St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-31
NIMROD'S PARADISE.
Wild, Weird Regions in Flor
ida Teeming With a Varl-
ETY. Of Game.
The Haunts Of Deer, Bears,
Birds, Foxes and Millions
Of Alligatops.
Sequestered Valleys Where
Men Have Rarely Trodden
the Turf.
Thrilling Rescue Of a Young
Man From the Jaws Of a
Crocodile.

While Florida is teeming with scouts
| for land companies, railroad engineers,
| prospectors for phosphate mines and
| adventurous Sportsmen IN search of new
| hunting grounds, yet there are thou
sands of square miles in the extreme
| southern portion of the state which are
rarely trOdden by the foot of the white
man, and which are veritabe geological
| gardens in which feral animals are as
tame as ever they were in the island
home of Robinson Crusoe. One of the
widest and weirdest regions thus
far discovered in the state is the lake
known as the 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 4 genuine sports
mans paradise, wild animals being so
numerous and fearless through their
unacquaintance with man that hunter
has actually to kick some of them out Of
his way before they will move. Paro-
| quetS scream on almost every bough
and move in dense flocks. like our COM
mon blackbirds; fiamingoes, ibises.
roseate spoonbills, pelicans and other
equatic and wading birds haunt the
margins of the lake at all times, and rae
coons and opossumss, bay lynXes, offers,
foxes and marsh hareS are abund ant
enough to arouse the avarce of even
an amateur trapper. Deer, bear and
| pumas are numerous on the uplandS,
and turkeys haunt the contagious for
ests. 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 a hundred
within an hour or two and probably
three times that number in day. The
| cone-like neXts of the alligators are one
of the most marked features of the
| landscape, as they are extraordinarily
abundant and seem to have been in eX-
| iStence for many years. Young reptiles
are, as a consequence, very common,
and as they are always ready for Il
| fight a person must be careful not to
approach them too closely. One of
| them seized the trousers 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 brier with a
| speed that only could be developed by
| terror; but as the saurian chung to him
with the tenacity of a sandspur the poor
! fellow was i'll danger Of dropping dead
! from horror when his friends overlook
him and relieved him OF his
terrifying companion. When res
traditional ghost; the perspiration
rolled off his body in streams, and he
was so weak that he could scarcely
stand or speak. 1t took him some time
to recover from his needless terror, and
| it was many day before he could
calmly hear his comrades refer to
''three-inch gator
Soaring a Green EngIishman
on the gulf coast of Florida have not yet
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 scene
of horror. says an Anclote
Florida) correspondent of the
Washington Star. Mosquitoes fly in
swarms there during the rainy season,
and are so persistent in their attactS
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 Decem-
Der and April, and revel i'll such vanatic
adventures as they never thought of IN
their widest dreams. They must
are likely to wander for days
among the broad savannas, which
seem to be vast monotOnous level of
grass and water or 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 Pa
cific coast. Many of the giants are one
mass OF tillaudSia, or Spanish moss, and
present funeral aspect in their dense
covering of grayish black. Another
region which should prove interesting
to the disciples of Nimrod and Walton
is New River Inlet. in the extreme
southern portion of Florida. This was
AFamous Resort
during the war for the deserters from
both armies and those who fed from the
confederate CONSUMPTION. Many dark
deed is associated with the name of the
place, fog, beach-combers and pirates
made it tiEtr headquarters during the
early occupation of Florida by the
United States, and they were not driven
out of it unSil after the civil war was
over. The inlet is famous for the vast
quantity of fish and turtles which haunt
it at all seasons of the year, and the
readiness with which such spe-
cies as the tarpon, Jewish, sea
devil or vampire ray, barracuda
Spanish mackerel, funny dol
phin and their Southern congeners may
be captured at all stages of the tide. 1t
is one of the most noted places in the
state for green turtle, large shoals be-
ing found there during stormy weather
owing to the protection which it affords
them and the depth of its water. 1t was
formerly great rendezvous for the
Seminole Indians, when they were in
their pristine glory, and diving after
turtles was one of their favorite sum-
mer amusements, and their principal
means of filling their larder while they
were diving after the numerous Che
lonia midas that thronged it |
One day the squaws on shore and the |
old men set up sudden cry OF horror
and shouted "Man-eaters!" in their |
most stentorian tones. The divers knew !
too well what that meant, and made the |
most frantic efforts to reach land, but |
the hungry shoal of sharks dashed into |
their midst before they could get ten |
yards away, and were soon engaged in |
slaughtering them as rapidly as if they |
were so many mullet. A few reached |