Januaky, 1919 
FOREST A X D 
S T R E A :\I 
9 
NIGHT SHINING AMID FLORIDA SWAMPS 
MOLLY COTTONTAIL LIGHTS UP WONDERFULLY AT DUSK AND COONS BECOME 
BELLIGERANT. BUT THE WISE OLD ’GATOR IS ONLY A PINK DIAMOND IN THE BEAM 
By THOMAS TRAVIS. CHAPLAIN, A. E. F. 
Vines and long streamers of moss hang from the palms 
I F you have ever ridden 
through a forest of 
giant fern and palms lit 
by the search-light of a 
quiet, purring machine 
that slid along a winding 
lonely road where the wild 
game lay revealed, you 
will at once feel what 
night shining in the Flor- 
ida wilderness is like. If 
you have not ever done 
this, then I despair of ever 
making you feel the amaz- 
ing beauty and joy and 
thrill of it. Recall a trip 
up the Hudson by moon- 
light, with the searchlights 
of the boat playing over 
forest-clad hills and shim- 
mering streams, picking 
up a quiet cottage here or 
a strolling couple there. 
Recall the halo of light 
boring with picturesque 
and mysterious beauty 
into the night-life, with the silent moths 
fluttering through the beam, or a skim- 
ming bird leaping startled as the glow 
smites him. Substitute for these more 
common objects, strange, fairy-like palms 
woven with vihes, long-leaved pines 
through which the light bores in a golden 
mist, strange flowers, gorgeous butter- 
flies, forests hanging thick-coated with 
orchids; and, instead of quiet houses and 
strolling couples, put into the scene brist- 
ling racoons, a sly possum, great ibis 
and buzzards, whooping cranes, or lurk- 
ing alligators, and you have some idea 
of what nightshining in Floridian for- 
ests and prairie is like. 
It took us some time to arrange, but 
at last we found an old hunter who had 
the necessary apparatus and the intimate 
knowledge of the country which night 
trips involve. Also, we started out mod- 
estly to shine rabbits first, till we had 
caught the trick. It was all new to us. 
But we soon had the knack, and with a 
carbide lamp fitting to the head like a 
miner’s lamp so that every move we 
made put the light just where we could 
see, started out, with instructions to 
look not for rabbits, but for little pink- 
ish-green eye-glints. 
W E set forth long before dusk, to get 
into the right ground by dark. 
And one of the prettiest sights I 
have ever seen was one right on the way 
we took. Along the log road ran a dry 
ditch, and here, not two hundred yards 
from the negro cabins of the “box chop- 
pers.” we came across a covey of some 
twenty-five quail, bunched, and running 
slowly along the ditch, for all the world 
like cunning browm broilers, picking 
grubs and flies as they went, till we were 
within fifteen feet of them, when they 
rose with a whirr and went skimming off 
to the palms in a grouping that would 
make any hunter’s eyes dance with de- 
light. We did not try to shoot them. 
Further along, and while it was still 
light, we came across a skunk, Lem stand- 
ing it in the sparse grass of a little clear- 
ing. It was interesting to watch the 
setter work Mr. Skunk, for his black and 
white nibs seemed in no way concerned 
about our nearness, or in any hurry to 
escape. He ambled along with the cock- 
sureness of a two-gun man who knows 
he is heavily armed and knows that you 
know it too. But when a shot from a 
twenty-two pistol went “bump,” just 
ahead of his nose, he gave one startled 
jump, and slid under a long pine log. 
Lem cocked his eye at us, to see if we 
really thought we wanted such a smelly 
beast, and when he saw we did, he got 
busy in a most businesslike way. No 
panic or yelping at all, and no excitement. 
First he ran to the end of the log, tilted 
a little, and peering under located from 
that direction just where pussy was. 
Then he made a short detour, and came tT 
the off side of the log. repeated his glance 
under, and jumped the log to our side. 
Then with one swift dip he sneaked Mr. 
Skunk out by the back of the neck, gave 
him one swift shake, and dropped him 
dazed a dozen feet away, where we quick- 
ly shot him between the eyes. It was all 
over in much less time than it takes to 
read this. And a more business-like ac- 
tion on the part of a dog I have rarely 
seen. There was not a single wasted 
move. And wise old Lem, the Florida 
Cracker, just did the trick — so. Just 
like that! 
Now I was telling this to an old skunk 
hunter up North here, and he asked if we 
got scented. I replied “No, net in the 
least.” “Well,” said he, 
“I have caught hundreds 
of skunks, man and boy, 
and I have caught them 
with traps, shot them, 
and never yet got a 
skunk without being more 
or less scented. I used to 
wear not a rag of my or- 
dinary clothes. I changed 
every stitch and had just 
one old suit to skunk in. 
And I never yet got a 
skunk without scenting.” 
Well, we got three of 
them, all three put up and 
stood by the pointers, and 
we never got scented at all. 
We did not even mind the 
skinning, which in two 
cases was done right away, 
and in the other, when 
we got home. We just 
skinned them, put the skin 
in a can with a tight lid, 
washed our hands in the 
ditch with sand for soap, and smelled 
nothing more than a faint skunk smell. 
“Um,” said the old chap, “I don’t un- 
derstand that at all. It may be the dogs 
standing them had something to do with 
it; or it may be a Florida skunk is differ- 
ent, or it may be your scent centers were 
paralyzed by the musk. For that some- 
times happens. But anyhow, I never got 
a skunk without considerable scenting.” 
Will some old veteran tell me his ex- 
perience? I say we got three and no 
particularly unpleasant scenting. I put 
one of them in a palm tree, intending to 
leave it there till I came back. But iir 
less than thirty seconds the buzzards 
were after it, and I had to drive them 
away to save the pelt. I could smell it 
plainly down wind at fifty yards. But 
neither the dogs nor the men were 
scented, and with one of the skunks, 
Robin Hood, the liver-and-white pointer, 
had a running scrap. Robin headed the 
s'lcunk from its hole. It raised its tail 
and rushed at him. Robin ran back, and 
as the skunk started again for its hole, 
the dog headed him off' again. And so 
on, give and take for five minutes, while 
I watched to see what would happen. 
Robin had never to my knowledge seen 
a skunk before, so it could not have been 
masterly handling like Lem’s that pre- 
vented him getting “His’n.” However, 
such are the facts, and I’d like an expla- 
nation from anybody who has one. 
S O, to the shining. For the dark drew 
on suddenly, and we lit the lamps. 
The stars were shining brilliantly up 
in a dark, blue tropic sky. The soft 
fragrance of orange blossoms spread on 
the warm, balmy air. And a low mist 
began to gather in the clearings. Where 
the lights shone on a palm grove, with 
