Wakulla Springs, Shellpoint Beach, and The St. Marks Wildlife Refuge

The drive from Augusta, Georgia to the Florida panhandle takes over 7 hours.  I chose a route of mostly back country highways that bisect farmland, abandoned farmland, and second growth forest.  I saw almost as many species of birds while traveling on these back roads as I did when I visited Wakulla Springs State Park the following day, but spotting birds while driving 60 mph is not as enjoyable as spying them on a leisurely boat ride.  We stayed at the Best Western Hotel in Medart–a beautiful, clean, and spacious base of operations for my natural history explorations.  I went for a swim after the exhausting hot drive and was excited to find a dead giant waterbug in the swimming pool.

Giant waterbug. (Lethocerus ? sp.).  They prey on tadpoles and minnows by grasping them with their front legs and sucking the life out of them.  They’re considered a delicacy in Asia. 

Courtyard of the Best Western Hotel in Medart.  It’s newer and nicer than the Wakulla Springs Lodge.

We went to Wakulla Springs State Park the next day, and the rich variety of wildlife quickly eliminated any doubt over my choice of vacation.  Even my wife and daughter were impressed, and they don’t share my love of nature.  The cost of admission is $6–a pittance compared to the value.  We saw 4 manatees and big schools of mullet right away before we even went on the boat ride.

Mastodon leg bone excavated from Wakulla Springs.  Most of the Pleistocene mammal fossils were collected between 1859-1930.  I doubt there are any left to find.  During the Ice Ages many rivers in Florida dried up and the river beds consisted of isolated springs instead.

Here’s a big school of mullet in the crystal clear waters of the spring.  I tried to take a photo of the manatees, but they weren’t at a good angle and they don’t show up clearly in the picture I took.

One of the flat-bottomed boats was handicapped accessible, so my wife was able to go with us.  Rides cost $8 per adult.  The captain serves as a guide and identifies all the plants and animals on the 45 minute journey.  A flat bottomed boat is necessary because the water is shallow, except where it bubbles up from a deep underground cavern.

Map of the springs underground.  Several roads are as much as 200 feet above the underground part of the springs.  Signs on the local roads let drivers know this fact.  I guess that’s so drivers won’t be surprised if the road collapses.

The bird life is spectacular.  I saw a cattle egret rookery, common egrets, a great blue heron, little blue herons, a green heron, a yellow crowned night heron, a white ibis, wood ducks, pied billed grebes, anhingas, ospreys, coots, prothonotory warblers, red-winged blackbirds, crows, mockingbirds, and blue jays.  I also heard a woodpecker.  This was the first time I’d ever seen 3 of these species–the yellow crowned night heron, the white ibis, and the prothonotory warblers.   I have seen ospreys before, but this was the first time I ever saw an osprey nest, though I saw one again the following day at Otter Lake.  The guide said just about every tree snag was home to a wood duck nest.

Cattle egret rookery.  I really need to get a telephoto lens.  Cattle egrets are common all across the rural countryside now where they hunt for insects stirred up by livestock and farm machinery.

White ibis.  This was the first time I’d ever seen this species.

If you enlarge the photo, you can see the wood duck in the middle of the picture.  Wood ducks are abundant here.

Alligators and large turtles known as Suwannee cooters were common.  We also saw a soft shelled turtle.

Alligator in the upper left hand corner.  The Suwannee cooters were too far away for me to get a photo.

The water was so clear I could see the bottom everywhere, even in the deepest part of the spring, despite the guide’s claim that the water wasn’t clear enough that day to see the bottom in the deepest part which is 90 feet.  Looking into the spring was like looking into an aquarium.  We could see all the fish.  Mullet swam in big schools and was by far the most abundant fish, but I saw several long-nosed gar, 3 black and white sunfish, a warmouth sunfish, and someone else saw a bowfin.  Little red crayfish crawled on the sandy bottom.  It’s easy to understand why native Americans inhabited the area around Wakulla Springs for 15,000 years.  Spear-fishing was a cinch.  They had such a great variety of easily obtainable animal and plant foods that they could remain well fed without agriculture.  Fish, duck, turtle, squirrel, manatee, and deer were available protein year round.  Duck potato (Sagitteria sp.), cattails, wild rice, nuts, and acorns provided the starches.

