FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 21, 1909. 
290 
bug and that if he would not punish the thief 
I should return to Addis-Abbeba to the Em¬ 
peror, taking the man with me. This was bluff 
on my part, as I had no time to go back, but 
I also reminded him that I had a letter under 
the Emperor’s seal, telling his subjects to as¬ 
sist me as far as possible. He then said, “Are 
you aware what this man’s punishment will be 
if you take him to Addis, that he would have 
his right arm and left foot cut off?’’ This is 
the recognized punishment for a thief in Abys¬ 
sinia. I answered him that I was quite aware 
of that fact and that it would give me great 
pleasure to see it done. He then got very angry 
and for a few minutes I thought there was going 
to be a good old row. I was now quite con¬ 
vinced in my own mind that he was at the bot¬ 
tom of this theft. He then said, “I am chief 
here,” and waved his arms around, “and Em¬ 
peror Menelik is a long way off.” I answered 
quietly, “Oh, very well, I shall make it my busi¬ 
ness to tell your Emperor what you say, to give 
him your views on the matter. I shall return 
to Addis to-morrow.” He was then silent and 
a few moments after said, “Will you forgive 
him if I punish him?” and I answered as if I 
was conferring a favor and did not wish to. 
“Very well, this time I will, but I must have 
the other mule, which is still missing, by to¬ 
morrow morning.” Then he departed, but re¬ 
turned shortly afterward, asking me for back¬ 
sheesh for his soldiers and pay for the water 
and grass that we had consumed, and said that 
this was his perquisite and that he was allowed 
to levy toll on all travelers that passed by. 
After considering the matter a moment and re¬ 
alizing fully the difficult position in which I 
was, I told him that the backsheesh or pay I 
should give was the missing mule. “If you find 
him he belongs to you and is your pay,” where- 
V isitors who spend the winter or spring in 
Florida usually rush northward at the first sug¬ 
gestion of hot weather in April, and are prone 
to think that if the spring months are so warm 
the summer must be unbearable. Yet, except 
for a few weeks in July or August, April has 
about as much warm weather as any part of the 
year. Unless the mosquitoes are unusually bad, 
one can enjoy in summer many happy days in 
the open, for there are things to be seen and 
sport to be had which are denied the winter 
visitor. 
Early on the morning of July 5 my brother 
and I stepped into our boat for an exploring 
tour on the peninsula which separates the In¬ 
dian River from the Atlantic Ocean. The river 
is here several miles wide and the crossing oc¬ 
cupied some time. Passing through the group 
of mangrove-covered islands, we saw some in¬ 
teresting sights along shore. Snake birds— 
water turkeys, as they are locally called—swam 
along under the overhanging bushes, flocks of 
egrets, gannets and ibis flew along in great 
upon he was smart enough to say, “Give it to 
me in writing,” which I did. This ended the 
interview and he left salaaming and appeared 
to have quite recovered his temper. 
We started very early and traveled quickly, 
for I thought the old thief would be trying some 
other game on me. 
During the march Sahid came to me and re¬ 
ported that Mohammed was sick. He was al¬ 
ways sick it seemed to me, and on asking what 
was the matter, was told that he had a sick 
tail and could not travel. “A sick tail! What’s 
that?” At last I found out he was sore from 
riding a mule bareback. I told him to get up 
and go on, but he refused and lay down, and 
so I left him. We camped about five miles fur¬ 
ther on and when we had got camp settled, 
Sahid came and asked if I would let him go 
back with two police and four mules to fetch 
Mohammed, since if the Dunkellys found him 
they would spear him. I told him it would be 
a good job if they did, but at the same time gave 
him permission to go. He afterward told me 
that he was just in time. There were several 
Dunkellys watching him from a distance and 
they were all armed with spears. When they 
brought Mohammed in I told him that I would 
have no more nonsense with him and that the 
next time I should leave him. I further prom¬ 
ised him that when we got to Diradawa he 
should have a jolly good thrashing. He an¬ 
swered, “I am a Somali boy; you dare not flog 
a Somali boy.” I may add that he gave me no 
further trouble and that when we reached Dira¬ 
dawa he slipped quietly on the train to Djiboutil 
and from there he went to Aden, and hearing 
the day I was to arrive there, skipped out to 
Berbera. He had drawn most of his wages, but 
at the same time I owed him something, but he 
did not wait to ask for it. 
