The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1884-01-02

PARALLEL and wss maze In the face OF any
numbf e Of predictions that the boat would
slns or bs Destroyed.
plr. John A. Victor, second engineer, has
J ast returned from the trip, on which he
embarked Tor pure lovo OF adventure. no
Was sson by = reporter lsft evening, ana
gave tho following interesting account oil
the journey;
1.-The Bertha wss purchased In July" he
said, "by Hsssrs. Dosglss & Fletcher. OF b.
Louis, who determined Ia use her IN the
| kissimes river trade. ] consented TO 70 on
the trip for adventure. Ms | thought the I'M
dsrtaklng very hazardous, to ray the least.
In fact, a great many people we're AFRAID 70
| the 18th Of August, and had only been out
a couple of days when the Emma Ethsridge
ran sioul OF us one night, tearing away our
oook-house and leaving pant OF her sides
mixad up In our cylinders. Alter colliding
she went right ahead, aud paid VA no stten-
ton to zee " We useded help or not. We
managed To get along until We reached
| pAduuah, New Orleans. Nothing else dan
/ geroui ia the way OF incidents occurred,
the iiltla packet never doing bstter and
even makisg faster time than she had ever
done before In fact, shG went from Match
81 TO Ellie olih, distance OF eighteen
miles In one hour. When we got to New
Oheans We laid up for two weeks, and Cap.
y
turned the boat over 10 Mr.. Bsokley who
was an old river pilot. The first mate was
b. y. Hail, sn odd river man.
"Aner leaving New Orleans We struck
out for the Gulfof hgyiGo. 10 hsd bssn
predicted that this Bertha Lea would be n
failure out on the ocean, but there never
was greater mistake. She rode the waves
like a cork, and in fivayesrH experience on
the gulf never saw anything 10 beat her,
The distance from New Orleans TO the
mouth OF the Caloosahatchee river is seven
hundred miles, and this WAS made without
"A particle OF trouble,
In September we entered the mouth ol
tho CalooSahatchee, and commenced the
ascent Of that beautiful river. There va.
one difficulty to contend with here, and
that was the lack of cut wood. The cap
tain had the choice of waiting iii the set
tiers cut II or haviRg itdone by tia crew,
The banks are lined with live OAK, the finest
kind OF fuel, 80 he put the crow 10 work
and soon had enough on board. After
s.eamirg about 251 Mules np the river We
entered into Lake OkecchoOee, winch is the
largest lake In Florida, IL being about six y
miies in length by thirty in breadth. Ii
has no banks, you might cay, tina country
stretching away for miles and niiiss on
eithsr side in M unbroksn rlar,h, over
grown with sour grass and weeds After
ward several other lakes were passsd, aud
then we entered the klssimeo rive, il
flows through . swamp, too, and might be
said TO hRvo no banks. It's crowded with
whopping Zig alligstors, so thick you cSn'i
shake slick at them. They a,ed to pok,
thar noses up ana stare at us 70 impuden
when we we're passing that We were slWsy'
shying sticks at them. They were disgust
ingly familiar critters. Why they nssd u
crawl aboard on nights and came nefi
Tightening the captain, who was 4 nervous
man, into fits. In ths river they were a
thick az could be, aud IL was an easy matte
to catch whoppers with hook. 1t WASH
bated. but was simply flung over then
and then hauled in.-TEX.