Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1877 — Jupiter Inlet. [ARTICLE]

Jupiter Inlet.

If you will look at the map of Florida, away down (he eastern coast of the fingerlike peninsula, you may see a spot marked ‘’Jupiter," or "Jupiter Inlet.” Some maps make it "Juniper.” This is wrong. Its namesake was old Jupiter, the slave of an armv officer, who was stationed at this point during the first Seminole War. Jupiter is between latitude 26 degrees and 27 degrees. Although only 120 miles north of Key West, it bulges to the east nearly a degree of longitude beyond Cape Canaveral. It is probably the most inaccessible and barren nook on the whole Floridian coast, and can be reached only in light-draught boats, sailing the whole length of the Indian River. Sharp coral reefs fringe its shore, and high hillocks of white sand, sprinkled with thick clumps of scrub and cactus, rear their heads aliove the inlet. The lively sand-crab catches fireflies on the beach, and huge turtles deposit their eggs in the sand. This attracts scores of bears from the swamps and hammocks bordering the Everglades; for to them the turtle and its eggs are a toothsome delicacy. Spotted tiger-cats play among the sand-hills by moonlight, and the fierce puma prowls along the shore in quest of king crabs or more substantial diet. The largest puma ever seen in the State was shot in this region by the keeper of the light house. It was as formidable as a royal Bengal tiger, and measured over thirteen feet from snout to tip. The shallow salt-water swarms with fish. Schools of mullet and pompino flash in the sunlight, and cavallo, bonefish, bluefish, red bass, drum, snappers and groupers are here in myriads. Jewfish have been caught weighing over 500 pounds. Sawfish the size of young whales surge through the narrow channels, and ravenous sharks from twelve to twenty feet in length keep a rigid blockade outside, as the tide rises they come within the inlet in search of prey. The bass and other fish that have been feeding upon the mullet become in turn the victims of the shark. The smaller fish dart to and fro, making the water boil in their efforts to escape. Millions are slowly but surely driven into a small bay by the sharks, who whip the waves into foam in their hungry fury. Penned at last, the doomed fish leap in the air with terror, and shoals of them run ashore. The sharks charge with a rush. Their jaws snap like pistolshots, and mutilated fish are scattered over the water. Schools of porpoises join In the slaughter, and occasionally an old alligator shoves off from the shore, sinks himself like a submarine battery, and steals k bounteous meal.

Nor is an alligator the only free feeder. The air is filled with thousands of lilacfeathered terns and gulls. Full well do they understand the situation. The rush of their wings is like a breeze in a forest of pine and their screams are deafening. By platoons they dash into the agitated water, and soar off above the roaring surf, each with a fish in its bill. The very air sparkles with fish, for the gulls toss their victims up until they catcii them by the head. Then they are’easily bolted. High above the terns float flocks of gray pelicans, larger than geese, and grave and formal as Judges. The wind whistles beneath their great wings, but they make no audible expression of satisfaction. Dropping into the waves with a great splash, after a few lubberly maneuvers they fill their pouches, and sail away as though the whole affair had been arranged for their own exclusive benefit. A party or stalwart herons pace the strand in tlieir Austrian uniforms, and pick up the tiny silver fish slopping ashore during the general commotion. And last and least, our little Northern kingfisher, clad in a skyblue suit, springs his little rattle, and hangs on the outskirts of the battle, picking up the choicest tidbits. Such is an every-day scene at Jupiter during the summer and fall.

Heavy eastern gates, combined with the action of the Gulf Stream, sometimes shut the inlet. About fifteen years ago a storm closed the gap. Billions of saltwater fish were dammed in. Then a long rainy season followed. The Jupiter, North, Allokehatchie and Lake Worth Rivers, which empty into the Indian River within a mile of the inlet, poured out volumes of fresh water; but the ocean had done its work well, and the dam remained intact. The fresh water passed through Hope Sound and forced its way to the sea through Indian River Inlet, fifty miles north of J upiter. The salt-water at Jupiter became fresh. All the oysters died. Trillions of fiddlers and hermit crabs gave up the ghost. The mangrove trees turned a sickly yellow, and the thousands of insects that draw their nourishment from the saline marshes disappeared. Schools of black bass left the fresh-water streams and appeared at Jupiter. Solid acres of salt-water fishes piled themselves into the bight of the inlet, and fought for thfc sea water that oozed through the sand at high tide. The alligators of the Everglades got wind of what was going on. Theycame down the Allokehatchie and Lake Worth Creek in scores, and attacked the fish dammed in the bight. The slaughter was astonishing. The water turned to blood, aid was carpeted with dead fish. The alligators were reinforced until their number was estimated at 500. They gorged themselves with fish, and dozed away their days on the hot sand beneath the scorching rays of the sun. The beach was black with their mailed bodies. At night their muttered thunder fairly shook the foundations of the lighthouse. One day a north wind arose. It gathered in strength, day by day, until its fury was that of a gale. It began to back up the water in the inlet. Ram fell, and the water increased in depth. The wind shifted to the northwest. A high neap tide followed. As it began to fall, a thread of fresh water found its way over the sandy barrier. Within twenty minutes the dam was burst, and the pent-up waters were roaring and rushing to the sea. The army of alligators was caught in the flood and carried outside. A terrific fight ensued. The neap-tide had brought hundreds of enormous sharks to the coast. They scented the fresh water and made for the inlet Frantic after their enforced fasting during the storm, they attacked the alligators. The noise of the combat was heard above the roar of the ocean A son of Judge Paine, of Fort Capron, who was an eye-witness of the scene, tells me that he saw sharks and alligators rise on the crest of the waves and fight like dogs. Many of the killed floated belly upward, and were atterward rocked ashore by the waves. For days their bodies drifted to the beach. The dead alligators had lost their heads and tails. The sharks, in some cases, were nearly bitten into two pieces. The current of the Gulf Stream strewed the shore, as far north as Cape Malabar, with their carcases. Clouds of buzzards, and even the Bahama vultures, were drawn to the beach by the offal. Mr. Paine fancies that the sharks were too ac-

tire for the alligators, but others say that the percentage of bodies on the beach Indicated that the weight of metal was in favor of the iron-clad reptiles.— Jupiter Inlet (Fla.) Cor. N. Y. Bun.