Ingraham Expedition: March 24, Thursday

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Ingraham Expedition: March 24, Thursday

Original Source

Encoded texts are derived from three typescript accounts of the 1892 Everglades Exploration Expedition found in the James E. Ingraham Papers and the Chase Collection in the Special and Area Studies Collections Department of the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries. Digital reproductions of the typescripts are available at:

Moses, W.R., Record of the Everglade Exploration Expedition

Ingraham, J.E., Diary

Church, A., A Dash Through the Everglades

Contents

Electronic Publication Details:

Text encoding by John R. Nemmers

Published by John R. Nemmers.

George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

2015

Licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.

These manuscripts are available from this site for education purposes only.

Encoding Principles

The three accounts of the 1892 Ingraham Everglades Exploration Expedition have been transcribed and are represented in Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) P5 XML encoding.

Line and page breaks have not been preserved in the encoded manuscripts.

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CAMP NO. 8, Island No. 23, Thursday, March 24th.

A party went out to bring in the boats. The surveyors started out on the line and the rest who remained in camp made necessary repairs to clothing, cleaned guns, etc.

The boats arrived shortly after noon. Broke camp about 2 P.M. and followed surveyors. It took until sunset to reach Island No. 24 and Camp No. 9 only 2 1/2 miles east. Had to make several portages and drag the boats through saw grass. All hands extremely tired and whiskey was served out from the medicine stores.

We captured 5 turtles today said to be terrapin. They are about the size of the familiar Florida gopher and very palatable. The Indians capture them with a sharpened piece of steel or iron secured to the end of a pole 13 to 15 feet long. The most of ours were trod on by men as they waded and were immediately picked up and transferred to the boat nearest. The movements of this reptile are quite rapid in the water and it is hard to catch them on foot. They will also burrow in the mud and escape. There were also shot and secured 5 or 6 marsh hens and limpkins and one mallard duck all of which made a very welcome addition to our bill of fare. This species of duck seem to live in the Everglades continuously and not migratory as the writer scared several from their nests and found one nest in which were 7 eggs. The nest was made in the saw grass on the edge of a glade.

The water today averaged somewhat deeper and rather more boggy, rock still underlies everything at about same depths.

Island No. 24 seems to be of 2 or 3 acres in extent.

Upon the trunk of a large rubber tree we found carved with a knife the names of "Tommy Tiger" "Jack Charley" and "Billy Fiewel", the latter undoubtedly the Indian whom we met and engaged to go with us, but who failed to appear.
March 24th. Went back after boats. Men got them into camp at 12:30, two and a half miles heavy saw grass wading. Got dinner and put out for next island 2-1/2 miles east. Camped on island #24. Very rich soil. Rock underneath from two to six feet. Water deeper; waist deep.

Total, 253,938 feet.
Next morning nine men went back for the boats, the cooks stayed on the island to prepare a supply of food, and the surveyors went on with the line. Selecting our island we triangulated to it and then went back to our morning's camp, where we found the detail of men had just succeeded in bringing up the boats. We had lunch and again took up our line of march, but soon found our way obstructed by saw grass. We had learned from experience of the day before that it was little help to burn the saw grass, so we doubled our teams and pulled through as best we could; doubling up meant putting all the men on one boat and then coming back for the others. By doing this we found we could pull from one lagoon across the saw grass to another, which we would follow as long as it went in our direction, when we would hunt the narrowest place in the grass and pull from that lagoon in to the one on the other side. In this way we slowly fought our way onward, one moment straining every nerve to drag our boats through the grass, and the next clinging to and shoving them before us through the mud and water. The march that afternoon was almost a repetition of the one the day before; several times the boats were stalled and the men exhausted, but after resting a bit they would fall in with a cheer and at a One, -Two, -Three, -Go! from Mr. Ingraham would break their way through. Every one took his turn at pulling, Mr. Ingraham amongst the rest, and about sundown we came into a channel leading up to the island we were making for. That night it was plain to me that unless the marching became easier we would have to abandon one of the wooden boats, for the men had commenced to show strains and sprains from the severe exertion they had undergone. That night we made our camp under a large wild fig tree, the roots of which stuck out of the ground in a most curious fashion, forming natural doors and windows for our use. On the trunk of the tree we noticed the names of "Tommy Tiger", "Jack Charley" and "Billy Fewil", in rude letters, evidently carved by some artistic Indian.
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CAMP NO. 8, Island No. 23, Thursday, March 24th.

A party went out to bring in the boats. The surveyors started out on the line and the rest who remained in camp made necessary repairs to clothing, cleaned guns, etc.

The boats arrived shortly after noon. Broke camp about 2 P.M. and followed surveyors. It took until sunset to reach Island No. 24 and Camp No. 9 only 2 1/2 miles east. Had to make several portages and drag the boats through saw grass. All hands extremely tired and whiskey was served out from the medicine stores.

We captured 5 turtles today said to be terrapin. They are about the size of the familiar Florida gopher and very palatable. The Indians capture them with a sharpened piece of steel or iron secured to the end of a pole 13 to 15 feet long. The most of ours were trod on by men as they waded and were immediately picked up and transferred to the boat nearest. The movements of this reptile are quite rapid in the water and it is hard to catch them on foot. They will also burrow in the mud and escape. There were also shot and secured 5 or 6 marsh hens and limpkins and one mallard duck all of which made a very welcome addition to our bill of fare. This species of duck seem to live in the Everglades continuously and not migratory as the writer scared several from their nests and found one nest in which were 7 eggs. The nest was made in the saw grass on the edge of a glade.

The water today averaged somewhat deeper and rather more boggy, rock still underlies everything at about same depths.

