use I was afraid they might be stolen," I replied.

I got the instruments, and took an observation from the hurricane-deck
of the steamer; and Washburn figured it up. "28 deg. 37' 55"," said the
mate, when he had completed and verified his calculation.

"That's it, almost to a hair line," said Cornwood, laughing. "Parallel
section line 21 runs through Titusville. We are in east section 33, and
south section 21. We are all right, and you may land your mules."

He referred to the land sections of the state, of which I had no
knowledge. We laid down the planks, and got the mules ashore, and then
the wagons. It was only ten o'clock, and we wished to reach our
destination by noon. In a few minutes, our hands, under the direction
of the pilot, succeeded in harnessing the mules to the wagons. We put
six persons in each, with their bags and sporting apparatus. All hands
wanted to go with us, but we could not take any of them. We had the
same sand for roads as in the streets of Jacksonville. Cornwood drove
one team, and I drove the other. Half a mile from the river, we found a
settler in a log house, who seemed to be greatly astonished at our
sudden appearance, and insisted on knowing how we got there. We told
him, and in reply he informed us that the woods were full of game, and
no sportsman had been that way for a year.

We reached our destination at noon. Titusville consisted of only a few
houses; but the party were gladly taken in by the settlers.

CHAPTER XXIX.

A MYSTERIOUS SHOT.

Indian River, Halifax River, Mosquito Lagoon, and half a dozen rivers,
sounds, lagoons, lakes, and inlets on the Atlantic coast of Florida,
are different names for the same shallow body of water, separated from
the main ocean by a narrow strip of sand, which extends north and south
for two hundred miles. Indian River extends from about twenty-five
miles north of Titusville to the inlet, a distance of one hundred
miles. But Banana River and Mosquito Inlet are separated from it only
by Merritt's Island, so that these bodies of water overlap each other.
The water in these inlets is often not more than three feet deep, so
that no large vessels can navigate them.

[Illustration: AN EXPEDITION TO INDIAN RIVER. Page 292.]

A few years ago a company was formed, having for its purpose the
deepening of the upper St. Johns as far as Lake Washington, about forty
miles south of the point where the Wetumpka lay, and cutting a canal
across to