Down South Part 27

"There is not much game about here, I am told. I have talked with several of the old guides, and they say this part of the country has been hunted out," continued Cornwood.

"Where shall we go, then?"

"I find there have been heavy rains down south of us, and that the streams are high. We can certainly go as far as Lake Harney, and perhaps thirty or forty miles farther. That would bring us to a country where the sportsmen seldom go; and there you will find plenty of deer, wild turkeys, and ducks. But I want to show you some better fishing than you have seen in Florida, or in any other place."

"Where shall that be?" I asked, curiously.

"In the salt water."

"In the salt water!" I exclaimed. "Certainly you can't get to the salt water in the Wetumpka."

"We cannot; but if we can get seven or eight miles above Lake Harney, as I think we can, we may cross the land to t.i.tusville, on Indian River. There we can find boats, and do some of the biggest fishing you ever heard of, to say nothing of the shooting."

"How far is it across the land?" I inquired.

"Not more than nine or ten miles."

"We can walk that distance easy enough."

"The ladies can't walk nine miles."

"I think we had better go on sh.o.r.e and consult Colonel Shepard and Mr.

Garningham," I added; and we started to do so.

Our pa.s.sengers, even the ladies, were enthusiastic for the plan. They all wanted to go across to the salt water. Before we went on board we had engaged four mules and two wagons, which were to be taken on board of the steamer the next morning. I had every sort of fishing-tackle in abundance, and both the colonel and Owen had complete outfits of rods and reels, with a vast variety of lines, hooks, squids, sinkers, gaffs, and landing-nets. Each of them had two sporting pieces, and all the equipments of a hunter.

Before six in the morning, the mules appeared on the wharf, drawing the wagons, which were nothing but "hay-riggings." They had stakes and rails, so that seats could be put on them. Of course the mules made a row about going on board; but they went, for all that. We took in an abundance of forage and grain for them. We did not consider it necessary to take any drivers, who would only increase the load for the mules. At seven the pa.s.sengers appeared. The native guides and sportsmen said we were going off on a "wild goose chase"; to which Cornwood replied that he should catch the goose and bring him back to Enterprise. I rather liked his pluck, and determined to do the best I could to make the enterprise a success.

We were under way as soon as possible, and had no difficulty in getting to Lake Harney, in which the water was not more than three feet deep in many places. But that, and even less, was enough for us, for it gave one foot clear under the sterns of the twin boats.

"Now comes the tug of war," said Cornwood, as we entered the river above the lake. "The water looks very high to me, but the bottom shifts. Will you station a deck-hand on each side of the boat to sound, captain?"

I went down to the main deck, and placed Buck on one side, and Hop on the other. They were provided with poles, marked off in feet. I had seen them used by other boats on the Ocklawaha, and so had the deck-hands. The poles were ten feet long, but they were to report no depths above four feet; for if we had four feet, it made no difference how much deeper the water was.

"No bottom!" called both of them, for some time; then, "Four feet."

"Three feet!" shouted Hop, when we had gone about two miles.

Cornwood rang the speed bell, and the boat slowed down to five miles an hour.

"Two feet and a half!" cried Buck, the next moment.

The pilot rang the gong, for there was not more than six inches of water under the stern. The Wetumpka continued to go ahead. The pilot did not ring to back the paddle-wheel, and the deck-hands both reported two feet and a half, several times in succession.

"A stream comes in there," said Cornwood, pointing to the mouth of a creek on the left bank; "that run of water has made a shoal here."

"Three feet!" called Hop; and the same call was repeated by Buck; and the pilot rang to go ahead at full speed.

In a short time it was "No bottom" again; and we went along very nicely for about five miles. Here we had to slow down again, and then stop her. The deck-hands got down to two feet and a half. When Hop said two feet, Cornwood rang to back her. This was the draft of the boat aft.

One of the flat-boats which were stowed away aft, and which we had had no occasion to use before, was put into the water, and with Buck I went ahead, with a sounding-pole in my hand. I followed the two feet depth for about a rod, and then came to three feet, and soon after to "no bottom." I shouted to the pilot the result of my examination of the stream, and Buck pulled back to the steamer. We got on board and made fast the painter of the flat-boat, letting it tow astern, for we might soon need it again.

Cornwood ran the Wetumpka back for some distance, and then went ahead at full steam. If the boat stuck, he intended to force her over the shoal, which was not more than a rod in breadth. She went over without even sc.r.a.ping the sand. If she had been loaded with freight, she could have gone no farther. After going a couple of miles more, the pilot ran the boat up to the sh.o.r.e, which was almost the only place we had seen for miles where the banks of the river were not swampy, with the roots of the bushes under water. It was a pine forest on the eastern sh.o.r.e, with no underbrush.

"This looks like the right place," said Cornwood, after he had directed the deck-hands to carry the bow fasts ash.o.r.e and catch a turn around the trees. Then he looked about him, as if he was trying to identify the place. "I wish I had the lat.i.tude," he added.

"We can give you that, for I have my instruments in my room. I brought them because I was afraid they might be stolen," I replied.

I got the instruments, and took an observation from the hurricane-deck of the steamer; and Washburn figured it up. "28 37' 55"," said the mate, when he had completed and verified his calculation.

"That's it, almost to a hair line," said Cornwood, laughing. "Parallel section line 21 runs through t.i.tusville. We are in east section 33, and south section 21. We are all right, and you may land your mules."