Island No. 24 seems to be of 2 or 3 acres in extent.

Upon the trunk of a large rubber tree we found carved with a knife the names of "Tommy Tiger" "Jack Charley" and "Billy Fiewel", the latter undoubtedly the Indian whom we met and engaged to go with us, but who failed to appear.
March 24th. Went back after boats. Men got them into camp at 12:30, two and a half miles heavy saw grass wading. Got dinner and put out for next island 2-1/2 miles east. Camped on island #24. Very rich soil. Rock underneath from two to six feet. Water deeper; waist deep.

Total, 253,938 feet.
Next morning nine men went back for the boats, the cooks stayed on the island to prepare a supply of food, and the surveyors went on with the line. Selecting our island we triangulated to it and then went back to our morning's camp, where we found the detail of men had just succeeded in bringing up the boats. We had lunch and again took up our line of march, but soon found our way obstructed by saw grass. We had learned from experience of the day before that it was little help to burn the saw grass, so we doubled our teams and pulled through as best we could; doubling up meant putting all the men on one boat and then coming back for the others. By doing this we found we could pull from one lagoon across the saw grass to another, which we would follow as long as it went in our direction, when we would hunt the narrowest place in the grass and pull from that lagoon in to the one on the other side. In this way we slowly fought our way onward, one moment straining every nerve to drag our boats through the grass, and the next clinging to and shoving them before us through the mud and water. The march that afternoon was almost a repetition of the one the day before; several times the boats were stalled and the men exhausted, but after resting a bit they would fall in with a cheer and at a One, -Two, -Three, -Go! from Mr. Ingraham would break their way through. Every one took his turn at pulling, Mr. Ingraham amongst the rest, and about sundown we came into a channel leading up to the island we were making for. That night it was plain to me that unless the marching became easier we would have to abandon one of the wooden boats, for the men had commenced to show strains and sprains from the severe exertion they had undergone. That night we made our camp under a large wild fig tree, the roots of which stuck out of the ground in a most curious fashion, forming natural doors and windows for our use. On the trunk of the tree we noticed the names of "Tommy Tiger", "Jack Charley" and "Billy Fewil", in rude letters, evidently carved by some artistic Indian.
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CAMP NO. 8, Island No. 23, Thursday, March 24th.

A party went out to bring in the boats. The surveyors started out on the line and the rest who remained in camp made necessary repairs to clothing, cleaned guns, etc.

The boats arrived shortly after noon. Broke camp about 2 P.M. and followed surveyors. It took until sunset to reach Island No. 24 and Camp No. 9 only 2 1/2 miles east. Had to make several portages and drag the boats through saw grass. All hands extremely tired and whiskey was served out from the medicine stores.

We captured 5 turtles today said to be terrapin. They are about the size of the familiar Florida gopher and very palatable. The Indians capture them with a sharpened piece of steel or iron secured to the end of a pole 13 to 15 feet long. The most of ours were trod on by men as they waded and were immediately picked up and transferred to the boat nearest. The movements of this reptile are quite rapid in the water and it is hard to catch them on foot. They will also burrow in the mud and escape. There were also shot and secured 5 or 6 marsh hens and limpkins and one mallard duck all of which made a very welcome addition to our bill of fare. This species of duck seem to live in the Everglades continuously and not migratory as the writer scared several from their nests and found one nest in which were 7 eggs. The nest was made in the saw grass on the edge of a glade.

The water today averaged somewhat deeper and rather more boggy, rock still underlies everything at about same depths.

Island No. 24 seems to be of 2 or 3 acres in extent.

Upon the trunk of a large rubber tree we found carved with a knife the names of "Tommy Tiger" "Jack Charley" and "Billy Fiewel", the latter undoubtedly the Indian whom we met and engaged to go with us, but who failed to appear.
March 24th. Went back after boats. Men got them into camp at 12:30, two and a half miles heavy saw grass wading. Got dinner and put out for next island 2-1/2 miles east. Camped on island #24. Very rich soil. Rock underneath from two to six feet. Water deeper; waist deep.

Total, 253,938 feet.
Next morning nine men went back for the boats, the cooks stayed on the island to prepare a supply of food, and the surveyors went on with the line. Selecting our island we triangulated to it and then went back to our morning's camp, where we found the detail of men had just succeeded in bringing up the boats. We had lunch and again took up our line of march, but soon found our way obstructed by saw grass. We had learned from experience of the day before that it was little help to burn the saw grass, so we doubled our teams and pulled through as best we could; doubling up meant putting all the men on one boat and then coming back for the others. By doing this we found we could pull from one lagoon across the saw grass to another, which we would follow as long as it went in our direction, when we would hunt the narrowest place in the grass and pull from that lagoon in to the one on the other side. In this way we slowly fought our way onward, one moment straining every nerve to drag our boats through the grass, and the next clinging to and shoving them before us through the mud and water. The march that afternoon was almost a repetition of the one the day before; several times the boats were stalled and the men exhausted, but after resting a bit they would fall in with a cheer and at a One, -Two, -Three, -Go! from Mr. Ingraham would break their way through. Every one took his turn at pulling, Mr. Ingraham amongst the rest, and about sundown we came into a channel leading up to the island we were making for. That night it was plain to me that unless the marching became easier we would have to abandon one of the wooden boats, for the men had commenced to show strains and sprains from the severe exertion they had undergone. That night we made our camp under a large wild fig tree, the roots of which stuck out of the ground in a most curious fashion, forming natural doors and windows for our use. On the trunk of the tree we noticed the names of "Tommy Tiger", "Jack Charley" and "Billy Fewil", in rude letters, evidently carved by some artistic Indian.