Four Months in a Sneak-Box: A Boat Voyage of 2600 Miles Down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and Along the Gulf of MexicoBishop, Nathaniel H. (Nathaniel Holmes)
General
Four Months in a Sneak-Box: A Boat Voyage of 2600 Miles Down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and Along the Gulf of Mexico
Bishop, Nathaniel H. (Nathaniel Holmes)
Boats and boating; Mississippi River -- Description and travel; Ohio River -- Description and travel
At seven o'clock the Rev. Mr. Hart returned and claimed his fee,
reporting that he had hauled the Riddle to the lagoon, where he found
Saddles pleasantly whiling away the hours of solitude in the useful
occupation of washing his extra shirt and stockings. He assured me the
Riddle would soon appear. A little later Saddles reached my camp, and
we tented for the night on the beach. At daylight we took to our oars,
and rowed out of the end of the lagoon into Pensacola Bay. Skirting
the high shores on our left, we approached within a mile of the United
States naval station Warrington, where we went into camp upon the
white strand, in a small settlement of pilots and fishermen, who
kindly welcomed us to Pensacola Bay. We slept in our boats on the
sandy beach, beside a little stream of fresh water that flowed out of
the bank.
The morning of the 19th of February was calm and beautiful, while the
songs of mockingbirds filled the air. Across the inlet of Pensacola
Bay was the western end of the low, sandy island of Santa Rosa, which
stretches in an easterly direction for forty-eight miles to East Pass
and Choctawhatchee Bay, and serves as a barrier to the sea. Behind
this narrow beach island flow the waters of Santa Rosa Sound, the
northern shores of which are covered with the same desolate forests of
yellow pine that characterize the uplands of the Gulf coast. At the
west end of Santa Rosa Island the walls of Fort Pickens rose gloomily
out of the sands. It was the only structure inhabited by man on the
long barren island, with the exception of one small cabin built on the
site of Clapp's steam-mill, four miles beyond the fort, and occupied
by a negro.
We crossed the bay to Fort Pickens, and followed the island shore of
the sound until five o'clock P. M., when we sought a camp on the beach
at the foot of some conspicuous sand hills, the thick "scrub" of which
seemed to be the abode of numerous coons. From the top of the
principal sand dune there was a fine view of the boundless sea. Our
position, however, had its inconveniences, the principal one being a
scarcity of water, so we were obliged to break camp at an early hour
the next day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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