The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-10-17
LETTER FROM SOUTH FLORIDA.

ST. Luc1E, Sept Is, 1875.
Editor Morning News:
If the author of "Major Jones's Courtship
were to take trip down Indian klver' ne
would enjoy it.
Words are inadequate to express the natural
attractions of this great, currentless stretch OF
water, running more than hundred miles in
hearing of the roaring of the Atlantic Ocean,
from which it is divided by narrov neck oil
land. It can not properly be called yer
it is a great inland sea, with q mean width Of
two miles and depth of ten feet Its waters
team with fish, and it's banks are lined with
birds and animals of infinite description.
Day and night the screaming of waterfowl
and splashing of fish, the screeching of pam
theirs and believing of ailigators, in all dirpc'
tions, ara incessant and indescrlbabe. l
some places great "beds" OF tys' ers, already
famous for their excellence, come up to VII hin
three feet of the surface OF the water. 1adian
River is the El Dorado of naturalists and
curiosity seekers. The dense hammocks
on its banks ara never penetrated
by the suns rays and swarm with
gaudy birds, insect, and reptiles, beyob d
scientific classification. The glades, which
occasionally make down to the very water =
edge are matted will beautiful grasses and
flowers.
lam not an elger collector, but in one
little lakelet found five varieties of frogs; in
two hours found fory-three varieties of ia
sects, exhibiting all the colors of the rainbow;
and 1 have seen wild turkeys, paroquettes
and squirrels eating acorns in the same live
oak.
The country along the river though is be-
ginning to =" settle up" and the wild woods
are giving way to farm yards and orange
groves In the "back country" neighbors
live forty miles apart, and yau can hardly ride
a league without seeing herds of sem-wild
cattle up to their bellies in surface vines and
grass No frost comes to kill their vegeta-
ton, and these cattle, as countless in num-
bers as the pines on the ridges, are fat from
January to January. You have heard OF the
"poor m ans country" and the "lazy mans
country this is the COW thief's paradise
On an average (and I am assured that the
estimate is low one) one thousand beeves
are stolen in one of its adj .cent counties every
year. The CYLINDERS are sometimes indicted,
but cases of punishment are scarce as hens
teeth. Now, that good people are coming in
from Alabama, Georgia and other States, o
better state Of things may be speedily looked
for.
Speaking of thieves reminds me of three
celebrities, who not long since were at Elbow
Creek, on Indian River, "locating the Agri-
cultural College," One of than was big,
greasy looking, one-armed fellow, whose eyes
looked like little balls of smoked glass OF
Jumps of lead. The second was
"a hungry, lean faced villain,
A mere anatomy, mountebank,
nee1y. hollow-eyed, sharp locking wretch
A living dead man."
and followed directly at the heels of the first
To describe the third, can't do better thar
70 tell his name-Gieason. That means thief
liar, coward, perjurer and adventurer, all in
these desecrates seat once held by proud
great Call, chivalrous Perry and sturdy
Miiton-even the Gubernatorial chair of the
State The other two are his counselors. s