86 
FOREST AND S T R E A M 
February, 1918 
LOJT in nit CVtROLADC/.. 
M ORNING brought sunshine and good 
fishing and a dozen different vari¬ 
eties of true sportsmanship, but 
there was to be a rather sad conclusion 
to the day. 
Immediately after breakfast—and it 
DID include fried fish—another observa¬ 
tion, with field glasses, made from the top 
of the tall tree, indicated that Catlow’s 
earlier glimpse was not without founda¬ 
tion. To the Northwest there was indica¬ 
tion of open water—deep water—water 
over which the boat might be taken with¬ 
out those time-consuming interruptions. 
The boat itself was put in apple-pie 
order for a long, hard drive, and by eight 
o’clock they had rounded the island and 
were following what promised to be an 
excellent lead toward the interior. 
Lunch was “served” in the middle of a 
saw-grass wilderness, and then they were 
at it again. But what Mr. King had se¬ 
cretly suspected, came true. The Observa¬ 
tion Tree “sounding” was treacherous. At 
By W. LIVINGSTON LARNED 
four in the afternoon, they were almost 
completely surrounded by dry', desolate 
sloughs and runways, through which no 
boat could possibly go. And the night of 
the “unlucky 13th” was spent in the little 
craft—under blankets and tarpaulins, with 
the incessant murmuring of the shallow 
water always in their ears. 
Extracts from Mr. King’s diary will now 
be found interesting, covering, as they do, 
a period of discouragement and disappoint¬ 
ment, second only to the perilous week on 
the Western side of the ’Glades—a week 
of horror! 
Feb. 14th. 
“All day long we have circled and 
doubled on our tracks and sought the 
slightest encouragement in a territory of 
shallow water and mud-ridden sloughs. It 
seems past belief that, almost within hear¬ 
ing of Miami’s church bells, we should 
thus face absolute helplessness. My faith 
in my own knowledge of the area is be¬ 
ginning to weaken. Is it possible that 
the canal has accomplished all THIS! 
“We have tried no less than fifty times 
today to locate a satisfactory and navi¬ 
gable passage. Always it is the same— 
always the coming up against everlasting 
barriers of dry and withered saw-grass, 
or the deadly monotony of mud. 
“I am proud of the boys. They are 
showing the sort of stuff heroes are made 
of. Never a complaint from them. Never 
the slightest indication of even being bored 
by this endless paddling and poling and 
soundings. For the most part, they whistle 
or sing. Catlow has the patience of a saint. 
He will climb out of the boat, and, up to 
his knees in mud, push, tug, yank and 
pull like a little Trojan. If it were only 
a dozen times it would not matter. But 
we are ALWAYS in trouble, it seems to 
me. I am sick of the sound of the sloughs 
grinding against the bottom of the craft. 
If this keeps on, the ’Glades will be an¬ 
other Sahara in another year. The boys 
are willing to look upon it as a ‘lark.’ I 
am afraid I lack some of their optimism. 
It is beginning to look as if we must try 
and find the dredges again and make a 
fresh start. The thought is unbearable. 
John speared a Garfish at noon. I warned 
them against the experiment, but they 
skinned it and tried to fry it for a luncheon 
delicacy. I tried not to smile, as they had 
their first mouth-full and then very quietly 
tossed the remainder overboard. Thou¬ 
sands of minnows whipped up from no¬ 
where, for these scraps—the shallow water 
fairly seethed with them. But there has 
been little opportunity to fish up to now. 
Nothing short of a Garfish would care to 
take rip quarters in these despicable chan¬ 
nels. Another night in the boat—not even 
a myrtle island in sight. We will surely 
do something desperate to-morrow.” 
Feb. 15th. 
“A splendid breakfast! I gave the boys 
more than their allotment. It seemed hu¬ 
manitarian. The sun did not break through 
It was to survey this property that Mr. King went into the Everglades 
