The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-02-04
HUNTING DEER
ON india RIVER E. R
The DeIight Of. Roughing It ID Florida
Swamp and Brake
WHERE e. sEM AIN! DE: cAM|PE PED:
! Canvas Roof; Genial Crowd and
Virginia Rye. the Falling Rain
Drops Have. Small Tcrrors.
Palmcttos aud Pines.
WHERE sEMIN0LEs CAMPED.

written from Virginian in Florida
describing the pleasure of hunting and
roughinG it.
We were camping this week on Lake
Winder and having more deer on hand
7 than we needed or could preserve. we
sent our Cracker cook and a one horse
wagon with two to our lodging place and
he returned Friday with our mall and
in it were two papers bearing on them
the familiar initials III. e. "a. Really,
ii was not so much to add to the luAurles
OF our friends at the lodgings that we
sent in the deer as it was that | might
hear from my wife and dear little klu
way yonder in old Virginia our. pine
smoked messenger returned with pun
die OF pleasant letters from nome ana
the papers, and at an hour that we were
cooped under our tent shclterinS from
one Of these tropical downpours that
come in sheets like the sails Of a sloop-
We had just pulled off our soaked leg
gins and changed our clothes, taken
Joe Darter'' of old Virginia rye-so
after eating on unearth!y dinner OF
grits (Florida currency with brown VEN
ison gravy and assisted in making way
with q pot full of stewed vcnison ribs
and other food tonsenai to these two
items on the bill Of fare, coled up on
my wire cot upon my bedding that had
put In a pile, covered, for additional pro
lection. with my old saddle bags law
YER rubber cape. There l read the news
from home: there I was begrimed hum
ter with all the wilds OF a primevai
forest around me: way yonder Whcre
am known as a country lawyer. was my
wife and little ones: letters from them
hoping that 1 was we'll and happy; fell
ing, in heavy patters were the rain drops
on the canvas, streaming from the yield
ing palmetto fans, that shot out from the
trunks of these aristocratS OF the forest
There was kind of pleasant pathos
all this that would stir even the man VINO
confesses that he is impeiled now and
then to steal away and crafty his saw
age instincts. Then l read Pend!eton or
the good old has beens'' of Tazewell and
found among them far greater and hette:
men than I who were described for their
proves as slayers of deer and bear
THE PARTY.
The hunting party was composed OIL
Mr.. Balantine. my erstwhi!e friend from
New jersey, Beal. native Faor:d!an, the
best woodsmen and hunter I ever saw
and born good man: our native
cracker cook and your humble servent-
Our hunting ground was around about
Lake Winder, about IL miles S. w. OF
here. We had two small one pony-waS-
ons-these carried our tent, cots and bed
dinE-camping outfit. Ballantine pad
light blackboard in which we drove two
Florida. ponies and in this we rode and
carried our guns and hunting toys. We
put our tent at a. spot where the poor
Semino!es used to camp, close by q fresh
water pond and amid 4 palmetto and pine
grove, right on the edge OF the prarieS
that spread out westward to the shore
Of the lake. To the east, back Is we had
come, was the fiat pine wcods-the trees
low and spurce-the: under growth of low
saw palms-here and there in round
oblong or straight narrow beds: about
would be small hummocks, thick with
many different trees, often the Som5re
live oak, covered with thick hanging
moss enlivcned by the green Glisten of
the thick fo!l.ged ragnclla. S'nu:'.s
here, ponds there, water everywhere, but
all covered with an amber sea of fragile,
wavy sedge grass, not thick. Two great
old horned owls came and interviewed us,
hootinc their froggy coarse low boots
and now and then their fendish attempts
at a laugh.S, They stayed around all the
time we We're there. Seven or eight
whooping cranes stood a few hundred
yards off. their heads just above the tall
grass. Our dogs put three coons up
little pine nearby, and they sat there till
dark. We shot on the road enough par.
.tilusoeS loI rSuEpSi-ctiL tiC W StI--ifiII
from bacon-but none Of that tame
commodity after that.
TILE DOGS.
Next morning we Were on our ponies at
S o'clock. waiting till that time Tor the
deer to seek co.rer and lie down. We had
two dogs, beautiful hounds one sarey-
younsster that was rather fast, the other
the perfection of a trained Caer dog. We
did not go more than a quarter of a mile
from camp until we struck a rial. which
proved to be that of doe and yearling.
: The young dog was soon strung by n
strong cord and that tied to the saddle
and handled by Zeal. The old dog then
nois.,lessly followed the trail. very much
as q setter reading birds. We got into a
pond OF high. switch grass and the deer
ran out-one being crippled by Beal. We
found blood and followed on too soon,
the deer stepping en- the prairie in a bed ,
of low saw palmetto not over five hun
dred yards from us. We then waited on
the track, after she had escaped US, for
an hour, giving time to hide and lie
down-then we again took UP the trail and
following it about a mile: rode her up
in high grass and by that time she was
pretty we'll done up. Still she chased
around till shot four TINES at her in the
brush from horseback before we bagsed
her. For two more successive mornings
we Killed a deer. one of them falling eX-
Though she had several shots in her.
enclose you the one that did the work,
entering just behind the ribs. ranging for
ward and lodging in her neck.
KNEE DEEP.
When OH dogs showed signs CT expect
ing the deer to rip" we usually Dis
mounted, and then it was wading in water
knee deep. now and then, which did for
at least two hours each day, heading
around small switch-grass ponds and PAL
metto patches. Now, Alderson. all this
looks Kind o. savage. Doesn't it? What
manner of animal is man. that this be-
comes the height of enjoyment? I never
left home so reluctantly In my life-the.
wear anG tear of work had made me timid
and narrow: Il was full of cold and out of
trinl-in fact-cowardly, and shrunk from
tie task, but never enjoyed one of these
outings SO much Going from here we
drove eight miles on q shell road down
Indian river; you know that is. beautiful
body of water. The land owners through
whose prem ses the road runs, require the
forest trees Ga strip of them next to the
river) to lie left standing for what they
call a wind break ito protect their,
groves. These are, palms, moss hanging
live oaks and magnolias and other ever
greens: they arch over the road = but all