FLORIDA.


waters, does not exist in Florida. What is here called the
trout is in reality the Oswego black bass, which, as is well
known, is a nice, gamy, delicious fish, but not the dainty
aristocrat of Northern streams.
 Everybody fishes, or at least can fish, in Florida, and I
have enjoyed many pleasant trips with jolly fishing-parties
in various parts of the State. At Cedar Keys I once saw
three housewives grouped on the long railroad-pier there,
each ensconced under an umbrella, and all comfortably fish-
ing in the most neighborly, sociable, matter-of-fact manner.
It was a very common event with them ; they were merely
out marketing for their dinner-a large, free market, very
convenient indeed. One of them showed me two fine,
plump, six or seven pounders, her catch in about fifteen min-


utes.
 Fishing is always made additionally
ida by the great variety of strange an
that are constantly being captured, and
where.
 Of feathered game the variety and
as great as of the fish. It is practical


interesting in Flor-
d curious creatures
are rarely seen else-


quantity are almost
ly unlimited every-


where in the State. At the place where I resided in the
summer of 1880-and there were ten men there in the party
-I have seen several coveys of quail all at one time feed-
ing about in the yard, or among the orange-trees, often ap-
proaching within ten feet of the veranda where we were
seated, and glancing up at us without a shade of fear or
timidity. Everywhere they feed about in the barn-yards
among the common fowls (except, of course, right in the
towns and villages); and in a ride of a mile I have fre-
quently seen a dozen coveys scudding across the roadway
but a few steps distant.
 No other bird is quite so abundant, perhaps, as the quail;
but, according to Hallock's Camp-Life in Florida," the
game-birds include the wild-turkey, the Canada goose, the