CHAPTER XXI.....296

Marooning from Tampa to Key West--Drum-fish--Loons--Acrobat fleas--Roaches--Bilge-water--The Methodist preacher and his children--Sailor's fare--Landing lady-passengers--Terrasilla Island and its products--Madam Joe--The romantic young couple--Sarasota Bay--Stock-raising--Health--Mangrove thickets--Perpetual verdure--Palmetta houses--Striking for fish--Varied amusements for visitors--Hunting deer--Bugs and butterflies--Egmont Key--Rare shells and a rarer Spiritualist, with his toothless wife--Professor Agassiz--Buccaneers--Jean Lafitte--Sunset at sea--Isles of the sea--Boca Grande--Felippe the Spaniard, and his Indian concubines--Polly goes West for money--Punta Rassa, the terminus of the International Telegraph.