FOREST AND: STREAM. 


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173 


FEBRUARY BASS FISHING. 
cording to its size. Most of the trees are boxed 
on two sides only. Into this cavity the resinous 
sap runs and collects. Once a week these trees 
are chipped, i. e., a strip about one inch wide is 
freshly cut in the shape of a broad V directly 
above the “box”; this causes the pitch to flow 
freshly and continuously. The pitch is collected 
once a month from the “boxes.” This is called 
“dipping.” As the “chipping” mounts higher and 
higher some of the pitch remains on the exposed 
surface of the tree. This is removed twice a 
year by “scraping.” The trees are “chipped” and 
the pitch collected as long as it pays. Trees are 
sometimes chipped to a height of twenty feet, but 
after it gets too high the pitch accumulates so 
slowly that the “crop” is abandoned. This box- 
ing of these handsome trees is a great disfigure- 
ment to the beauty of the country. I could not 
see that the boxing in itself affected the life of 
the tree, but it exposes them to the fire when the 
cattle men burn off the grass every spring, and, 
although the turpentime men clean away the grass 
and dry pine needles from every tree for a circle 
six or eight feet in diameter, yet every year many 
trees catch fire, burn off and fall. 
The stills are simple affairs consisting of an 
open building under which a twenty-barrel cop- 
per retort is set over a brick arch. To this place 
the collected pitch is drawn in barrels by fine 
mule teams. Under the action of the fire in the 
arch the turpentine vaporizes and passes into a 
Jong coil of copper pipe leading from the retort, 
and there it is cooled and condensed by cold 
water pumped from a nearby lake to the large 
tank surrounding the copper coil. The turpen- 
tine and water are drawn off, the turpentine be- 
ing the lighter, is dipped off into the commercial 
Latrel with which we are all familiar. The resi- 
due left in the retort is drawn off and strained 
thrcugh wire screens and cotton to casks, where 
it cools and hardens and becomes the resin and 
pitch of commerce. This is of many grades, from 
pure white through many shades of amber to al- 
most black. 
There are two kinds of turpentine camps—free 
and convict. Florida is a provident State. She 
lets her convicts out at so much per head to the 
still-man, who guards, clothes and feeds them. 
These convicts (colored—I saw only one white 
one) are kept in the stockade at night and 
through the day work in the woods under armed 
guards. I well remember how one bright after- 
noon, when we were driving to a lake to watch 
for alligators, we met a beardless youth with a 

WHERE THE BIG BASS LURK. 
service-worn Winchester over his shoulder, and 
well scattered on each side of him six big black 
fellows with their chipping knives at work chip- 
ping boxes. We stopped and said “Evening.” (It 
is always “evening” after 12 M.) “What would 
you do,” said Madam, “if all those men came at 
you at once with their knives?” A faint smile 
played around the corners of his mouth and with 
that slow musical drawl he replied: ‘“O, I’d git 
one or two of ’em.” And he would, perhaps 
more. Most of these prisoners are a happy-go- 
lucky lot, few try to escape. Those Florida boys 
shoot straight and their hounds run true. 
The Florida Alligator. 
Before I went to Florida my ideas of the saur- 
ian and his ways were somewhat hazy. I fully 
expected to shoot several, and like the bear hun- 
ter in La Fontaine’s fables, I had already disposed 
of the skins. I hunted faithfully, saw lots of 
“gators” and did not score. The Madam, how- 
ever, got two, but then the Madam is a better 
rifle shot than I am. 
Qur method of hunting was to take a team and 
drive across country to some of the many lakes. 
When near a lake where we had already 
“marked” a ’gator, we would hitch the pony and 
approach the game on foot as warily as possible. 
I believe the alligator is the peer of the white- 
tailed deer in seeing, smelling or hearing; and 
he can disappear like the wizard in a fairy story. 
With small ones, a little patient waiting behind a 
natural or artificial screen will give you a second 
or even a third shot; but I have sat motionless 
for four hours for a chance at a big one, and then 
missed—yes, I did, clean, too. But the eye of an 
alligator floating on the water at fifty yards is a 
mark for the best of you; if you don’t believe me, 
try it: 
But we had lots of sport. Some of those ’ga- 
tors I believe got to know me, and if I didn’t 
come around and throw a little lead at them occa- 
sionally I imagined they felt slighted. Mr. L., of 
Philadelphia, who spent the winter at Mohawk, 
shot a ’gator from a boat on take Apopka. This 
monster measured 10 feet 334 inches. George 
Harting, our guide, killed one a year before 
twelve feet long, and we heard of one taken on 
the St. John River that measured eighteen feet 
and was sent to the Atlanta Exposition. 
The natives hunt them for their skins, the bel- 
lies only being saved. They are easily taken by 
shooting with a heavy charge from a shotgun, at 
night with a boat and jack; in this manner one 
can approach near enough to touch them with an 
oar and sometimes a large ’gator will give the 
hunter a lively ten minutes before he is 'dis- 
patched. Formerly alligators were hunted for 
their teeth alone. The fad for alligator skin 
goods has passed, but there is a steady demand 
for the hides. But the saurian is so sly and so 
hard to kill, that it will be many a year before 
there will be any danger of the supply running 
short. 
Quail Shooting. 
This is the sport at Mohawk. The Doctor fur- 
nishes team and dogs and Mrs, Stokes fills the 
lunch basket with good things. Somebody went 
almost every day. There was always plenty of 
the plump little fellows for the table. We ate 
our thirty quail in thirty days, and then some 
more. We mourned when the season closed. 
They can cook quail down there. 
Your outfit should consist of a strong, fast- 
walking horse, wagon with broad tires, with 
which you can drive anywhere across country 
over the sand hills and around the lakes, For 
dogs—pointers. There are no springs or streams 
and sometimes you are away from the lakes. The 
warmth of the weather would also mitigate 
against the setter, and it is easier to keep the 
ticks off your pointer with his short coat. For 
yourself a canvas suit, high shoes or boots with 
bellows tongue; boots are preferable, but don’t 
have them waterproof and have them light. Light 
wool flannels and a good warm sweater. A I6- 
gauge is the most sportsmanlike and really the 
most efficient arm; No. Io shot and no spreaders. 
Our method of hunting was not strenuous. We 
would start off in the morning about 8 o’clock and 
drive till the dogs made game or pointed, when 
we would jump out, quickly tie the horse to the 