Originally, Wakulla Spring had a mostly sandy and limestone bottom, but invasive hydrilla now covers much of it and gives the water a greenish tint.  The water wells up from deep underground, and the chill surprised me when I went for a swim after the boat ride.  I saw cold blooded reptiles swimming in the water and mistakenly assumed the water would be warm, like a bathtub.  Instead, the water temperature was at least 20 degrees F cooler than the air temperature.  What a shock.

The woods around Wakulla Springs consist of white oak, live oak, hickory, sweetgum, cypress, red maple, ash, loblolly pine, pond pine, willow, dogwood, and wax myrtle.  The trees are large and much of the tract looks like it holds virgin timber.  The productive hickory supports an abundant population of gray squirrels.

Picnickers left their lunches unattended while they went swimming.  Crows and squirrels were in the process of looting their food.  I saw a crow fly off with half a sandwich.

Spanish moss covers this white oak in the parking lot.  It had unusual leaves for a white oak.

Hickory trees are abundant here.  This 3-pronged one is quite large.

This cypress tree is 5 feet in diameter.  Scientists cored it and found it to be 200 years old.  A cypress tree next to it is less than 1/2 this tree’s size in diameter, yet scientists found it was 600 (yes 600) years old.  It had s stunted growth due to nutrient deficiency.

Pickerel weed (the purple) and duck potato (Sagitteria) blooming.

Cypress wood is rot resistant.  The guide noted a leaning dead cypress snag in the middle of the channel that looked like it was about to fall over.  He said it looked that way when he first started working in the park…in 1957.  Pickerel weed and duck potato were blooming.  I saw 2 kinds of grape vines growing in the woods including muscadine and some type of bunch grape that had a lot of young grapes on it.  As we left the park, we saw a white tail deer feeding in the middle of the day.

Shellpoint Beach

We arrived at Shellpoint Beach about midmorning and had the whole beach to ourselves before other sunbathers joined us 30 minutes later.  I didn’t find any interesting sea shells.  Oyster shells were the only common ones here.  Shellpoint Beach juts into Apalachee Bay and is known more for fishing than swimming.  There are seasons for grouper, red snapper, sea trout, cobia, and scallop harvesting.  There are no waves over 8 inches and those are caused by boats.  Laughing gulls and boat-tailed grackles hang around the pavilion, hoping to share scraps with picnickers.

Nice pavilion at Shellpoint Beach, Florida.

Apalachee Bay, Florida.

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

This refuge sprawls all along the coast of Apalachee Bay.  I visited the northern half during the heat of midday which is the worst time for viewing wildlife.  Nevertheless, I saw a turkey as soon as I pulled into the refuge.  Near the lighthouse, several naive juvenile cotton rats foraged at the base of the palm.  They didn’t know they were supposed to be afraid of us.

St. Mark’s Lighthouse.  It’s 180 years old.  It’s not open to the public.  I assume park officials are worried about liability issues.  Too many suicides.

Young cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus).  It didn’t know it was supposed to be afraid of us.  Herons eat these mammals.  I’ve seen these quite often in roadside dtiches but never close up.  I didn’t realize they are a cute animal, especially compared to invasive Norway rats.

A saltwater storm surge killed these loblolly pines in 2008, creating an open habitat.

A freshwater lilly pond within the wildlife refuge.  Home to alligators, largemouth bass, shellcracker bream, bullhead and channel catfish, and warmouth.

Later that evening, I went to the southern part of the St. Marks NWR to look for fox squirrels.  An article in The Eagle Eye, a pamphlet published by the refuge biologists, reported the presence of fox squirrels in a pine flatwoods near Otter Lake.  I didn’t see any fox squirrels, but I spotted a pair of endangered cockaded woodpeckers.