He referred to the land sections of the state, of which I had no knowledge. We laid down the planks, and got the mules ash.o.r.e, and then the wagons. It was only ten o'clock, and we wished to reach our destination by noon. In a few minutes, our hands, under the direction of the pilot, succeeded in harnessing the mules to the wagons. We put six persons in each, with their bags and sporting apparatus. All hands wanted to go with us, but we could not take any of them. We had the same sand for roads as in the streets of Jacksonville. Cornwood drove one team, and I drove the other. Half a mile from the river, we found a settler in a log house, who seemed to be greatly astonished at our sudden appearance, and insisted on knowing how we got there. We told him, and in reply he informed us that the woods were full of game, and no sportsman had been that way for a year.

We reached our destination at noon. t.i.tusville consisted of only a few houses; but the party were gladly taken in by the settlers.

CHAPTER XXIX.

A MYSTERIOUS SHOT.

Indian River, Halifax River, Mosquito Lagoon, and half a dozen rivers, sounds, lagoons, lakes, and inlets on the Atlantic coast of Florida, are different names for the same shallow body of water, separated from the main ocean by a narrow strip of sand, which extends north and south for two hundred miles. Indian River extends from about twenty-five miles north of t.i.tusville to the inlet, a distance of one hundred miles. But Banana River and Mosquito Inlet are separated from it only by Merritt's Island, so that these bodies of water overlap each other.

The water in these inlets is often not more than three feet deep, so that no large vessels can navigate them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN EXPEDITION TO INDIAN RIVER. Page 292.]

A few years ago a company was formed, having for its purpose the deepening of the upper St. Johns as far as Lake Washington, about forty miles south of the point where the Wetumpka lay, and cutting a ca.n.a.l across to Indian River, not more than eight miles. No progress, however, seems to have been made in the enterprise.

We found three cat-rigged boats at t.i.tusville, which we had no difficulty in procuring. The ladies would not allow us to leave them at the settlement, though Cornwood intimated that we might have a rough time of it. Mr. Garbrook, Cornwood, and myself served as skippers, and we were all thoroughly acquainted with the business. The boats were about the size of the Lakebird, in which I had voyaged in the roughest weather of Lake St. Clair; and as we had only four persons in each boat, we were not crowded. I had Colonel Shepard, Mr. and Miss Tiffany in the boat with me.

Our first business was to obtain a supply of bait, which was easily procured with our landing-nets, and consisted of small mullet and other little fish, which had to be kept alive. The ladies were in excellent spirits, and even Mrs. Shepard, who had been an invalid for years, entered fully into the spirit of the occasion. When I first met this lady in Portland, she was hardly able to move without a.s.sistance; but latterly she seemed to need no aid from any one. She had taken part in all our frolics and excursions, and her appet.i.te was equal to that of any person in the party. But no one could be sick in such a delicious climate as this was, for we spent all our time in the open air.

Our fishing was to be done mainly by trolling, and as soon as we had our bait, Colonel Shepard had a mullet on one of his approved squids.

We had a six-knot breeze, and I had to attend to the tiller. The bait was hardly in the water before the Colonel began to tug at his line. I saw a large fish break in the water, a hundred feet from the boat, and "cut up" in the most extraordinary manner. The New Yorker labored diligently for some time, and I luffed up the boat in order to lessen his labors; but before he got the fish near enough to enable us to see what he was, the patent gear snapped, and away went the fish.

I had provided Mr. Tiffany with a line from Lake Superior, and he had a fish on before the Colonel had finished his labors with the first one.

This line was strong enough to hold anything in the water, and the English gentleman, with my a.s.sistance, pulled in a redfish, or spotted ba.s.s, which weighed fourteen pounds. I rigged a line for Miss Margie, and she soon brought into the boat without help, which she would not allow any one to give, a sea-trout, similar to the squeteague or weakfish, but not the same thing. In the other boats they were having the same luck.

Towards night we began to pull in red snappers from six to twelve pounds in weight. They were perfect beauties, vermilion on the back, the color gradually changing to pink on the belly. The Colonel was all worn out with his exertions, and he was glad to exchange his line for the tiller of the boat, and I took a hand in the exciting sport. But we were catching more than we could use, and we landed at a settlement called Eau Gallie just before dark, where we were glad to pa.s.s the night.

We stayed two days longer in this delightful region. Every time we went out fishing we averaged a hundred weight of fish to each line. We sent five hundred weight across to the Wetumpka, on board of which we had tons of ice, to be packed for future use. The Colonel was sorry to leave such magnificent fishing, and Owen declared that he would spend all the winters of the rest of his life in the southern part of Florida.

On Thursday morning we harnessed up our mule teams, and started across the land for the river. At the end of the week we were to finish our trip in Florida; but we were to give two or three days to hunting in the vicinity of the point where the steamer lay. On our way back through the forest we saw game in abundance. On our arrival the mules were picketed in the woods, for we did not like the music of their stamping on the planks of the forward deck. We reached the boat an hour before dinner-time, and Gopher had red snapper and spotted ba.s.s in a variety of styles for the meal. In the afternoon the gentlemen took to the woods with their sporting gear, but I remained to escort the ladies and protect them from rattlesnakes and moccasins, which they seemed to fear every time they set foot on sh.o.r.e. But we did not see a snake of any kind during the whole time we were on the waters of the upper St.

Johns. At three o'clock I had the mules harnessed to one of the wagons, and drove the ladies several miles into the forest; they were delighted with the excursion.

On my return, when the ladies had gone up into the saloon, I went aft on the main deck to take a look at the water. The steamer was moored with her head to the sh.o.r.e, so that her stern was out in the river. I was afraid, as we had had no rain for some days, not even a shower, that the river would fall so as to endanger our getting over the shoal, two miles below, where we had not had more than an inch to spare in coming up. I measured the depth where I had done it every day I had been on board since our arrival, and I found it was two inches lower. I was rather alarmed, for I did not like the idea of spending several weeks in this locality, excellent as the hunting was, for I knew that the party would soon tire of it.