
Nov. 9, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

731 


and endurance. The Indians, who have known 
the most of its secrets, have kept them well even 
| to this day, and they guide no white men among 

its streams, whose devious courses they alone 
| know. But now the long arm of the dredge 
| 
with its big dipper is hanging over its coral brim 
and proposes to break through this barrier and 
/ let the imprisoned water cut. 
Our expedition, however, being not for busi- 
ness, but for pleasure, we contented ourselves, 
on reaching the dredge, with mounting to its 
upper deck and looking over the mysterious waste 
which as the eye can vast 
| watery plain with here and there a little island 
with a few trees, and these are for the most part 
under water, and even at the head of one of the 
forks of New River all trace of any stream seems 
‘lost, and so it is that no one but an Indian has 
lever been able to trace or to follow the blind 
|waterways of the Everglades. Now, however, 
}the tourist or the sporstman can, if he wishes, 
jwhile on his way down from St. Augustine to 
‘Miami by water, sail up into the edge of the 
/Everglades as far as the dredge has gone and see 
for himself what it is like, New River of it- 
self is worth seeing, and no one making the canal 


so far see 1S one 

! 
rip should miss taking it in. 
Returning to Fort Lauderdale, we took the old 
ourse of the river toward what was the inlet 
jome years since. It is about two miles below 
he present bar. The history of the new bar is 
| Some one who thought it would 
be handier to mouth New. River 
jiearer Fort Lauderdale a few years ago, just cut 
|nteresting. 
have the of 
ditch through the sandbar when the river made 
sharp turn to the south and lo, the ditch 
peedily grew into an inlet, while the sea con- 
Jiderately proceeded to close the old inlet some 
wo further south, Neptune, evidently, 
hinking there was no need for two inlets so 
ear together, and if some of the land dwellers 
rished to make some slight changes in his work 
e would not object or interfere. 
unly very kind of the old sea god. 
On this beautiful stretch of water we passed 
1e low lying sandbar where had been the inlet, 
miles 
It was cer- 
1e bar not yet so high, but as if Neptune was 
uying, “If these land dwellers don’t do things 
» my liking I'll open this bar again in a jiffy.” 
take it there are few parts of the coast where 
le old ruler of the sea seems so good natured 
id obliging, for he suffers the same thing at 
ilbert’s Bar, near the St. Lucie, and is as con- 
derate and forbearing as any old god of his 
ywer can well be. 
Further on and we entered the tortuous chan- 
21 of Snake Creek. This creek, which is an- 
her outlet from the Everglades, the canal has 
raightened and made navigable. It is one of 
e most picturesque portions of the entire trip. 
he trees bordering it are large, the foliage 
xuriant, as we were coming into a land where 
ost is unknown. Mr. Miles and Captain Glea- 
n had told us all the way down -about the 
auty of this and they had in no wise ex- 
‘gregated—a wide deep winding stream, where 
ie could camp and fish and contentedly leave 
vilization behind forever. 
From Snake Creek we emerged at once into 
e wide waters at the head of Biscayne Bay. 
1 either side was the distant shore, and before 
the broad expanse of water, a great part of 
shallow, and Captain Gleason told us from 
3 OWn experience tarpon fishing has always 
en good there, and that plenty of them can 



be seen any fine day. How many are to be caught 
he did not say. This brings me to remark that 
tarpon are to be caught in the neighborhood of 
every inlet along the coast. Fort Pierce and St. 
Lucie have long been noted for tarpon fishing, 
simply because the late Senator Quay had his 
winter residence there and caught a great many 
record of weight and length may still 
be seen at St. Lucie and Fort Pierce, recorded 
on their own silver scales. 
After awhile the distant lights of a. ship at 
anchor appeared, and later the lights of the city 
of Miami, and we sailed along by the wharf of 
the railway station, alight for the incoming even- 
ing train. We came to the wharf and stepped 
sailed three hundred 
miles, listening to the roar of the ocean on one 
side and on the other to the sound of the moving 
trains, and with the ship from the ocean, the 
whose 
ashore, having more than 
newly arrived train and ourselves all meeting 
together. 
It is a voyage every tourist should take. There 
is little need to tell him how to come or where 
in any sort of craft and 
The 
to stop, for he can come 
stop. anywhere his fancy may choose. nets 

at every landing will tell him of the abundance 
of fish. The wooded shores will tempt him with 
innumerable ideal camping. places, the towns 
scattered most conveniently along the shore will 
tell him he need not 
either his larder or his tank, His 
the simplest fly or the bes 
chase. He live 
He can camp in si 
pitch his tent in the wilderness along the nar- 
fear for his supplies for 
tent may be 
wall tent he can pur- 
t 
can on his boat or on shore. 
sight of civilization or he can 

rows and be practically as far away from all 
things civilized as if he were in the primeval 
forest. If he has sails as well as a motor to his 
boat, he can often save pis gasolene for more 
than a day at a time when friendly breezes blow. 
Among the fish he may take, if he is fortu- 
nate, may’ be named sheepshead, channel bass, 
pompano, cavalli, sea bass, sailor’s choice, mullet, 
I myself have 
many as eight varieties of fish in one 
afternoon at St. Augustine. 
A correspondent of Captain 
bourne, after a trip, sent him the following on 
drum, tarpon and many others. 
taken as 
Gleason, at Mel- 
a postal. I think it very good: 
“The Mars’ canal among the stars, 
Is not for us, too far away; 
Our favorite has no shoals or bars, 
The coast line route in Florida.’ 
One word of history: The canal company was 
organized in 1881 by Dr. John Westcott, who had 
for many years had a great deal to do with the 
land surveys of Florida. His project only pro- 
posed a canal thirty feet wide and four feet deep. 
With him were associated as stockholders several 
of these Mr. James L. Colee alone 
is still living. Mr. Colee had by far the greater 
part to do in laying out the route of the pro- 
others, but 
posed canal and his original lines have been al- 
followed to the completion of the 
Judge White, now 
age, was Dr. Westcott’s legal adviser. The judge 
most entirely 
work. eighty-seven years of 
still retains much of his old-time vigor. 
Land grants were made by the State in aid 

or its prosecution in 1885 and 1889. In 1885 
George Bradley entered the company and brought 
us wealth to its aid, and on the death of Dr. 
Westcott in 1888, Mr. George F. Miles became 
‘and it is mainly due 

a stockholder and manager 
o his untiring energy, backed by the wealth of 
Mr. Bradley, that the great enterprise owes its 
success. When it is its con- 
the 
remembered that 
struction called for removal of 8,000,000 cubic 
rock—as much as was re- 
yards of earth and 
quired in the construction of all the railroads in 
‘lorida—the magnitude undertaking will 
— ke 
: 
ve better understood. It is now a waterway 
sixty feet wide and from five to seven feet deep, 
the cut is finished 
there will 
Atlantic 
ind when, two years from now, 
from the St. Johns to North 
be an inland water route all down 
River, 
the 

FLORIDA TIMES-UNION CANAL 
di 
CARTOON, 
























