I saw  2 red cockaded woodpeckers in this vicinity.  I didn’t even bother trying to photograph them without a telephoto lens.  Refuge officials maintain this environment with fire which is evident from the abundance of burned wood on the ground.  Frequent signs say “We prevent wildfire with prescribed fire.”  Actually, prescribed fire is no more beneficial than wildfire.

This pine flatwoods hosts loblolly pine, live oak, southern red oak, runner oak, saw palmetto, grasses, and ferns.  The mosquitoes weren’t bad this time of year in Florida but a species of yellow-green horsefly or deerfly was bothersome.  They thought I tasted good.

There’s no swimming at Otter Lake.  The sign warns of alligators.  I heard sheep frogs here.

There’s an osprey nest in this snag.  Note the osprey at the top of the tree.

To top off my trip, while I was driving home through Emanuel County, Georgia, I saw some endangered wood storks foraging in a flooded ditch in a farmer’s field.  I was satisfied with seeing a white ibis and wood storks until I arrived home and read a vintage ornithology book written in the early 20th century.  That author saw 25,000 white ibis on a wet prairie in Florida and 5,000 wood storks at a rookery also in Florida.  The Florida of 1910 is gone forever.

Wakulla County Eats

We dined at 3 restaurants in Wakulla County during our stay.  I thought Barwick’s Seafood and Deli was the best,  I ate grilled mullet and it was excellent, though I suspect it was broiled or sauteed rather than grilled.  All the local family restaurants have $12 entrees and $9 sandwiches.  Popular items found at most of them include fried seafood of all kinds (mullet, shrimp, flounder, catfish), grilled grouper sandwiches,  and pulled pork barbeque smothered in an overly sweet sauce.  An interesting breakfast item on the menu at the Coastal Restaurant is mullet and eggs.  Mullet is really abundant in Florida.  Many of the locals order farm raised catfish instead.  Catfish is bland compared to mullet.  One stand offers smoked mullet dip.  Most of these restaurants could shave a few dollars off their prices, if they didn’t serve ridiculous oversize portions.  No wonder Americans are so fat.  I had 5 slices of mullet on my plate, plus a big pile of french fries and hushpuppies and a salad bar.  Do Americans really expect dinners this large?  I’m a member of the clean plate club and managed to finish my portion, but I exercise hard everyday.

The worst restaurant was Hamahocker’s Barbeque.  I ate their smoked brisket.  I’m pretty sure smoked brisket is supposed to be more tender than shoe leather.  The potato salad tasted like someone dumped a load of sugar on it.  I like my own cooking better than any restaurant, but I can’t cook when I’m staying in a hotel.

The Savannah Wildlife Refuge

Until the late 18th century a vast cypress swamp covered the area just north of Savannah, Georgia, a city founded in 1704 by General Oglethorpe. Plantation owners had cultivated rice in the South Carolina low country for a century before they cleared the cypress swamp north of the then young metropolis of Savannah.  In the process they completely converted the landscape from deeply wooded swamp to a virtually treeless marsh.  The end of the Civil War also brought an end to rice cultivation in this region because the freed slaves left, and the white plantation owners didn’t know how to farm rice.   The rice fields gave way to freshwater marshes that became a haven for wintering waterfowl.  In 1927 the federal government bought the land and declared it a National Wildlife Refuge.  Federal maintenance workers still operate the rice field trunks that control the flow and level of water for the benefit of wild plants.  The aquatic vegetation provides a bounty of food for wintering ducks.

Recess Plantation Trail.  It’s over 3 miles long and is simply an old rice dike.  Birdlife abounds.

Vegetation is lush and includes giant cutgrass, giant plume grass, wild rice, cattails, bamboo cane, lilly pads, and arrowleaf, among many other species of plants.

