Sharp County record., 1880-10-21

every year. The day may be bright
and beautiful and the flowers heavy
with bees and humming birds. Shin
mering mosquito hawks quiyer in the
air and the scarlet cardinal twitters in
the acacias. A cooling breeze plays
through the leaves of the trees and
gently swings the unripe oranges.
| Clouds of gulls soar above the dark
green mangrove bushes and the sand
| bars, at low tide, are covered with pen
sive curlews and willets. The drOwSy
roar of the surf is heard and the gentle
swell of the ocean is rippled with gold
en- sheen.
Almost imperceptibly the wind dies
away. Cries of terms and water birds
fall upon the ear with painful distinct
ness. The mud hens of the marshes
pipe an alarm. Not blade of salt grass
moves. The blue sky grows hazy and
the eastern horizon is milky white. Fit
full gusts begin to ripple the water and
handle the green leaves. a low moan
comes from. the ocean. Smoky clouds
roll into the sky from the South-eaStand
a strong wind whitens the ruilled water.
Every minute it increases in fury. An
ominous yellow light tinges the atmOS-
phere. The sun is gone and great drops
of rain are hurled to the ground. With
in fifteen minutes there is gale and
soon the full force of the hurricane is
felt. Great eagles and pelicans are
swept through the heavens utterly pow
erless. Sparrows and other small birds
are lashed to death by leaiesS twigs,
and the torn bodies of snowy herOns
and wild turkeys lodge in the branches
of the live oak and cypress trees.
All the living things disappear. Tall
pines are twisted asunder. The 1.-the
limbs of willows and oleanderS snap
like COW whips. Lofty palmettoes bend
their heads to the ground, their great
fans turned inside out like the ribs of an
umbrella. The force of the wind
keeps the trees down until every
green fan pops like a pistol-shot.
Orange groves are ripped into shoe
strings. The leaves of the scraggy
scrub on the beach are wiped out and
their stems whipped into little brushes.
The tough saw palmetto is blown as
flat as Northern wheat field and the
dead grass of the savannas lashed into
fine dust. Boards in the surf are struck
by the wind and sent spinning hundreds
of feet into the air. The sand dunes
are caught up bodily and sifted through
the tops of pine trees miles away. The
foam of the sea is blown beneath the
houses on the main land and comes up
between the cracks of the floor like
steam.
Woe to the owners of sail boats and
boat houses. At Lake Worth the
Cruiser, heavy round-bottomed sail
boat, thirty-two feet long, owned by
Captain Charles Moore, was picked up
from the ways, rigging and all, and car
ried across the lake, mile away,
without touching the water. A boat
owned by DR.. Wallace of Castle
Windy was torn from her moorings,
lifted from the water and dropped
into salt water marsh fringing
Mosquito Lagoon, 800 yards from the
castle. In the fall of 1876 the Ida
Smith, a large schooner running be-
tween New Smyrna and Jacksonville,
was torn from her anchors and strand
ed on marsh 500 yards from the ship
channel. The coast survey steamer in
a good harbor sheltered by sand banks,
threw out three anchors and kept her
wheels working against the wind under
full head of steam. She dragged her
anchors several hundred yards and
barely escaped destruction.
These hurricanes last from seven to
eight hours, even longer. During the
lull rain falls in torrents. Tide rises to
a great height, carrying away wharves
and boat houses and flooding the coun-
try for miles. The ocean leaps the
sandy barriers of the coast and floods
the Indian and other salt water rivers,
involving great damage After the
storm, center-boards and iih-stays are
found in spruce pines, oleander5 are
loaded with cordage, and deadeyes and
peak blocks drop from lealess orange
trees. Gardens are destroyed, fences
swept away and the tormented Flordian
has three months work and no pay to
repair damages.
Vessels are driven ashore and some
times many lives lost. The Ladona, a
New York steamship, went ashore
twelve miles north of Canaveral in the
great gale of August %, 1871. All on
board persisted. Since then many YES
sells have been wrecked. Cor. NJ Y.