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CAROLINA SPORTS LAND AND WATER: INCLUDING DEVIL-FISHING, WILD-CAT, DEER, AND BEAR HUNTING, &c. BY THE HON. WM. ELLIOT’, A) OF SOUTH CAROLINA. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. . 1867. INTRODUCTION. A ¥rew words of introduction may be permitted to one who has read these pages with a special interest. To all who rejoice in invigorating sports, whether of the land or waters, the work will commend itself by the vivid pictures it photographs—by the stirring incidents related—the bright and genial spirit that glows upon the page—nor less, too, by the novelty of the sport. Usually, in works of this nature, we are constrained to hunt in a circle, pursuing round and round the same game through very similar inci- dents. Here, the scenes described will be to most readers entirely new; few will ever have heard of the great ‘““ Vampire of the Ocean,” that figures so largely in the sport. . A word of him, so full of life and spirit, by whom 924755 © 1v INTRODUCTION. these pages were penned. In the touching and beautiful eulogy on the late General Elhott, ad- dressed by the Hon. W. H. Trescott to the legislature of South Carolina, the writer of the following work is descmbed as—“ one of many and varicd uaccom- plishments—for many years a member of the State Senate—the companion of Pettigru and Grayson in the hours of lettered leisure—the hero of many a woodland chase—and the model of every Beaufort boy who for the first time waded into the surf at Bay Point, to throw his line for Bass, or saw with trembling cagerness the great wings of the Devil Fish flash on the broad waters of Port Royal.’ Such was William Elhott, a member of one of those ~ Southern families that formed the nobility of Ame- Tica. | General Elhott, the heroic and glorious defender of Fort Sumter; Bishop Elliott, known in Europe as well as America, and beloved and revered wherever known; William Elhott, the buoyant spirit of these pages—no one of them survives his country’s fall. The cordial and graceful hospitality of other days; the bold spirit tempered by refinement; the INTRODUCTION. v hereditary wealth and elegant culture—thcse are now memories of the past. The scenes described but a few years ago, glowing in sunshine and beauty, zre now but silent desolation: the hospitable hearth is now roofless and cold. Even as Rachcl, the South sits mourning for her children, and will not be comforted. Who can recall them from the grave ? The calamitics which have befalicn a great people— whose only impulse was that desire for self-govern- ment, ever regarded as a noble aspiration—are amongst events occurring in these days that are inscrutable to our judgment. We live in an era when right, reason, justice have come to be treated as things obsolete and effete—when brute force and success are the idols before which all are to bow down and worship. But there are those who believe that, though the principles of truth and justice may thus be trampled down for a season, the time will come whicn, being imperishable, they will reappear, and command again the reverence of mankind. When that time shall come, the world will do justice to the rights which the people of the South attempted vi INTRODUCTION. to defend; and though defeated now and prostrate, men of such a race, possessing the material resources of such a country, will create a future greater than the past, and enriched with names and deeds and memories that can never die. LIVERPOOL, August, 1867. PREFACE. Severat of the Sketches, which go to compose tiie pre- sent volume, have already been published under the signa- tures of “Piscaror” and “ Venator.” Their reception has been so flattering, that the author has been induced to republish them, and to enlarge the collection by the addition of other Sketches, now for the first time given to the public. Possibly he deceives himself, in thinking that the same favor will be shown to the present collection, as was shown to the “‘disjecta membra,” when they severally appeared. In commending a single picture one may happen to be determined less by the skill of the artist than by the novelty of the subject, or by some other adventitious cir- cumstance—an advantage that cannot avail him, if he offers a whole gallery to your inspection. Here they stand, however, and the public must decide upon them ! He owes an apology to the companions of his sports, for the occasional introduction of their names. He has done so, because it has pleased a number of those who have read the published portion of these Sketches, to consider them as ingenious fables, rather than truthful narratives— an error which could effectually be put at rest, only by the publication of the true names of all the parties con- cerned v CONTENTS. Devil Fishing, . . . The Sea-Serpent, . ° ° . ° Drum Fishing, ° . ° ° Bass Fishing, « 3. 26 26 ws Sheepshead Fishing, . . . . ‘ A Wild-Cat Hunt in Carolina, . ° ° A Day at Chee-ha, . . ° ; Another Day at Chee-ha, . ° : ° A Business Day at Chee-ha, : . : The Last Day at Chee-ha, The Fire Hunter, . . . : Of the Animals of Chase in South Carolina, OF the Birds which are the objects of Sport, Random T houghts on Hunting, . PaCS 157 170 - 193 - 214 244 . 260 . 270 © 277 CAROLINA SPORTS. CAROLINA ‘S20 Bag LS DEVIL FISHING. ~~ —_ Aun, Jean Ribault!—when, in 1562, thy bark, long tossed by tempests, found anchorage at last within the sheltered harbor of Port Royal, and thine eye rested, where no European eye had rested before, on the sweet woodland scenery that encompassed it about—what exulting thoughts must have been thine? When, gazing with plea- sure on that broad expanse of water—so wide, as the memoir of your voyage, yet preserved to us, expresses it, “that the greatest ships of France, yea, the argosies of Venice, may enter there in safety ””—and with admiration, at the gigantic pines . that towered above the surrounding forests; while oaks, festooned with grey moss, or wreathed with yellow jessamine, bathed their magnificent limbs in the ocean spray—and the queenly magnolia 1 11 12 ‘DEVIL FISHING. flung the perfume of her white blossoms far over the murmuring waters—and herds of deer and --: buffalo browsed; unconscious of fear, on the luxu- “yiant herbage—atid -hirds of unknown plumage and ot inrigalled: -yoiee,- ‘uttered and carolled among the trees—what pleasant fancies must have crowded upon thy mind! and who but must sympathize in thy emotions—thou pioneer and file-leader of the Huguenots ? The deep, too, had its attractions. ‘ We took to our nets,” says the same memoir, “and caught such a number of fish, that it was wonderful.” Yet, half of these wonders was not guessed at by the ancient mariner, who first visited these waters. Haw few could they have seen, compared with the - uncounted varieties that must have escaped the sweep of their nets! There was the golden bass; — and the drum, with its mysterious, and, to a stranger, its startling sound ; the porpoise, showing ' its back above the water; and the unseen and unsuspected tribes that thronged the depths below; the sting-ray, with its jagged spine ; the. saw-fish ; the omnivorous shark; and mightiest, strangest, most formidable among them all for its strength, the devil-fish ; then rarely seen, and deemed, even down to our own times, scarcely less fabulous than the Norwegian kraken!