A thick stand of arrowleaf (Sagitteria).  Also known as duck potato, in the fall and winter it produces an underground tuber that allegedly tastes similar to new potatoes.  It was an important food of Native Americans.

The SWR also protects a still extant cypress swamp on the Georgia side of the Savannah River, but this part is accessible only via boat.  Last Monday, I visited the readily accessible South Carolina side.  The 4 mile long Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive is a road that crosses the top of an old rice dike.  Lush, year round vegetation grows in the wet fields.  The flora is dominated by giant cutgrass, giant plume grass, cattails, wild rice (yes, the edible gourmet grain), and arrowleaf.  I was going to harvest some wild rice, but it grows in deep water surrounded by alligators.  (It wasn’t until after I read the visitor center’s brochure that I realized harvesting plants was against refuge rules.)  Many of the aquatic plants are edible for humans as well as birds. 

Even though I visited the refuge at a bad time of day and year, I saw lots of birdlife.  The first bird I saw was an especially exciting find–an immature roseate spoonbill (Ajaia ajaja).  The bill on this species is unmistakable, but according to bird guides it lives no farther north than south Florida.  I couldn’t get close enough for a photo, but other birders have seen and photographed this species in South Carolina and Georgia, so it must be expanding its range.  Below is a photo of a roseate spoonbill taken in South Carolina by another birder.

Roseate spoonbills develop pink feathers from eating shrimp.  The immature ones are pure white. It feeds on small animals by using its spoonbill to sift through shallow water.

Swallows (I think tree swallows, but they never stay still enough for positive ID), red-winged blackbirds, and cattle egrets were the most common birds.  I saw several purple gallinules–along with the roseate spoonbill another species I’d never seen before.  Though this chicken-sized rail can fly, they more frequently escape danger by running across lilly pads, diving into water, or climbing into ditch-side bushes.

A purple gallinule (Ionornis martinica).  Click to enlarge and examine the bottom center of the photo.  I saw or heard about 16 species of birds in little over an hour about noon on a hot August day.  The best time for bird-watching in the SWR is during the winter when over 20 species of ducks migrate here.  The flocks attract hunting bald eagles.

Other birds on my checklist for the 90 minutes I was inside the refuge include eastern kingbirds, mourning doves, great egrets, little blue herons, a small unidentified heron or bittern, double crested cormorants, a clapper rail (I think), an unidentified duck, and turkey vultures.

Spanish moss clinging from a live oak.  An island in the middle of the marsh supports a maritime forest of live oaks, palms, and loblolly pines.  This is the only place in the refuge where mosquitoes bothered us.

A live oak  growing on the island.  Grass is growing out of the ancient cistern that rests in front of this tree.  The cistern is the sole surviving relic from the days of rice cultivation.  Archaeologists think gutters from the roofs of 4 slave houses led to the cistern.  The slaves who cultivated the rice lived on the island which is the only dry land in the marsh.  After the Civil War and the collapse of slavery, rice farming in South Carolina died.  No white southerners knew how to cultivate rice.

The only reptiles I saw were 2 alligators, and I could hear bullfrogs.  Reportedly, cottonmouth water moccasins and banded water snakes are common here.

Click to enlarge the photo and look for the 5-8 foot gator swimming in the canal.

Lilly pad covered expanse of water.

I didn’t arrive early enough in the day to see mammals which are more likely to emerge at night, but the refuge is reported to be home for bobcats, mink, otter, raccoons, rice rats, and marsh rabbits.  Habitat such as this artificially maintained marsh would be ideal for some now extinct aquatic species of Pleistocene mammals–giant beavers (Casteroides ohioensis), 2 different species of capybaras (Neochoreus and Hydrochoreus), and mastodons (Mammut americanum).  Fossil specimens from these species have been recovered locally, suggesting that open marsh environments did exist in the region long before men could have felled the cypress swamps.  Dramatic climate fluctuations must have been the primary force creating marshy habitat where cypress swamps later dominated.  I propose that alternating wet and dry climate cycles caused a varying combination of drought, fire, windstorms, and flood, resulting in these pre-historic marshes.  These are not unlike the factors influencing the make-up of the current day Okefenokee Swamp where marshland is interspersed with cypress swamps.

