The daily gazette., 1878-08-19
Summer Sports in Florida.

4
With the approach of the summer
months on the Eastern coast of Florida,
are new source of amusements for sport
ing gentlemen. Bears leave the inland
settlements and gather on the ocean
beach. They luxuriate upon king-crabs,
turtle eggs, and great fish stranded on the
shore. They find fish toothsome delicacy,
and supplement 1t with dessert of saw
palmetto berries. The beach is one
vast thicket of palmettoes. The berries
are as large as the end of mans
thumb and are very nutritious and fat
tening.
Pumas and tiger cats also frequent the
beach in the summer months. They sub
sist on crabs and fish and frequently nail
the young deer that browse upon the
mangrove buds. The islands skirting the
inner rim of the beach line, are covered
with mangroves, and while the buds are
tender throng to them by hundreds. The
water surrounding these islands is shoal,
and immense salt water marshes stretch
north and south very near them. In early
spring these marshes are alive with wild
geon, green winged teal, mallards and
other ducks. They are favorite feeding
grounds for English and yellow legged
snipe and countless snowy herons flock to
them. As the season advance the ducks
| and snipe wingtheir way north, and fairy
stills and roseate spoon bills take their
place.
| Godwits, ibis, Willis, scissor-bills and
sand peppers fill the air with wild cries,
while armies of plumed herons-blue,
white and bronze-stalk along the shores
of the creeks, which are filed with spawn
ing fish. The alligators hatch their young
and catch long maps in the sunshine,
while flocks of screaming parroquets and
delicate nonpariels hold merry carnival
over their heads. The mocking birds
hatch their young and give them their first
lessons in music. The old birds sit on
the shady branches of wild orange trees
and pipe to the new beginners for hours.
When the novice begins to utter its first
tremulous notes the parents raise peans
of joy, and the fledglings make fresh eff
forts until the trees are filled with sweet
music.
Young broods of wild turkeys pipe in
the hammocks and fill themselves with
igrasshoppers and wookticks. The rare
Ivory billed woodpecker and his black
billed brother drum the trees. Brilliant
plumaged cardinals, mellow-throated
bullfnches, and buxom butcher birds
hop from limb to limb, while broods of
young quail trail around the thick
els.
The great gray gull scars in from the
ocean, and the common tern gives place
to its lesser brother, whose graceful
movement and dove-like color equally
charm the eye. Fleets ofsilvery pelicans
ride upon the tide, and scores of the er-
mine birds watch their movements with
1 lOlI n.1n
Through the air, and drive the indus
trious ospreys from their fishing grounds.
1.-THE night loads the darkness with
Istrange sounds, and the shrill whippoor-
will and chuck-wills-w widow add their
notes to the concert. Strange flamingoes
wander UP from the Keys and are lost in
the marshes. Broad faced owls hold
nightly trysts, and c.apper rails and
marsh hens dart under the maDgrove
bushes. That strange bird, the limpkin,
Iclatters its castinets on the fresh ater
lstreams, and lubberly buzzards doze on
ldead limbs. The Mexican eagle robs
Them of their plunder, while airy men-of-
war hawks float in the upper sky. The
Iswallow tailed kite chases the humming
mosquito, and marsh hawks dart upon
the mole and wood rats.
Fishes pour in from the ocean. The
lspotted bass and dotted sea trout skirm-
ish along the creeks. Gorgeous snap-
pers, wild-eyed groupers, and logy jew
fish Turk among submerged mangroye
roots. Zebra-skinned sheepshead and
broad-brained mullet fill the lagoons.
Great drum-f fish scour the shadows, keep
ling up an eternal tattoo. The sivery lady
fish leaps out from the water like salmon,
and the flexible ribbon-fish shoets itself
Through lonely channels. The chopper
sleeps in shady hooks, and silver scaled
tarpun give exhibitions in tidal eddies.
The whiting and sea bass retire to deep
water, and associate with the steamer
mouthed catfish. Voracious sharks and
numbering saw-fish tread the main chan
poises rolhck oyer the bays In quest OF
food Enormous sJingrays and Buffalo
tails Jump from the waves in futile eff
lforts 10 rid themselves of annoying suck
ler-tfsh. Schools of golden cavallo and
lblue-fish squirt in from the ocean and
follow the swarming mullet. The striped
sergeant fish, or saltwater muscaionge,
is on the qui rtue, and the electrical fioun-
der sleeps upon the, flats at high water.
Pompeno flash in the sunlight, ana the
, irainbow-hued angle-fish cominunes in
deep, still pools.
. Near the mouths of the st. Sebastian
and st. Lucie the INDUSTRIOUS manate fears
| its young. 1t feeds npon the coarse grass
on the bottom of the rivers, and Is fire.
quently stranded on the bars. 1t resem-
bles a sea lion, but its nose is more like
the nose of a cow, and its fiippers are
longer and stronger, II frequently at,
ltains q weight of 1000 pounds, AMI
Though perfectly harmless has been
known to upset a boat in its efforts to
escape annoyance
With all these attract, ons Florida ought
to be q summer paradise Tor sportsileii. u.
hnt there are drawbacks. The air is
black with mosquitoes, and sandtiies an
noy the hunter. Mggers sna are eoinps nos anl InI
deciiliops of red bugs bury in a mans
flesh. Scorpions visit his tent, and vsnc 2, &c,
nous snakes may lie in aowa wal' tho bSr truah nam
labout the mosauitoes. Natives assure
/, me they have raised their guns to shoot DOT
and the barrels and sight were &c coVerst' q,
with them before they could ann; Az
Turtle M ound I have landed ana seen
the mosquitoes. rise like cloud ana n1o,hp. hhp.
Iproach me. In ten seconds my cioohes
N were so covered that my companion
icould NOT distinguish the color logs