Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-25
FORESTS OF FLORIDA.
A Weird Region Filled With Wild
and Savage Animals.
THE PARADISE FOR SPORTSMEN.
I Game Fish Abound in the Streams and
Along the Coast Line.
VAST SOUTHERN GRUESONE SAVANNAS

Searcn OF new hunting Srouuus, YET tHeie
are thousands of square miles in the ex-
treme southern portion of the State which
are rarely trodden by the foot of the white
man, and which are veritable geological
gardens in which feral animals are as tame
as ever they were in the island home of
Robinson Crusoe.
The work of opening these wilds is now
being pushed forward by drainage and canal
companies, saws a correspondent in the
Washington Star, but it must be many wears
before they can reclaim the vast southern
savannas and render them fit for human
habitation.
One of the widest and weirdest regions
thus far discovered in the State is the lake
known as Jane Green swamp or Sawgrass
lake, which has an area of at least 800
square miles and contains the finest body of
cypress trees on this planet.
This is a genuine sportsmen's paradise,
wild animals being numerous and so fearless
through their unacqualntance with man that
hunter has actually to kick some of them
out of his way before they will move.
Parokeets scream on almost every bough
and move in dense fiocks, like our common
black birds: flamigoes, ibises, roseate spoon
bills, pelicans and other aquatic and wading
birds haunt the margins of the lake at all
times, and raccoons and oppossums, hay
lvnxes otters, foxes and marsh hares are
abundant enough to arouse the avarice OF
even an amateur trapper.
wind Animals There in Abundance.
Deer, bears and pumas are numerous on
the uplands, and turkeys haunt the contig-
nous forests where mast is abundant.
Snakes are also unusually common, every
water hole and clump of bushes seeming to
have its own COLONY. One is likely to see
over 100 within an hour or two, and proba-
bly three times that number in day. The
most numerous species is the water and up
land moccasins, but rattle.nakes are also
very abundant, and king, whip, chicken
ard blacksnakes are frequently encountered.
When the ophdians are thick they exhale a
sickening odor, which produces vomiting
in some persons, this being particularly
true of rattlesnakes and moccasns.
The lake lost much of its water recently,
owing to extremely warm weather and
scarcity of rain, and this forced the fish to
seek refuge in shallow pools, where they
furnished feast to owls, buzzards, 'coons
and 'possums, snakes and saurians. Thou
sands of fish could be seen fluttering about
in the last stage OF exhaustion, while thou
sands more lay purifying on the margins of
tine lake or were being devoured by foxes,
'eoons or 'possums.
The latter creatures had probably never
seen man until they met Judge Harrison's
party. and they were so Indifferent to the
hunters of this expedition that they scarcely
deigned to glance at them as they passed by.
All animals in the region displayed the
same fearlessness, the deer merely scrutin-
izing them with fatuous curiosity, the bears
snufhng the air, as if trying to decide to
what class of creatures they belonged, and
the hugest alligators in Florida paying no
attention to their presence.
Many Nests of the Saurians.
The cone-like nests of the saurians are one
of the most marked features of the land
scape, as they are extraordinarily abundant
and seem to have been in existence for
many wears. Young reptiles are, as con-
sequence, very common, and as they are
ALWAYS ready for a fight a person must be
careful not to approach them too closely.
One of them seized the trouser leg of
young man in Judge Harrison's exploring
party and he, thinking it was snake
became almost insane with fear and dashed
through brake and briar with a speed that
could only he developed bv terror but as
the saurian clung to him with the tenacity
of a sandspur the poor fellow was in danger
of dropping dead from horror when his
friends overlook him and relieved him of
hir terrifying companion.
When rescued he was as pale as the tradi-
tional ghost; the perspiration rolled off his
body in streams, and he was so weak that
he could scarcely stand or speak. 1t took
bin some time to recover from his needless
terror and it was many a day before he
could calmly hear his comrades refer to
''threc-inch gator soaring green English
man to death"
The wild hogs so common on the gulf
coast of Florida have not vet migrated as
far toward the interior as Sawgrass Lake
but some hunters hope they may soon find
their way toward it in order to destroy
the numerous snakes that make its borders
a scene of horror
Mo.quitoes Fly in Large Swarms.
Mosquitoes fy in swarms there during the
rainy season, and are so persistent in their
attacks that explorers are compelled to
make their beds between two or more fires
if they would get any sleep. These winged
plaques like the snakes and saurians are
in state of Information during the winter,
and do not appear in seriously annoying
numbers until May or June.
Sportsmen can, therefore, safely visit this
region between December and April, and
revel in such venatlc adventures as they
They must take guides with them, or they
are likely to wander for days among the
broad savannas, which seem to be a vast
p,onotonous level of grass and water or a
jungle of cypress.
The cypress trees alone are we'll worth
visit, as they are the largest in the State
and compare favorably with some of the
redwoods and spruces of the Pacific coast
Many of the giants are one mass of tillaud-
sia, or Spanish moss, and present a funereal
aspect in their dense covering of gravish
black Air plants are very abundant
throughout the region, owing to the humid
itv of the atmosphere, and several species
Of fora unknown farther north are conspic-
nous in the forests. The large tracts ad-
joining the swamp are interesting to all
students OF nature, but no persons will ex-
tract as much delight from them as the lover
of natural history and of the rod and gun
Nimrods Can Find Exercise.
Another region which should prove ex-
ceedingly interesting to the disciples of
N;mrod and Walton is New River inlet, in
the extreme southern portion of Florida
This was famous resort during the war for
the deserters from both armies and those
who fed from the Confederate conscription.
Many dark deed is associated with the
name of the place, for beach combers and
pirates made it their headquarters during
the early occupation of Florida by the
United States, and they were not driven
ont until the Civil War was over. The inlet
is famous for the vast quantities of fish and
turtles which haunt it at all seasons of the
wear, and the readiness with which such
species as the tarpon, Jewish, sea devil or
vampire raw, barracuda, Spanish mackerel,
tunny, dolphin and their Southern congen-
ers may be captured at all stages of the