await future develop- 
ments. The hounds had turned beyond us and were com- 
ing back, their musical voices varying with tli^ acoustics 
of the forest, tones that played upon my excitement till T 
could have danced, little dogs with high-pitched voices 
doing treble, big-mouthed Leader and mate doing bass, 
and on they came, such a chorus, and oh ! oh ! oh ! but 
how I did enjoy deer hunting! 
The excitement increased. Drury or George must 
shoot in a moment. I relaxed my nerves to receive the 
concussion of an overcharged gun. Would they never 
shoot? Then I saw, 40yds. to the left of George, a 
bounding shadow approaching swiftly by an erratic course 
through the waist high palmettoes, and wondered that 
my friend, who had been guarding his stand so dili- 
gently, did not perceive his chance. Would lie see it?" 
Ought I to shout? It was a pity for him to lose such an 
opportunity. But in a moment the animal was almost 
within range of my gun. An instant afterward it was not 
6oyds from me. Then there was the briefest period of 
unsteady aiming, a nervous snatch at a trigger, followed 
by the roar of my gun, a few alarming leaps of an ex- 
piring buck, and the venison was mine. 
George, who had startled ludicrously at the unexpected 
detonation of my gun, approached to receive the partic- 
ulars of the killing. Drury came in soon afterward. 
Then Doctor and Sike appeared. And after my recital 
each of them rem.aiked, "Well, I'll be durned," til! coi!- 
stant reiteration of this sentiment by my inendg made 
291 
me wish that ihey might be "durned" if punishment of 
such kind was not extremely severe. Even the dogs 
were skeptical and nosed around to see if I had really 
shot their deer, the most intelligent hound even going 
back some distance to run over the trail. But the evi- 
dent astoni.shment of men and dogs was only so much 
delightful incense to my exulting vanity, beatitude which 
was not diminished in the slightest degree by the fact 
that two deer had been started and Doctor had shot th;; 
mate to my stag. Surely there was glory cijoiigE for 
all of us. 
That last night of camp-life under a canopy of .so 
many scintillating stars, all of them undoubtedly our 
lucky ones, was an appropriate ending of our brief so- 
journ in that beautiful Southern flatwoods. whore exist- 
ence was a dream of Lotus-land. Charmed by a witch 
of a fire, exhilarated by breathing resinous air that was 
ambrosia, while we raked sweet potatoes from beneath 
the ashes and lubricated them with butter, we felt that it 
would not be altogether horrible if the lovely night should 
last forever. The tenderloin steaks from the deer, the 
bread toasted around the fire, the fragrant coffee made in 
tomato cans, all were delicious after our day of severe 
toil. To-morrow we should return to civilization, so we 
made the most of this last evening in our earthly para- 
dise, and the most under such favorable conditions meant 
an exceedingly great deal. Prolonged existence out in 
the woods, encompassed by so many luxuries, would 
eventually result in ideals of living scarcely above those 
of dog hfe, and that is why no man, even the native 
may camp out there forever. H. R. SrEtCER. ' 
A Staten Island Gull Shooter. 
Pkinces Bay, N. Y.— Editor Forest and Stream: On 
March 31 a person came in from the vicinity of Great 
Kills and landed at Fitzgerald's Excelsior Hotel ; he had 
with him two ducks such as some people call old wites. 
and also a sea gull in his possession. There was some 
discussion later on as to the propriety of this man having 
a gull in possession. I understand that the gentleman 
in question is a very prominent member of the League 
of American Sportsmen, who lives on the north shore; 
and if such is the case let no one think that he would 
be foolish enough to overlook Sec. 83, Gairie Laws of 
the State of New York. But really there are quite a 
number that would like to have the number of his certi- 
ficate. A. L. H. 
"That reminds me." 
In a recent issue of your paper I read an article in ref- 
erence to the effect upon the eyes the sight of wild ani- 
mals sometimes occasions, causing them to greatly mag- 
nify the object. As I read this seemingly ridiculous 
statement an incident which occurred in my youth was 
lecalled to mind. 
In front of the old farmhouse where I was born was a 
mowing field of some ten acres. This field was divided 
by a stone wall, under which was for many years the 
den of a woodchuck. The clover in the immediate vicin- 
ity afforded ample food, making it an excellent home fur 
the animal. 
One day when I was about ten years old the family, 
consisting of my father, mother, two sisters and myscfi. 
were sitting on the front doorstep. A big woodchuck. was 
observed in the field feeding, and at quite a distance from 
the wall. Suddenly it occurred to me that I could get 
to his den before he could see me by creeping from be- 
hind the wall and head him off. Informing the folks of 
my intentions, I procured a good-sized club in the wood- 
shed and crept out the back way and down the opposite 
side of the wall to an apple tree, where T knew the hole 
was located. Then I carefully looked over and saw the 
groundhog feeding as before, except at short intervals, 
when he would sit up straight and look about. Every- 
thing was working as I had planned. The spectators at 
the door were deeply interested, and I fully intended to 
make the final climax startling. Quickly climbing over 
the wall, I planted my bare feet upon the little mound of 
earth which had been thrown out in excavating the den. 
I stood there a moment, cudgel in hand, before the wood- 
chuck caught sight of me. I did not wait long, and when 
he did see me came straight as a bullet from a gun, and 
it seemed to me he grew larger at every bound. When 
he got within 50ft. he was as big as a Newfoundland dog, 
and with three jumps more he looked like a bear. 
I knew the folks at the house were watching me, and 
expecting surely I would hold my ground and smash 
that woodchuck when he got to me; I knew I would be 
laughed at, but I thought that unless I got on the other 
side of that wall I would be swallowed, and I got. 
A. J. M. 
"Hunting wild marsh-hogs is an exciting but some- 
what dangerous pastime in southern Texas," said C. ^-. 
Fielden, of that State. "In the swampy lands along the 
Gulf these wild hogs have their habitat, and to hunt them 
it is best to have several companions and numerous dogs 
that understand the waj's of the ferocious porkers. The 
dogs will find the game for you, bay it, and hold it in 
check until you can take a shot or two. Then every thing- 
depends on your aim. If you succeed in piercing a vital 
part with your Winchester bullet all is over except drag- 
ding the carcass to some convenient point where it can 
be handled. 
"But dangerous is your position if your aim is a trifle 
defective and your shot only wounds the animal. Some 
good and true shooting must be done instanter then by 
you and your comrades, or else an infuriated boar will be 
rending you with his tusks. I have seen more than one 
of these old boars shot through the body twenty or 
more times, and in that condition fight man and dog until 
several balls had been fired into his head. 
"In the marshes there is no possible way of escaping 
an attacking wild hog except by killing him. The hunter 
can make no headway through the tall, rank grass and 
boggy soil, and there are no trees that offer him refuge. 
For these reasons he is compelled to kill his game when 
once it is flushed, or become himself a victim. In the 
fall of the 3^ear these m_arsh-hogs are fat, and their flesh 
is of 3 very pleasing flavor,"— Washington Post, 
