Forest and Stream 
$3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1912. 
VOL. LXXVni.— No. 2S. 
127 Franklin St., New York. 
Log of a Fishing Cruise on the East Coast of Florida 
By ROBERT SEDGWICK (THE SCRIBE) 
W E are not as young as we used to be, but 
no pack of school boys could have been 
lighter hearted than we three when we 
found ourselves comfortably ensconced in the 
drawing room and adjoining section on the 
Florida Special, pulling out of the Pennsylvania 
Station at 1126 p. m., Saturday, March 2 , bound 
for Miami. A daily paper published some years 
ago, when Miami was struggling to be more than 
a flyspeck on the map, about sixteen different 
In Two Parts—Part I. 
vert thousands of acres of useless, swampy mos¬ 
quito-haunted lands into prosperous homesteads. 
Wonderful tales are told of the advance in real 
estate in the limits and suburbs of this booming 
little tropical city, now numbering 10,000 inhabi¬ 
tants. Certainly the fertility of its soil and the 
genial climate guarantee large profits to growers 
of garden truck for the Northern markets. The 
marl, or soft gray clay, which is dredged up 
from the bottom of the cut, is now piled high on 
that we would buy everything non-perishable at 
home and ship it down by freight, except meats, 
ice and gasolene, as that course would indubit¬ 
ably prove much cheaper. 
Thursday morning, March 7, opened rainy 
and cool; thermometer, 76 degrees. All ther¬ 
mometric readings during the cruise were made 
at 8 A. M. from a Fahrenheit thermometer hang¬ 
ing in a cool spot in the cabin, where the re¬ 
flection from the sun on the water could not 
AUXILIARY YACHT SAMOA. 
TARPON, SHARK, COBAS, TARPON, JEWFISH. 
ways of pronouncing the name, but time has now 
set the seal of approval on “Myama,” and you 
will find yourself fashionable in calling it that. 
We arrived there exactly on time at 3:30 
A. M. on Tuesday, March 4, but as the Florida 
East Coast considerately drops the Miami car, 
we did not emerge from dusty sheets until 7 
o’clock, when we repaired to the hotel for baths 
and breakfast. Our first thought was to inspect 
what was to be our floating home for three 
weeks, the yacht Samoa. As she was out with 
a party, we beguiled the time by taking a trip 
up the Miami River in the small launch Joker 
past ship works, roller skating rink, golf links, 
orange groves and pleasure parks, to the cut, or 
canal, that is to drain the Everglades and con- 
the banks. It is found to be an excellent ma¬ 
terial for road making and is being extensively 
used about Miami. This marine marl, or soft 
coral, was also of vital assistance in the con¬ 
struction of the Key West extension. It con¬ 
tains about 90 per cent, carbonate of lime and 
becomes hard as rock when exposed to the air, 
presents a smooth, firm surface to the waves and 
successfully resists the suction or under tow. 
The yacht arrived Tuesday evening. Wed¬ 
nesday was spent in getting supplies aboard. The 
steward submitted a formidable list, which was 
approved, and purchased at local shops, but it 
may be interpolated here that when we audited 
all bills and added up the “demnition total” at 
the end of the cruise, we unanimously decided 
strike it. A few friends gathered at Tuttle’s 
dock to go through the customary formalities in¬ 
cident to a send-off. The burgee of the New 
York Y. C. was broken out and toasted, and at 
10:40 A. M. we proceeded under power south to 
Angel Fish Creek, say thirty-five miles, arriving 
at 4:30. It may be mentioned here that our 
chartered craft Samoa, Captain Charles H. 
Thompson, is an auxiliary, centerboard sloop, 60 
feet over all, 16 feet beam, 4 feet draft, with a 
heavy duty 4-cylinder engine, which would drive 
her in smooth water with boats in tow about 
seven miles an hour. We had a plain, useful, 
working launch, 22 feet long, and two rowboats, 
one fitted with two revolving chairs for anglers 
and the other with one. Interior accommoda- 
