ONE OF THE RAREST ANIMALS IN THE WORLD.
After their day of excitement, terror, and anxiety the explorers passed
a happy evening around their camp-fire, and Lieutenant Carey gained a
clearer idea of the boys' adventures and escapes. He admitted that the
kindness shown them in the Seminole camp gave him a new insight into
the Indian character, and wished that he might have had a chance to
thank and reward Ul-we for his brave rescue of the young canoemates. He
also regretted that he, too, could not have visited that Indian camp,
and hoped that the appointment made by the boys with Ul-we might be
kept.
In spite of their recent hearty meal of sofkee, a preparation of which
they spoke in the highest terms, the boys were able to do ample justice
to Quorum's venison steaks, greatly to the satisfaction of the old
negro. He would have felt deeply grieved if they had allowed any amount
of feasting in an Indian camp to interfere with their enjoyment of a
meal that he had cooked, no matter how short an interval might have
elapsed between the two.
Although the boys felt rather stiff and lame the next morning, it
did not prevent their being ready bright and early to continue their
journey. It was a great pleasure to be once more afloat in their own
canoes, and this was increased by the fact that they now had a swift
current with them. It was a glorious March day, and all nature seemed
to share their high spirits as they glided smoothly down the beautiful
river. The water swarmed with fish and alligators, and the adjacent
forest was alive with birds. Among the innumerable fish that darted
beneath them, they soon recognized several salt-water varieties, which
assured them that the ocean could not be far off.
As the three canoes were moving quietly along abreast of each other and
close together, the _Psyche_ suddenly glided over a huge black object
that for an instant seemed inclined to rise and lift it bodily into the
air. As it was dropped back, there was a tremendous floundering, and
all three of the light craft were rocked so violently that only the
skill of their navigators saved them from capsizing.
"Was it a waterquake?" inquired Worth, with a very pale face, as soon
as his fright would allow him to speak.
"Yes; and there it goes," laughed the Lieutenant, pointing to a great
dim form that could just be seen moving swiftly off through the clear
water.
"It must have been a whale," said Sumner.
"No," answered Lieutenant Carey; "but it was the next thing to it.
It was a manatee or sea-cow. I have seen them in the lower Indian
River, but did not know they were found down here. I wish you boys
might have a good look at him, though, for the manatee is one of the
rarest animals in the world. It is warm-blooded and amphibious, lives
on water-grasses and other aquatic plants, grows to be twelve or
fifteen feet long, weighs nearly a ton, and is one of the most timid
and harmless of creatures. It is the only living representative of its
family on this continent, all the other members being extinct. The
Indians hunt it for its meat, which is said to be very good eating,
and for its bones, which are as fine-grained and as hard as ivory. In
general appearance it is not unlike a seal. It can strike a powerful
blow with its great flat tail, but is otherwise unarmed and incapable
of injuring an enemy. Several have been caught in nets and shipped
North for exhibition, but none of them has lived more than a few weeks
in captivity."
"What made that fellow go for us if he isn't a fighter?" asked Worth.
"He didn't," laughed the Lieutenant. "He was probably asleep, and is
wondering why we went for him. I can assure you that he was vastly more
scared than we were."
"He must have been frightened almost to death, then," said Sumner.
Soon after this they saw a landing-place on the left bank. Stopping to
examine it, they discovered a trail leading through a fringe of bushes,
behind which was an Indian field covering an old shell mound, and in a
high state of cultivation. In it were growing sweet-potatoes, melons,
squashes, sugar-cane, and beans--a supply of which they would gladly
have purchased had the proprietors been present. As they were not, and
necessity knows no law, our canoemen helped themselves to what they
needed, and when they left, the load of the cruiser was materially
increased.
At length they heard the dull boom of surf, and realized that only
a narrow strip of land separated them from the ocean. Late in the
afternoon they reached the mouth of the river, and the boys uttered
joyous shouts as they looked out over its bar and saw a limitless
expanse of blue waters, unbroken by islands, glistening in the light of
the setting sun.
With light hearts they went into camp on the inner side of the sandy
point separating the quiet waters on which they had been floating from
the long swells of the open sea. They intended running out of the river
and down the coast in the morning, for from their surroundings, as well
as from the general course they had taken through the 'Glades, the
Lieutenant was satisfied that they must be considerably to the north of
Cape Florida.
The boys determined to sleep in their canoes that night, and rigged up
the little-used striped canoe tents for that purpose. While they were
doing this, and the Lieutenant was pitching his own tent on shore, and
the others were collecting drift-wood on the beach, there came a hail
from across the river.
"Hello there! Bring a boat over here, can't ye?"
It was the first white man they had seen since leaving the _Transit_,
and going over in the cruiser, Sumner brought him back. He proved to
be a barefooted boy, a year younger than Worth, and yet he was the
mail-carrier over the most southerly land route, and one of the most
lonesome, in the United States. It is the seventy-mile stretch between
Lake Worth and Biscayne Bay, and every week this boy or his younger
brother walked the whole distance and back along the beach, with a
mail-sack on his back. He had to cross the mouths of two rivers,
for which purpose he kept an old skiff at each one. It sometimes
happened, as in the present case, that some other beach traveller
would appropriate his boat, and leave it on the wrong side. Then,
unless fortunate enough to find some one to set him across, he would be
obliged to brave the sharks and other sea-monsters, with which these
rivers swarm, and swim over after his own boat. Along his route were
three houses of refuge, situated twenty miles apart, and belonging to
the Life-saving Service. Each of them contained a single keeper, and
these were the only persons seen by the lonely mail-boy while on his
toilsome tramps.
The boy was greatly interested in the canoes, which he declared were
the neatest little tricks he ever did see, but he scouted the idea of
sleeping in them. "Why," said he, "some of them sharks or porpusses
what uses round here nights will run inter ye an' upsot ye quicker'n
wink."
He was amazed that they should cruise in such tiny craft, and begged
them not to think of attempting to run down the coast in them. On the
whole he regarded our young canoemates as being particularly daring and
reckless fellows, and they regarded him in much the same way, though
he made light of his lonely beach tramps, on which he often met bears,
panthers, or other wild animals.
He told them that they were about twenty-five miles north of Cape
Florida; that there was a "station" on the beach six miles north of
them; that turtle were beginning to lay eggs, and bears to frequent the
beach in search of them; that sharks grew larger in those very waters
than anywhere else on the coast; and that an easterly wind would blow
in the morning, which would prevent their crossing the bar. Having
delivered himself of this information, and saying that he must make the
station that night, the boy slung his mail-sack over his shoulders, and
started off at a brisk pace up the soft shelving beach.
After what he had told them about sharks, Sumner and Worth concluded
not to sleep in their canoes that night. They might have done so with
perfect safety, however, for no shark was ever known to overturn a boat
for the sake of getting at a human being inside of it.
The next morning the mail-boy's prediction in regard to the east wind
was verified. It was blowing briskly at sunrise, and already a big sea
was rolling in, combing and booming on the bar. Their boats would not
live in it a moment, and consequently they must stay where they were
until the wind changed.
After breakfast the Lieutenant sat in his tent writing, the sailor was
repairing a torn sail, Quorum was taking a nap, and the boys were left
to their own devices for amusement. An hour or so later Lieutenant
Carey, the sailor, and Quorum were startled by loud calls for help from
the beach, and hurried in that direction to see what new scrape the
"young rascals," as the Lieutenant called them, had got into now.