A PINEAPPLE GROVE ON INDIAN RIVER, FLORIDA.—A pineapple grove is one of the most enjoyable places in the world. The broad green blades of the plants, the golden reddish yellow fruit, and the pleasant odor that fills the air form a combination of the most delightful character. No one can fully appreciate the delicious flavor of the pineapple until he has plucked it ripe from the plant and eaten it on the spot. The fruit that goes to market is cut when only half ripe, and thus loses the best part of its flavor, and is spongy and tough in comparison with that which is allowed to mature before being gathered. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: A CAMP OF CONSUMPTIVES, NEAR LAKE WORTH, FLORIDA.] The character of the shore vegetation also changed, the spiney-palmetto giving place to mangroves that grow so thickly a man might almost walk on their tops. In these deep forests wild game is abundant, including deer, bear, panthers and ’coons; and on our journey we saw a ’coon that had so little fear it scarcely moved even when the boat brushed the limb upon which it sat. When night falls upon these solemnly somber deep woods a sense of dread steals on the traveler, though he be in a gay crowd on a good steamboat. The river narrows for nearly ten miles through the mangrove thickets, and during this interval the banks are within reach from both sides. The passage is tortuous, too, and the boat requires slow and careful handling, frequently the bow striking one bank and the stern the other, while the electric bull’s-eye light penetrates and flashes like a Druid’s fire dance in the tangled copse where many slimy and uncanny things have their haunts. An alligator’s grunt, a loon’s cry, a frog’s hoarse croak, and a snake-bird’s piping are some of the sounds that animate the solitudes, and cracking branches betray the proximity of some wild beast whose eyes are like lanterns in the darkness. After hours of patient working, Jupiter Narrows are passed and the boat speeds on, her iron hull often grinding on the oyster-beds, and long waves breaking over the shallows. Eden is then reached, and the odor of the pine-apple is perceptible in the air. A stop is made to allow passengers to go on shore and visit the pine-apple grove near-by, where that excellent fruit is cultivated successfully by a gentleman who first lost a fortune in the experiment. A mile below Eden St. Lucie Sound and River extend several miles inland towards Lake Okeechobee, twenty-five miles distant. It is proposed to connect the lake with this river by means of a canal, and thus drain the swamps and everglades of Southern Florida. Another shorter canal on the west would connect the lake with Caloosahat River, and thus two outlets would be afforded, which would speedily accomplish the purpose of the company that has undertaken the enterprise.