Fresh-water shell mounds of the St. John's River, Florida / by Jeffries Wyman.

  • Wyman, Jeffries, 1814-1874.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fresh-water shell mounds of the St. John's River, Florida / by Jeffries Wyman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    its magnitude, but the low flat pine-clad shores are extremely monotonous. In the upper and narrower portions, especially above Lake George, the scene changes. Instead of the pines there are thick and luxuriant growths of forest trees, oaks, ashes, elms, cedars, maples, willows, gums, hiccories, mag- nolias, cypresses, bays, etc., some bearded with trailing moss, others stud- ded with mistletoes and orchids, and still others hung with thick tangles of lianas. Tall and stately palms stand out singly, chief figures in the land- scape, spread into broad groves, or cover the narrow dykes which border the river. To these must be added the smaller creeping vines which richly clothe the banks, and the luxuriant water plants which line the shores, or, in detached masses, form floating islands, which from time to time are carried down by the current, all together, giving to the views which are offered in the constant windings a half tropical look.7 To the northern traveller equally striking features in the upper shores are the long stretches of swamps overgrown with trees, in which half wild cattle maintain a scanty subsistence by browsing, and which are only inter- rupted at intervals of many miles with bluffs or shell mounds. If to the features just briefly noticed we add the larger wild animals which the traveller formerly could, or still may, perchance, see living along the shores or in the hammocks, including the buffalo, the deer, the bear, the puma and the wild cat, the wolf, the fox, the wandering otter, the beaver,8 the raccoon, the opossum and the many smaller mammals, large flocks of water fowl, the white and great blue herons and their allied species in large numbers standing along the shores, the wary turkey with his brilliant plum- age, the roseate spoonbill sometimes seen, and the flamingo, once a rare visitor,9 but now no longer found, the wood ibis, the whooping crane whose resonant notes are heard far and wide, the stupid and unwary courlan dis- turbing sleep with its night-long cry,10 the loathsome buzzard circling at times gracefully among nobler birds, or oftener, and truer to its nature, quarrelling with its kind as it gluts itself over disgusting food ; the snake bird of strange make and habits,11 the fish hawk whose massive nest of 7 O^ the Okla-wa-ha (which Buckingham Smith says is Chata and means “ waters many”) the largest of the tributaries of the 8t. John’s, we shall have nothing to say, as none of the shell heaps we have visited are to be found on this attractive river. e See Bartram Travels, p. 281. “The flamingo, Phcenicopterus ruber Lin., mentioned above, Bartram says is seen about the point of Florida; rarely as far north as St. Augustine (Travels, p. 296). Nuttall says “solitary individuals are observed even in the Middle States.” Ornithol., Water Birds, p. 72. 10 Aramus scolopaceus Vieill. (Tantalus pictus of Bartram), and “called by an Indian name Ephouslcyca which signifies in our language the crying bird” (Travels, p. 147). Nuttall describes it as “very shy and carefully hiding itself, but when aware of being discovered it starts rapidly to a great elevation.” They are well known to be quite the reverse, and seem to have little or no fear of man, unless in places where they have been frequently shot at. We have approached them in a boat near enough to touch them with an oar, and have watched them for several minutes without their being alarmed. 11 The snake bird, Flotus anhinga Lin., is one of the most remarkable, both in structure and habits, of the birds found on the river. Formerly before the influx of strangers and the senseless use of the shot-gun and rifle from the steamboats had so largely reduced their numbers they were among the birds most frequently seen. They had the habit of collecting in large numbers on the trees with their wings half opened to the air, and if alarmed they either flew away into the adjoining woods or quite as frequently dropped into the water as if suddenly 6truck with paralysis, or as Bartram says “ as if dead,” seeming to have no control of either wings or legs. When they reappear it is only with the head above the surface, or perhaps, thrust up between some leaves of water plants keenly eyeing the intruder and then quickly vanishing again. They