Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-01-31

Tribune, accompanied with the following
communication
Editor Morning Neics: Here is something
! to tnfe7esJ your 4Q2, 7S4, 1876 readers who
are loatog around Florida.
Correspondence Chicago Tribune
"ELI PERKINS,"
(NELvILLE D LANDON)
| PALATKA, FLA, January 20 Almost all
tourists arrive in Florida on the morning
train. They go to sleep at Macon, Geor-
gis, and get up in Jacksonville. Jackson
VII e Is the distributing point for sll Florida.
| l. is the metropolis OF the orange country
| From Jacksonville we eail up the ST.. Johns
| river Che st. Johns river rurs north up
through the peninsula from the Everglades)
! for one hundred and twenty miles. From
Jacksonville we tskA the train northeast
thirty five miles to Fernaudins; aud from
JacksOpville we sail fifty miles south up the
s.. Johns to Tocot, aud take the train
east fifteen miles to ST.. Aug gustine-per-
hsps the Oldest city in America.
THE QUEER ST. JOHNS RIVER.
The St. Johns river is not a river at all.
It is a great bay. like the Chesapeake. l. is
rom two to five miles wide salt, and sub
] CT to tides for seventy-hve miles. It is
very shallow-bosts not being able, in many
instances, to get within half a mile OF its
banks. The landings are long, narrow
wooded piers running out like jetties.
When | asked Captain Larkin, OF Palatks,
whether the thing was pond, bay, or a
river, he said:
'Tain't neither, Mr.. Perkins I,'s COW
pas ure. S a subterranean cow pasture.
Don't yOu see drOves Of cattle standing in
the. wafer and grazing all the way from
Jacksonville ?"
Captain Larkiu was right. TheSt. Johns
| l. I 1 81.
cattle in Florida stay In it all winter There
they stand all day long, with their heads in
the water, eating the grass which grows in
| the bottom Of the river. This grass does
not grow up through the water, but lays
on the bottom. and the cows put their heads
clear under the water to get 1t. I've seen
COWS with their heads, ears and horns all
under water. The head will go entirely
under water for at least a minute, and then
it. will come up dripping with water and the
mouth full OF grass. 1t is very funny
sight to see a COW with her head apparently
severed from the BODY, while the tail is
switching AT the flies. So thousands Of cat
lie live IN the St. Johns all winter long.
HATCHING ALLIGAToRs.
The 81. Johns river is the alligators' para
disc. Is shallow banks keep the alligators
out of harms way from the passing boat.
There they Law stretched out on the sand with
no one to molest them. Now and then q
passing shot from some fool on a steamboat
wakes one up, when he opens both eyes
wide, tskes one look around, and sinks in
the water till the fool gets by. The chances
of killing an alligator with rifla are about
one In five hundred. Unless you hit him In
the eye, you have no chance at all. His
throat and the little tender spot under his
fore legs are always well covered. The bone
of the allioator's head-that is bis long
SKULLS at least an inch thick. Nothing
but the ball from the field battery would dis
turb him at all. Buckshot would be nothing
but mosquito bites to an old alligator.
AlligatorS lay their eggs in the sand, In
sunny place where the temperature is sure
tn be warm enough to sustain animal growth.
If a cold snap comes, 1t kills the life of the
egg. just the same as the chickens die 10
hens eggs when the old hen stops off too
long. In the case Of the alligator the warm
sand is the nest, and the sun is the old hen.
The sun sits on the nest all day. and gets It
so warm that it continues to keep warm
during the night. The ostrich is a lazy
bird, and like, the alligator, It shirks the
setting" business off on the sun. In fact,
there is no need of any bird "setting" on
its eggs in the tropical regions. Captain
Larkin tells me that he has batched goose
eggs and hens eggs in the warm sand
''I place them just as the alligator does"
said the Captain, "where they are continu
ally warm, with the small end OF the egg up
and just sticking through the sand. spread
a blanket over them at night, and at the
end Of three weeks the chickens iumu out
and commence ea'ing she mosquitoes u
'Did you ever, vice versa. ha'ch alligator's
eggs under hen, Captain?" asked.
''No; hut Mr.. Pratt, the editor OF the Pa
latka Herald, and Col. Hart, who has the
big orange grove over the river, have done
50, and 1t was a very curious experiment,
too"
moment afterwards the Captain intro
duced me TO Mr. Pratt. "He is a very care
ful and truthful man, etc" )" said the Cap
tain, ''and the best authority we have on
alligators."
"What was It about you and Colonel Hart
Matching alltPator's eggs under hen, Mr..
Pratt 2" | asked
"Whv, yes, we tried It. We hatched out
two litters-One under g goose, and the
other under an old hen. The goose staii
around the nest after the young 'gators
came for some time. She was very much
puzzled. She couldn't give up the idea that
hey were her gOsiugs, but still she didn't
want TO claim them. So she'd go to the
nest and look In very mournfuly, as men
lock at the remains at a funeral, and then
go away and think"
"Who I'D the little alligators ?"
"On, little gators don't eat anything.
They will live for weeks on absolutely
nothing. I've kept 'gators till they were q
foot long, and never given them anything
70 eat. They simply lie still and grow.
Thy live on air."
"Wbat did the old hen do!"
"Well, she was different. She didn't act
like the goose. She was q very stubborn
old hen. l had tried to break her up We'd
tied her eff the nest, ducked her IN the
water, and dooe everything to stop her
setting; but she would set so / put ten
gators eggs u'der her in the sand, and let
her go at it. l thought she'd get tired; but
she sat five weeks on those eggs, and finally
Trey hatched out six as lively little gators as
you ever saw. The little fellows, you
know, are quite frolicky. l saw by the
looks of the old hen, the morning that the
gators hstched out, that something was
up. The old hen chuckled in a slow,
motherly way, as II che was very proud ]
don't think she'd seen the gators, though.
Well, the second day l threw some rn
srouud the old hen, and she came eff tn
eat. l knew she wouldn't go back again If
she ever saw the gators; but I wanted TO
see just what she would do. 30 Colonel
Hart and l watched toe nest"
"Did she come back"
eyes and what do you think she did :
Why, she just clucked around the nest, as
II it was the lOveliest brood Of white chick
S-S SA 'N' ny IHO OAu lOOl dCiuhlN
went and sat down on the nest, and never
noticed the difference. 1 always knew hens
were darned fools, but / never took them
for beastly idiots before. That hen sat on
those little gators for four days, till the lit
tie fellows began to crawl out of the nest
and drop into the muddy water. And even
then the old hen staid around, clucked to
them, and tried to feed them. Col. Hart
has three OF those gators now in his duck |
house, swo years old, aud as gentle as kit-
tens. They do everything we tell them 20
We are going to break 'em to the bit when
tney get about six years old, and use them
70 draw the ferry boat between the Larzin
House and Col. Hart's orange grove"
"And the old hen ?"
"Well, she's stnl around. She walks
around the gators still and takes mother. |
ly pride in them"
WHEN TO COME TO FLORIDA.
When is the exact time for tourist In |
search OF pleasure and surprise to come to |
Florida?
In answer l should say come the 1st dsy |
OF February. To be sure the orange groves |
are loaded with green leaves and yellow |
oranges all over the Sta'e now; a hundred /
variety of roses are in blossom from Jack |
soDville to the south end OF the peninsula: /
bananas-ripe bananas--are hanging on the |
stems at Palatks; strawberries are coming /
down from Enterprise; pine apples and |
cOcoanuts are rpeDing on the Upper St.
,FAhpies and tho naon1a IL, hot II