LIFE IN FLORIDA

LIFE IN FLORIDA Page 4

We had such a supper that only the Gulf coast of Florida can supply—-
baked sheephead and red-fish, stuffed with bread crumbs and oysters, broiled
oysters, Palmetto pickles, chipped Irish potatoes, and coffee. That night I
slept. Mamie said she did not "rest well, she'd caught such a big fish."

After an early breakfast, we set out to beat the sun into the Withlacoo-
chee. We got there. From Chamber's Island to Dunnellon is about 45 miles.
The river is crooked for the first two or three miles, the banks are low.
I shot "gators until we sickened at the scent of their musk. Mamie caught
black bass until she was tired of pulling them in and her face wore a smile
as triumphant as the Aurora borealis. For bass fishing, I'll pit the lower
Withlacochee against the balance of the waters.

Three miles from Chamber's Island, up the river, we find high banks of
fettle hammocks with the high pine woods often breaking through in the water's
edge. The river is deep, averaging at least 12 feet,while the rounding of
every bend brings us to scenes different from the ones we'd just left behind.
The hammocks are generally open, the palmettos tall and straight, frequently
fifty feet to the first leaf. The settlements are few and far between.

Five miles up we come to Honey Bluff landing. Here we found 12,000 sticks of
:edar timber piled up on the bank. This is owned by the Helvenston boys, who
cut and haul it from the gulf hammock, employing many men and oxen in the
work. This cedar is worth at least one dollar per stick on the bank and is
bought by the pencil mills at Cedar Keys and Crystal River. We also found our
friend, Allday, is waiting for us at this point, with the information that a
bear, two nights before, had killed a farmer's hog three miles away in Gulf
Hammock. Loosing Vie and Hamp and mounting a ready horse, we left Mrs. Allday
and Mamie to have an independent fishfry, and we were off for bruin. My dogs
are famous for foxes, ..(torn)... on one of them, and about six ..(torn)....,
dead with the brains oozing out ..(torn)... bullet-hole in his head, lay an
enormous panther, nine feet and four inches long from tip to tip.