used to hoist them aboard of the schooner. The next day, one was despatched, and, with the eggs, served as our principal food for three or four days. The other turtle was put in a shady place, and brine was occasionally poured over its head and body. By pursuing this treatment, a turtle can be kept alive for a long time, without food, and yet preserve its healthful condition. CHAPTER XXXV. PANTHERS THE MIAMI-THE EVERGLADES-THE DEER-HUNT URING the remainder of May, and in June and July, the captain occasionally indulged us in a turtling expedition by moonlight, and we captured specimens of all the various kinds of turtle. As he always accompanied us, and seemed to share in the excitement of the sport, our pleasure was very much enhanced. Daily we got the Flying Cloud under way, and sighted the Reef for miles on each side of our station, but nothing rewarded our vigilance. This daily duty at last became exceedingly monotonous, and had we not had recourse to expeditions for the purpose of procuring turtles, fish, eggs, and birds, we would have experienced ennui, despite the admirable collection of books which I have mentioned that the captain possessed. Independently of the spirit of adventure which prompted us to make these expeditions, they were absolutely necessary, in order to obtain food of a kind that would ward off scurvy, which infallibly attacks those who are for a long time exclusively confined to a diet of salt provisions, with a disproportionate amount of vegetable food. All things, however, must end, and George and I, eager turtlers though we were, tired of the moonlight excursions to the beaches, and craved some novelty. The stay of George was drawing to a close, and the intercourse of the occupants of the cabin commenced to be tinged with a shade of gloominess, brought about by the anticipation of his approaching depar ture. How little we all know even of the Future which is almost the Present! George's going was not nearer than mine. Our departure took place soon and simultaneously, by a train oî startling events, transpiring with so great suddenness, that they left us in a maze in which it was difficult to collect our thoughts. At daylight, on the 5th of August,―owing to the approaching departure of George, and in fulfilment of a promise which had long before been made to him, to the effect that before he went, he should have a déer-hunt,Captain Bowers committed the vessel to the charge of Ruggles. Giving him instructions in regard to the day's cruise, and taking George and me and Brady in the dingy, the captain set sail for the main-land. We were provided with two good fowling-pieces, a couple of rifles, and an ample supply of ammunition. We did not neglect to take fishing-tackle, including the grains, although none of us were capable of using them skilfully. About eight o'clock in the morning, we landed at the mouth of Miami River. bank, near the mouth, was the post, garrisoned by a few men. On the left little military Here the vege tation was not dense, and a beautiful grove of lime trees surrounded the quarters of the soldiers.* Proceeding up the Miami, for a few miles, we at length arrived at the place where it leaves the Everglades. This was a spot which I had long desired to see, and one which, at that time, had seldom been trodden by the foot of the white man. George and I climbed the roof of a solitary mill which was built at the head of the stream, This post was established in 1837, reestablished in 1850, and afterwards deserted. During the late Rebellion, the spot was the resort of numbers of white refugees from the southern parts of Florida. on the verge of the Everglades; and when we had mounted to its ridge, we commanded a view for many miles. We had penetrated the Miami to its source, about three miles from its mouth. This, therefore, at that point, is the width of the encircling rim of land which bounds the Everglades, or, as it were, the wooded shore of a vast sea of swamp, covered with long, waving, yellowish grass, and dotted with a perfect archipelago of wooded hummocks. Some of the hummocks were quite liminutive. Others seemed at least half a mile in length. I now realized how difficult it was to prosecute the Florida War, then being waged in portions of these Everglades, where the Indians could lurk in almost impenetrable fastnesses, and when approached by a superior force, seek safety in flight. In fact, the Florida War, from the difficult nature of the country, had been a bloody game of Hide and Seek. The Spanish Indians, who had been long peaceful, had, for some months, been engaged in committing depredations on the settlements of the whites, and on shipwrecked sailors: so that the practice of providing the wrecking vessels with arms had ceased to be a mere form. No apprehension, however, of immediate danger |