2^4 
FOREST AKrt) STREAM. 
when caught, and only lacks ignivorous powers to appear 
as teiTible as it seems to wish. 
The mechanical art of plaster molding is so simple 
and the results are so accurate and beautiful that it is 
strange anglers do not generally preserve mementoes of 
their record catches in this way. They would be valuable 
in illustrating our fish stories, which when related to the 
unworthy are so often discredited. 
As I was immortalizing one of my mudfishes a large 
alligator drifting down the creek stopped and watched me 
coolly for a few minutes — the first big fellow I had seen 
on the trip. 
A few hours later found me in the middle of Lake 
Harney, a promising breeze having failed, and my boat 
lying as idle as a painted ship. And the sun had set 
in the sense of sitting rather emphatically on the' land- 
scape and occupying the whole seat. I therefore pulled 
lor the west shore and selected a shady place in which 
to make bread and wait for wind. 
The lake is seven miles long and five wide, uniform!}' 
surrounded by sandy beach and fine hammock, and here 
and there is to be seen a garden and a house belonging 
to a native or a camp occupied by seine fishermen. 
A book whiled away the time until the wind sprang 
up, and I then sailed to the mouth of the Econlock- 
hatchee. three or four miles above the lake, and moored 
lor the night. ■ _ 
I had noAv reached the upriver prairies, occupied by 
great numbers of cattle and also hogs turned out on the 
range. In years gone by there were large brakes of small 
canes on these bottoms, but many fires having surged 
over this country most of the canes were destroyed and 
gave place to several species of long and short grasses. 
The "Prare," as the crackers call it, is six to ten miles 
wide, overflowed in very rainy times, and the channel 
of the stream forming a ribbon only 60 or 70ft. wide, 
though extremely winding, keeps about the middle of the 
expanse.. There are some scattered elevations bearing 
palmettos, like islands on the grassy sea, but only one. 
called Bear Bluft', on the river itself for a distance of 
fifty miles or more. 
The shed boots and stems of palmetto, which furnish 
good fuel below, are no longer available, and the boat 
w'anderer must carry light wood or an oil stove, the 
latter always a treasure to the camper. 
Perceiving a school of mullet on the bar of Econlock- 
hatchee, I took two of them with my cast net. Stewed 
for ten minutes under cover in a very little water and 
then seasoned, this rich-fleshed fish is better than if fried, 
and is a pleasant change from the usual fried fish of camp 
life. 
In the fresh hours of the next morning the prairies 
were enlivened by a ceaseless chorus of the cheerful 
note,s of meadowlark and redwing, and here were the 
black-necked stilts hovering anxiously, with their com- 
plaining outcry and dangling coral legs. The latter 
are the most characteristic birds of the prairies, whe^e 
they make their home. Their superlative length of leg 
would naturally raise them above other birds of their 
dimensions, if they were only gifted with a little more 
deportment and dignity, but they are a little unfortunate 
in having a nervous and flurried temperament. 
Water turkeys, Florida ducks, ibises, limpkins and a 
dozen kinds of herons were henceforth more plentiful, 
though all these birds are scarcer than they used to be. 
Fringes of cane which have escaped being burnt out 
by the fires extend along the river just above Puzzle 
Lake, a small sheet which I passed through soon after 
starting onward. These accommodate colonies of boat- 
tailed grackles, whose handsoms basket-work nests are 
placed near together at an equal height, like a row of 
tenements. The little brown wives seem to do aU the 
sitting, while the purple-black males, gallant and swelling, 
and twice the size of their mates, keep up a robust song, 
a mixture of harsh and rich notes, but a remarkable per- 
formance for any bird so much resembling a crow or 
jackdaw, although they have an inconsequent way of 
clattering the bill like a pair of bones at the end ■ of 
the song. They are fond of periwinkles, and hunt about 
the banks for them, carefully carrying their long tails 
above the mud. 
There are times when the bass fishing is extremely 
good along these brankes, but high water and a strong 
current prevailing at this time were unfavorable condi- 
tions. 
Several days that followed turned out to be very hot 
weather, such as may or may not occur here in May. 
Heat is easily borne in Florida generally, but when 
all the birds are flying about with their bills open the 
thoughts turn to shade. Aside from this consideration 
I desired the trees for their own sake, having missed 
their character, their harmony and their air of hospitality 
out on the levels. I decided to go up the famous Snake 
Creek, where I could encamp over Sunday upon a shell- 
mound, under old hickory trees, even now in sight in the 
distance. The spot is a little way from the bass waters 
of Snake Creek, and accessible hj means of a narrow 
channel or cutoff, which carries part of the water of the 
creek into the river at a point several miles below the 
real mouth. 