The Laurel Hill Drive Exit.  A park maintenance worker had just mowed here, stirring up insects, and attacting cattle egrets which were one of the most visibly common birds in the refuge.  An extinct species of stork was likely the Pleistocene ecological counterpart to the cattle egret.

Map of the South Carolina part of the Savannah Wildlife Refuge.  Laurel Hill Drive is off 170, not 17 as erroneously reported on other online sites.  Make sure you approach the refuge from Savannah to see the view from on top of the Herman Talmadge memorial bridge.  The refuge from this vantage point looks like an African savannah.

Tybee Island Avifauna

We stayed at the Howard Johnson Hotel on Tybee Island the night before out trip through the SWR.  It gave me a little time to survey the avifauna on this narrow barrier island east of Savannah, Georgia.   Along the beach laughing gulls, herring gulls, and boat-tailed grackles abound.  Mourning doves and dusky seaside sparrows forage in the dunes immediately behind the beach.  This was the first time I’d ever seen the latter species.  The literature states that dusky seaside sparrows (Ammospiza maritima) occupy a narrow niche, living  in salt marshes and beach dunes.  Unlike most species of sparrows which feed mainly on grass seeds, dusky seaside sparrows eat snails, fiddler crabs, and other animal matter.  However, I saw them feeding on sea oat grains.  I surveyed 2 other sea birds–brown pelicans and a least tern (I think).  On the inland part of the island I saw city pigeons, starlings, and a cardinal.

AJ’s Dockside Restaurant 

We ate supper at AJ’s Dockside Restaurant.  It offers a great view of a small dock and a large salt marsh.  Dolphins and schools of mullet are probably often seen in the inlet behind the back patio where we ate, but I didn’t see any.  My fried flounder po’ boy was delicious.  My daughter ordered grilled pork chops.  The chops were good, but I must say they were served with the worst hushpuppies I ever ate in my life.  They were dense and doughy.  Hushpuppies should be light and airy.  AJ’s needs to change the recipe they use for hushpuppies.  Stick to the po’boys.  They’re good and won’t bankrupt you.

View from AJ’s Dockside Restaurant.

John Lawson’s Voyage to Carolina (1700-1711)

I love reading accounts of the early explorers in America because they describe the natural environments before man modified (or in my opinion destroyed) them.  John Lawson was a well-to-do young man of 26 when he decided to explore and later settle in the Carolinas beginning in 1700.  He gives us the first literate account of the environments of the Carolinas in his book,  A New Voyage to the Carolinas, which was published in 1709.  Although his botanical descriptions don’t match those of William Bartram, who traveled through the south 70 years later, his account is fascinating nonetheless, and his quaint manner of language is interesting to decipher.

Route of John Lawson’s 1000 mile journey through North and South Carolina in 1700.

John Lawson’s journey in America began in Charleston, South Carolina shortly after Christmas.  In 1700 European colonization was restricted to a narrow band along the coast, and Charleston was the sole “metropolis.”.  Lawson took 6 Englishmen and 4 Indians on the journey with him.  They spent the first few nights at various islands along the coast including Bull’s Island where feral cattle and hogs abounded.  They spent another night with a Scotsman on Dix’s Island and ate oatmeal the Scot had scavenged from a Scotch shipwreck.  Despite the cool winter weather, mosquitoes plagued Lawson’s party at night.  While in the low country the party lived on venison, wild hogs, raccoons, fish, shellfish, waterfowl, and rice, the latter of which they purchased from nearby plantations.  They left the coast in a canoe and went inland for miles through uninhabited cypress swamp til they came into contact with Indians burning a canebrake.  Lawson related how the hollow bamboo stems exploded after ignition.

