CHAPTER


VIII.


 THE INDIAN RIVER REGION AND THE INLAND LAKES.

 THE Indian River region is the most widely known of
any portion of all South Florida, but it is visited by very
few tourists and travelers, owing mostly to its general in-
accessibility. The shortest distance from Jacksonville by
the usual-and at present only-method of transportation
(the St. John's River route) is upward of two hundred


miles, and this long journey ends at Titusville, located al-
most on the head-waters of the famous river. A detailed
description of the journey from Jacksonville, also a descrip-
tion of the various places which I visited on the Indian
River, is given elsewhere, in the chapter containing an ac-
count of the writer's tour of the State with Hon. Seth
French. The purpose of this chapter is to give a more
comprehensive description of the resources and advantages
of the region regarded as a whole.
 Indian River runs parallel with the Atlantic coast,
northwest and southeast, extending south of latitude 27,
and running north of 281, measuring from one and a half
to seven miles in width, and from four to sixteen feet in
depth of channel, though in many places one may wade
more than half a mile from shore.
 It abounds in every variety of fish, but is distinguished


for its superb mullet, the general weight of which is from
two to five pounds, but in many instances they weigh from
six to nine pounds, measuring twenty or twenty-two inches
in length. The sheep's-head, sea-trout, cavalier, and bass are