numbers, while in shallow places great blue 
herons stood sentinel-like, watching for some 
stray minnow to come their way. From the 
branches of dead mangrove trees the vultures 
and bald eagles drowsily surveyed the scene, 
while brown pelicans were constantly passing 
on their way to their feeding grounds. Schools 
of mullet were leaping and splashing in all di¬ 
rections, the smaller ones being frequently 
driven ashore by the big, hungry sea trout. 
The whole made an endless display of wild life 
seldom witnessed in our country outside of 
Florida. 
The flora along shore was scarcely less in¬ 
teresting. Spanish bayonets were in full bloom, 
wild flowers and ferns were struggling with the 
saw palmetto for supremacy, on the branches 
of giant live oaks orchids peeped out from be¬ 
hind long streamers of hanging gray moss, 
while back of all lay a tangled and little 
traversed semi-tropical forest. 
After several miles of rowing among such 
scenes we passed Pelican Island, the largest 
of the three islands on which these birds breed, 
and the only one on the Atlantic Coast proper, 
the others being on the waters of the Mexican 
Gulf. The island consists of about four acres 
of mud flat with a few dead palmetto and man¬ 
grove trees upon it, and has been inhabited by 
pelicans “since the memory of man runneth not 
to the contrary.” When the tourist made his 
advent on the river a merciless slaughter began 
which was continued until the government and 
the Audubon Society extended a protecting arm 
over them and put in charge of the island 
Warden Paul Kroegal, under whose fostering 
care the birds are increasing rapidly. The 
warden's cosy little cottage is situated on a 
huge shell mound on the mainland directly 
opposite and commanding a full view of the 
island. 
We landed on the peninsula opposite Pelican 
Island and set forth through the dense jungle of 
cabbage and saw palmetto. We had heard of n 
chain of small fresh water ponds where deer 
were using and with an eye open for sport the 
ensuing winter, thought it a good time to learn 
the lay of the land. 
We soon found the ponds, but found also 
mosquitoes, which were so bad that we were 
glad to beat a retreat to the high sand ridges 
on the center of the peninsula. At the edge 0? 
a small grassy glade we found the tracks of a 
doe and a fawn. A little further on a bear had 
climbed up a cabbage palm and scratched things 
up at a great rate. 
By this time the heat of this jungle was 
oppressive, and my brother suggested that we 
cross over to the ocean beach. This was 
easier said than done. For a quarter of a mile 
back from the beach the saw palmetto grows 
very dense, while over the tops wild vines 
spread in profusion, forming an almost im¬ 
penetrable barrier. We floundered through 
these obstructions, panting, sweating and al¬ 
most suffocating until at length the last line 
of sand dunes was reached and the broad At¬ 
lantic lay before us. A bear track led over the 
gleaming sands along the foot of the dunes, anu 
was finally joined by another track. The two 
proceeded together for some distance, and then 
turned off into the palmettos. In the course of 
their ramble they had found two turtle nests 
and had devoured the eggs. It is surprising 
how many turtle eggs a bear can dispose of 
during a night’s hunt along the seashore. On 
moonlight nights they are frequently seen 
making their rounds on the beach and not a few 
are killed in this manner. 
The sea turtles lay their eggs in June and 
July, and are very particular about the situation 
of the nests. They are shy in coming ashore, 
but once landed and a hole about a foot deep 
scooped out, they cannot be frightened from 
their work until the eggs are all laid. I once 
dug out a nest which contained one hundred 
and forty eggs. 
Here we spent several hours very pleasantly 
lunching, bathing at intervals, studying a queer 
rock formation at a nearby point and at times 
lazily watching the antics of a school of por¬ 
poises or just watching the big white breakers 
come rolling in. 
The return trip through the jungles on the 
peninsula was difficult and tiresome, but after 
several hours of hard work, we reached the 
river and our boat and so home. 
A Florida Summer R^arrvble 
By C. A. V. 