This camping ground was the site of an Indian vil- 
lage of old, the shell mounds being the relic and the proof 
of the resting places of the aborigines. Their broken 
pottery lying about as thick as stones in a Northern field 
furnished me with props for leveling the feet of my 
spider. 
Interest has led me to try the periwinkles, which con- 
stituted such an important item in the diet of the red 
people that they formed mounds acres in extent al)OUt 
every camping place composed of the refuse shells. 
Simply boiled, I found them flat and unenticing. I kept 
a few in vinegar several days and thought them slightly 
better, though they hardly fairly represented the primitive 
article. 
There were evidences that turtles, both hard-shelled and 
soft-shelled, were making a nesting ground of the shell 
mound — many heads of both species came above water 
to observe me, the tracks were all over the shore, and 
there were places where raccoons had been digging up 
the eggs. 
Great numbers of the latter animals find their living 
about and upon the prairies. During some of the hot 
davs of late I had seen the raccoons sallying out of the 
switch grass to refresh themselves in the water. Their 
eyesight did not seem to be very sharp, as I could walk 
up within 15 or 20ft. of them while they were wallowing 
in shallow places and lapping the "wafer. When they 
finally took the hint, however, tfieir short- legs moved 
like hummingbirds' wings. ' ' ; 
I threw out a line to catch a s^ftishell, though I saw 
that I would have to wait their p;leastire, as all were shy 
of coming near. , . ■ . ' 
The hardshell dr coudah is ^rahiverous, and does.: ijtot 
bite a hook. , / . 
After I had supper, and . with the moon shining over- 
head, I heard my fish pole rattle in the boat, and on lay- 
ing hold of it found I had hooked a fine turtle. If it 
had been wise enough to j>ull straight ofif it could have 
parted my line, but its tactics were all spent in trying 
to get rid of the hook. Swimming round and round, it 
would try to release itself from the taut line with a claw, 
now and then plunging down under water when my pres- 
ence seemed too obvious to it. The semi-obscurity of the 
moonlight rendered the situation a little difficult and in- 
teresting, but the tussle went more and more in my favor, 
and at last I drew the heavy creature, 2slbs. in wpight, 
to land and decapitated it. Sunday being a feast (Jay, I 
was now prepared to celebrate the mon^aw. 
The softshell is the most edible looking of all turtles. 
Its smooth form is covered with skin as soft as kid, and 
as white as ivory on the underside. A skirt of leathery 
or gristle-like tissue' about the bony structure of the 
carapace gives the turtle its naine. 
If roughly dressed and boiled the flesh becomes tough, 
and you get nothing but the soisp, hut if the meat iS ' 
chop;,ed up small it has; ^ perfeetly tender texture. 'It 
needs to cook but' thirty.'' minutes, and then, seasoned 
and tliickened with floury it is a .dish, for a Sydney Smith, 
who surely would have r,einai:ked after eating it, "I have 
dined to-day." . /il^C'f^' '-i'i-'' -■ 
On Sundays^ as 00 other idays, I ar5se at the,.fii-st sign 
of 4ayj. which seems a nattlral habit .in the open. Then 
all the wild creatures that love lig:ht ir^ ..moved by a touch 
of 'exhtiberance, which has been interfireted as tile ■ over- 
flow of their natures in prafSe-l;iviHg to the Creator; Their 
movements and sounds indicate thaf they arer laying hold 
of the lifelpf a new day ;with a zest quite" aparti^fro'm the 
urgencies of' a precarious existence. ' u*? 
