Chapter I: Front Matter

FLORIDA TRAILS

[_Page 208_]]

FLORIDA TRAILS

AS SEEN FROM JACKSONVILLE TO KEY WEST
AND FROM NOVEMBER TO APRIL
INCLUSIVE

BY

WINTHROP PACKARD

_Author of “Wild Pastures,” “Wood Wanderings,” etc._

ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY
THE AUTHOR AND OTHERS

BOSTON
SMALL, MAYNARD AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

_Copyright, 1910_
BY SMALL, MAYNARD AND COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)

Entered at Stationers’ Hall

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

TO MY MOTHER

The author wishes to express his thanks to the editors of the “Boston Evening Transcript” for permission to reprint in this volume matter originally contributed to the columns of that paper; to Mr. H. E. Hill of Fort Pierce, Florida, and to Mr. J. D. Rahner of St. Augustine, Florida, for permission to use certain photographs which so ably supplement his own; and to very many Florida people, through whose unfailing hospitality and friendly guidance he was able to see and know many things which otherwise he would have been unable to find or understand. This spirit of courtly hospitality and neighborly good will seems to be as unfailing as the Florida sunshine, and is characteristic alike of the native and the adopted citizen. It adds one more delight to the many to be found in this beautiful region.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I GOING SOUTH WITH THE WARBLERS 1

II CERTAIN SOUTHERN BUTTERFLIES 13

III ALONG THE RIVER MARGIN 26

IV BIRDS OF A MORNING 38

V ’TWIXT ORANGE GROVE AND SWAMP 49

VI JASMINE AND CHEROKEE ROSES 61

VII A FROSTY MORNING IN FLORIDA 75

VIII CHRISTMAS AT ST. AUGUSTINE 86

IX IN A FLORIDA FREEZE 96

X DOWN THE INDIAN RIVER 107

XI SPRING IN THE SAVANNAS 118

XII SEVEN THOUSAND PELICANS 129

XIII JUST FISHING 140

XIV PALMETTOS OF THE ST. LUCIE 152

XV INTRUDING ON WARD’S HERONS 163

XVI ONE ROAD TO PALM BEACH 175

XVII MOONLIGHT AND MARCH MORNINGS 186

XVIII IN GRAPEFRUIT GROVES 197

XIX BUTTERFLIES OF THE INDIAN RIVER 208

XX ALLIGATORS AND WILD TURKEYS 220

XXI EASTER TIME AT PALM BEACH 231

XXII INTO THE MIRACULOUS SEA 243

XXIII DOWN THE ST. JOHNS 253

XXIV HOLLY BLOSSOM TIME 264

XXV IN A TURPENTINE CAMP 276

INDEX 287

ILLUSTRATIONS

“The road down Indian River winds always southward toward the sun” _Frontispiece_

“They line the paths on either side with the gray columns of their trunks” _Titlepage_

PAGE

“Profuse draperies of moss pendant from each branch and twig” 10

“To march along this water is to promenade a river side and a sea beach in one” 30

“Lesser scaup ducks are very tame in Florida waters all winter” 34

“In the grateful shadow of an orange tree facing sunward in the grove” 50

“Under the long robes of gray moss at the foot of the ancient cypress trees” 58

“A wilderness where deer and bear still linger” 78

“Razor-backs do not think it good to live alone” 84

Court of “The Alcazar” at St. Augustine 88

Cathedral Place, St. Augustine 92

“The fort that waits in crumbling beauty the obliterating hand of the coming centuries” 94

“The first frosts turned the upper leaves of the banana trees a light brown” 102

The banana tree in bloom 106

“The southeast trade-winds here pass a long line of the islands which bar off the Indian River from the ocean” 108

“This is a country of pineapple plantations” 114

“Spring and autumn kissed yesterday in the savannas east of Lake Okeechobee” 118

“All must know when spring comes, whether in the Everglades or the New England pastures” 124

“The others began nest building and placed some fifteen hundred nests on the three-acre island” 134

A little group of half-grown young pelicans on the edge of Pelican Island 138

“Up with the full tide come sometimes the tarpon, rolling silvery bodies in the dark water” 144

“A manatee, rare indeed nowadays” 148

“Sabal palmettos whose cabbage heads tower often as high as the pines” 154

“As quick night glooms the river the passing sun caresses the palmettos last” 162

“A superb dignity of pose, statues of frozen alertness” 164

A little blue heron and her nest, the commonest Florida heron 168

A Seminole village deep in the flat woods of Southern Florida 178

The gray of dawn on the Indian River 192

“The tree is lavish to its friends and will produce fruit almost beyond belief” 198

“Thirty miles across the barrens these have come, from groves out at Fort Drum” 200

“A rubber tree twined its roots about a palmetto till it crushed the trunk to a debris of rotten wood” 210

“The river is screened from your view by dense growth of palmettos” 212

“My first glimpse came at one of these places” 222

“The heat and steam of the sub-tropical swamp hatches the eggs without further trouble” 224

“There, too, is the mingling of a score of wee, wild scents from the jungle” 232

The “traveler’s tree” in a Palm Beach garden 234

“It is the cocoanut palms that put the touch of picturesque adventure on the place” 238

Into the miraculous sea 244

“By and by the road leaves the embankment and winds totteringly out on piling” 248

“As one holds his breath in suspense the road comes to a stop at the western tip of Knight’s Key” 250

Gathering turtle’s eggs on a Florida beach 252

FLORIDA TRAILS