The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-01-04
SHOOTING sHARKb AND BEARS.

the most southerly pPint of the main land. The route isl Very circuitous, but one of interest, while the chan nels and canals lite1ially swarm with fish, both large and lsmall, which are easily taken
 On our second dayl out, thinking to | diversity our sport during a calm and low tide, we noticed many large red fish and shark feeding near mud fiat, and taking our two rifles and a skiff, drifted in among them; the sport begins and was sport really and truly, until, encouraged by our re- peated ability to perforate the reddish, large shark near by tempted us, and letting the big fellow come within a dozen feet of the boat we let fly bull let at the top of his broad head and another in his back near the big fin. The result was perhaps as great a sur prise to ourselves as to the shark as if a blast of dynamite had exploded under him the big fellow leaped into the air, carrying barrels of water, and the descent promised to swamp our frail crast.
 l The shark apparently stunned, and furious, turned upon his back, made circuit of our boat then--still on his baek-darted straight at us, hitting us amidships and half filling the boat. This was evidently as much a surprise to the shark again as to ourselves, for 1t at once righted itself and made i frenzied dash for deeper water reach ing it his great tail fairly whipped the water into a boiling mass. Things were getting more serious this time than enjoyable and we would have gladly backed off if we had had fair wind, but his royal nibs was not though.
 Another rapid series of evolutions kept our craft bobbing around at rate that drew on all our time and agility to keep in it, until at last, like catapult, he shot high up on the mud fiat and stranded, very much to our relief We had not lost any more sharks-our appetite for diversion was | thoroughly satisfied, and, thinking we had greater longing for a dish Nof fish chowder, we left our victim 1 floundering spasmodically in the mud and returned to the yacht fully de- termined not to start anything with a shark again.
 In due time after a fine trip we put in to Flamingo Flats and dropped anchor in front of the home of Eugene Roberts, one of about a dozen families who constitute the population of the Cape, The next day after our arrival Bob Doughit neighbor, came ex citedly with the information that three bears were tearing Up ant hills on the edge of the paririe, short distance 1 down the road. It did not take long to get our party in motion. Mi. Roberts with his dog in advance. The bears were there sure enough, and very soon a shower of balls was ploughing through their black shaggy skins. A bear is not easily killed, and as the grass was as high as the bears, a running fight began which carried the party across the half mile of prairie and into the dense hammock
 One bear was killed on the prairie and the second, supposed to be dis abled. was passed, and pursuit was given to the largest one, which seemed very hard to down. Hard pressed by the dog and sorely wounded, it treed where, with single shot, 1t was brought down, breaking off a very large limb as 1t fell. This bear would weight at least 300 pounds, MT. Roberts now returned for the mule and wagon and began gathering up the game, but the bear, supposed to have been disabled, had recovered sufficiently to escape into the ham mock.
 Having now plenty of meat our party did not hunt for deer, which are very numerous there, and can be got ten in sufficient quantities to satisfy any reasonable sportsman. We shot only birds after this; duck and curlew are there, myriads of them One of the party shot 57 ducks in one day, and could have shot five times as many had he wanted to.
 Among other hunters whom 1 met at the Cape was one of a school now almost extinct since frontier condi- tions which created them have faded into civilization. Uncle Steve Roberts Is one of these fast vanishing charac- ters over 50 years of ago, small in stature, agile as panther, big hearted kind and honest. He has spent every year of his life in the wilds of Florida, always keeping just ahead of advance ing civilization. finding more music in the wierd scream of the panther and the crack of his old rife than in band concerts and French operas.
 A very bold catamount had for some time pRior to our visit to the Cape been harassing the neighborhood, and one night during our stay the varmint vis- tied MT. Doughits house and killed two of his domestic cats on his door steps, As l only had a day or two left to spend at the Cape. I asked Uncle Steve to get me something nice"
 He had been awaiting a favorable op- portunity to go on the trail of the bothersome catamount, and thinking I would appreciate it's skin I took the trail in a nearby swamp. Hunter and hunted came together so unex- pectedly that both were so surprised , that it was simply case of stare. Uncle Steves first move was the signal for the eat to f1aten out in the grass and worm it's 1.-the body noiselessly away out of sight. The wary old hunter did not jump into the grass after 1t. It was a case of wits and he simply took another direction, and be-