Even such saturniiie creatures as the turkey buzzards , 
perform mar-welpus geometrical quadrilles, circling .ex- 
iiltingly above Hheir roosts ■ of the night before. Tliis 
Sunday morning I witnessed a complex evolution of 
three of these sedate birds t^at was Surpassingly pleasing 
to the eye. There were dozens of buzzards overhead, 
but this group earned the palm for grace and harmony , 
of motion. , At certain times they would fly all in one- 
circle, with equal spaces between them; then with a mil- 
itary change each would strike a smaller circle of its . 
own, and they would begin describing an interlocking 
design' like a trefoil.; For a time each- bird maintained pre- 
cisely the same "relative place in it^ orjiit. as the others. ^ 
Spread two fingers and a thumb into' a T|ij|pod, and then 
rotate the hand, and this wp illustrate. 'With another 
marvelous change, involving' a:, slight interval before the 
second bird follQ\ypd the exarriple of the first, and the 
third that, of the second, they adopted a kaleidoscopic 
movement,' intertwining their 'O^rbits and swinging un-„ 
ceasingly about one another. It was beautifully animated; 
notwithstanding the stately soa.rjrtg ''flight of the bii^- 
Later I took a walk to. increase ufy aequaijatance wtt^^ - 
this tongue of woods, of which the shell mound was the 
tip. I was prevented from going in one direction by a 
thick black bull With a double-ended anvil lor ;,a. head- 
piece. The prairie bulls are seldom aggressive,, but this 
one would bellow at the highest pitch of his voice the 
moment he caught sight of me, so that I concluded that 
he was a character. I took the other direction, and con- 
sidered it glory enough when I captured a poor coudah 
and took it along for the sake of its handsome shell. 
I located the feeding place of a few Florida ducks, so 
I was primed for a little hunt on Monday morning, 
Sunday being a particularly favorable day for attending 
to such details. 
Sometimes Snake Creek is probably Orte of the best 
places in the United States to look for the large-mouthed 
black bass, but I now found that they were not biting. 
During a two days' stay I caught but a solitary haggard 
individual with a long lean frame that would report better 
by the foot than by the pound. It seemed like a ghost 
from a vanished race, but I knew better than to believe 
the race had departed. Catfish were more easily caught, 
and furnished capital chowder. I was long among the 
despisers of this hulking fish, but that is one of the mat- 
ters in which Floridian intelligence has converted me. 
The belly of the fish should always be cut away,^but the 
rest of tiie flesh cooked into dry chowder is a dish that 
requires no apologies. 
My wanderings included a visit to Luflfman's Lake, 
on Snake Creek, and a visit to Cane Lake, still further 
up the St. Johns, before I began to descend the river. 
On the way down I found bass that would take the 
spoon, as if they were more willing to take the trouble 
of striking down stream than they had been going up 
against the current. I ran down to Lake Harney with 
an excellent breeze, and saw many more 'gators than 
I would have done if I had been rowing with my back 
turned and the oars telling the tale of my boat's approach 
long beforehand. I startled some from the banks, where 
they were sunning themselves, and was surprised several 
times by the leaps these short-legged beasts could make 
when they found my gliding boat close upon fhem. One 
alligator about 6ft. in length made a clean jump over a 
little sand reef and dove into the river like an acrobat, 
having cleared its own length or more. During my trip 
I obtained another item new to me concerning the habits 
of alligators. Awakened one morning by gruff bellowing, 
I looked out through the mosquito netting at the stern 
of the boat and saw a full-grown one 10 or 12ft. long 
lolling on top of the water and sounding his bull-like 
salute. I had formerly supposed that this was a land 
performance. 
Going and returning, I passed a colony of water turkeys 
near Bear Bluff, there being seven or eight nests in a 
bunch of large willow bushes. Some of the birds dropped 
into the river, and observed me by thrusting their spike- 
like heads only above water, while the others took wing 
and soared high overhead. Unlike ducks, water turkeys 
become wet in water, and it may be that the portion 
of these that flew up were those that were sitting, to 
whom, for the sake of their eggs, wetness was an unde- 
sirable condition. 
1 followed the east shore oi Harney on my return, and 
there I found more bass than I had in the river. The 
aandy shallows are frequented by innumerable bullhead 
^ninnows, one of the best baits for bass. The bass them^ 
pelves could be seen rushing inshore to feed on the min- 
nows. Generally they swam in small troups, the members 
of which would all strike at once, making one sound, but 
many simultaneous swirls in the water, and then imme- 
diately retreating from the shore again. 
I did not wish to kill many bass, not having such an 
awful greed for fishes as Pharoah had for bricks, but I 
remained there for two days, and had very good sport. 
There were two crews of seiners on the lake, with their 
usual following of fishhawks. The fishermen habitually 
throw back the useless gizzard shad wheh sorting the 
fish in the bags of their nets, and as many of these 
swim gasping on top of the water in an exhausted con- 
dition the ospreys find them an easy prey, and are quite 
heedless of the men in coming alongside to seize them. 
My curiosity was piqued at seeing large birds sitting 
bodily in shallow water with only half the body out. I 
moved my boat toward one of them and found it to be 
an osprey, which apparently enjoyed soaking itself in this 
way. 
At length, having spent three weeks on my excursion, 
I set sail for home. The winds were remarkably favoring 
throughout the cruise, so that I had rowed little in the 
course of 200 miles. I carried back a dozen molds as a 
beginning to my Series of the St. Johns River fishes. 
Benjamin Mortimer. 
Between Man and Man, 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
I am among the large number of readers of your valued 
journal who appreciate it not only for its interesting forest 
sketches and lore of the woods, but for its high moral 
standards and influence. Along this line there is one 
phase of influence which deserves special mention, be- 
cause, not always recognized. I refer to the relation be- 
tween true sportsmanship and sociology. There is a direct 
tendency in the first to promote tru? views of the second. 
The very communion with nature, which, to the real 
-sportsman, is far more than the taking of game or fish, 
. does mellow his heart and tone up his being so that his 
'sympathies are broader and truer for the experience. 
Then in the familiar intercourse of woods life, a man's a 
rnan if he be manly whether the opulent "sport" or the 
poor but noble guide. Aristocracy cannot live long in 
the woods. They are the natural home of democracy. 
The two can no more flourish together than trout and 
i.pickerel, and in the woods democracy is always the 
stronger; Hence, the sportsman worthy the natne must 
always return from his outing with deeper feeling and 
H'igher regard for mai-fliness wherever seen and however 
slttiated. From this point it is but a short distance to the 
dear recognition of human brotherhood, and the trail is 
;aot only well "blazed" but well trodden. So is prepared 
Idndfier feeling and truer relation between man and 
•jfian, between employer and employed, whether in the 
>|prcst, oil the farm, in a factory, or in some other com- 
mercial line. For the guides, as a class, are as keen, true 
observers, as appreciative of true manhood, and as re- 
sponsive to right treatment as any class of men on earth. 
-The effect of their association with sportsmen is always 
natural and reciprocal, whether for good or evil, and it 
- is generally good. _ ] 
Since these things are so, there is^ cause for gratulation 
in the larger and growing attention given to forest sports 
in our country. They help to the abolition of class dis- 
tinctions, and' to a better understanding between labor 
and capital. In many ways they can modify social ques- 
tions, and Forest .a.nd Stream is facile princeps for their 
discussion on this line. Juvenal. 
In Old New England. 
The elm is so closely associated with the homes of 
New England as to make it a part of them. Even the 
photograph of an old New England homestead seems un- 
attractive without a background of arching elms. The 
farmhouse never seems abandoned while the avenue of 
elms' leads up from the road to the front porch. One of 
the chief attractions of tlae Eastern States are the avenues 
of elms with their branches forming a Gothic arch over 
the path beneath. No tree is better adapted for such a 
purpose, with its graceful habit of growth, clean trunks 
and arching limbs. While affording sufficient shade, it 
still leaves a wide and unobstructed view along the way 
it shadows, and produces ar all seasons an architectural 
effect of permanent beauty by the arched interlacings of 
the great bending boughs. 
A writer in Garden and Forest described these old 
avenues of elms as one of the characteristic features of 
New England landscape. 
"In all the older villages of New England these rows 
of elms glorify the village street and strike the stranger 
as singularly beautiful. Sometimes there is a double row 
with a wide' grassed space between, making even a more 
imposing and cathedral-like effect, as of a vast nave 
flanked by columns supporting a groined and vaulted roof. 
The tender wreathings of small branches and leaves about 
the massive trunks still further suggest the fanciful carv- 
ings of the Gothic architect, and indicate the source that 
inspired his fertile fancy. Nothing can be more pleasing 
and playful than the way nature fantastically weaves about 
the rugged and shaggy stems this graceful garniture of 
fluttering leaves and clustering twigs, which give the last 
touch of perfection to the beautiful picture. The open- 
ness of the foliage permits glimpses of the sky, while 
flecks of simshine, straying through the leaves, encourage 
the growth of grass and flowers up to the roots of the 
trees. In the picture the nodding heads of dandelions 
gone to seed are seen, and along the pathway the sunlight 
emphasizes the dancing shadows of the lightly moving 
leaves above. , 
"An avenue of elms is never somber, ho-wever cool and 
shadowy it may be. It does not shut otit the light and 