“As we went up the river, we heard a great noise, as if two parties were engaged against each other, seeming exactly like small shot.  When we approached nearer the place, we found it to be some Sewee Indians firing the Cane Swamps, which drives out the Game, then taking their particular stands, kill great quantities of both bear, deer, turkies, and what wild creatures the parts afford.”

They continued their journey through cypress swamps that were in flood that time of year.  All the trees in 1 swamp had been felled by a hurricane, and they had a hard time navigating between the fallen giants.  During the journey they only slept on the ground when they had no alternative.  Usually, they could find a hunter’s cabin or an Indian town.  The hunter’s cabins were often unoccupied but well stocked with food.  As was the custom then, they’d leave beads and trinkets in exchange for food–a kind of honor system.  A typical  cabin pantry stored red beans, dried corn, dried peaches, and chinkapins–much healthier food than can be found in a McDonalds or any other fast food dump adjacent to our modern highways.  Indian towns were spaced about 20-30 miles, or a day’s journey, apart with nothing but wilderness in between.  At this particular time in history, all the Indians they met were friendly, though some tribes had a bad habit of pilfering Lawson’s party’s belongings.  One of Lawson’s comrades got robbed by an Indian whore on one occasion.  She stole his moccasins while he was sleeping after the party paid a fortune just so this 1 guy could get laid.

Upon reaching the piedmont region Lawson noted that his party could travel a whole day without seeing a single pine tree.  This region then was mostly an oak forest–a contrast from the second growth woods found in the Carolina piedmont today where pine is a dominant species.  The oak forests supported huge flocks of turkies.  Lawson saw 1 flock numbering over 500 birds.  At this point they ran short of bread and salt, and the only thing they had to eat was turkey.  They became so tired of eating turkey that 1 of the Indian guides shot and ate a skunk for variety.  Lawson also witnessed the legendary passenger pigeon and gives the following account.

“In the mean time we went to shoot pigeons, which were so numerous in these parts, that you might see many millions in a flock; they sometimes split off the Limbs of stout Oaks, and other trees, upon which they roost o’nights.  You may find several Indian towns, of not above 17 houses, that have more than 100 Gallons of Pigeons Oil, or Fat; they using it with Pulse, or Bread, as we do butter, and making the Ground as white as a sheet with their Dung.  The Indians take a light, and go among them at Night, and bring away some thousands, killing them with long Poles, as they roost in the Trees.  At this time of the Year, the Flocks, as they pass by, in great measure, obstruct the light of the day.”

His noisy party kept away most predators but he does give this account of an encounter with a cougar (what he erroneously refers to as a tiger).

“As we were on our road this morning, our Indian shot at a Tyger, that cross’d our Way, he being a great distance from us.  I believe he did him no harm, because he sat on his Breech afterwards, and look’d upon us.  I suppose he expected to have had a Spaniel Bitch, that I had with me,  for his breakfast, who run towards him, but Midway stopt her Career, and came sneaking back to us with her Tail betwixt her legs.”

After the journey was completed, Lawson settled in a cabin near the Neus River and worked as a surveyor when he wasn’t farming, and he founded 2 towns–Bath and New Bern.  He recounts an interesting experience with an alligator that took up residence under his first cabin.

“I was pretty much frightened with one of these once; which happened thus: I had built a house about a half a mile from an Indian town, on the Fork of the Neus River, where I dwelt by myself, excepting a young Indian fellow, and a Bull-dog, that I had along with me.  I had not then been so long a Sojourner in America, as to be throughly acquainted with this Creature.  One of them had got his Nest directly under my House, which stood on high Land, and by a Creek-side, in whose banks his Entring-place was, his Den reaching the Ground directly on which my house stood, I was sitting alone by the Fire-side (about nine a Clock at Night, some time in March) the Indian fellow being gone to the Town, to see his Relations; so that there was no body in the House, but my self and my Dog; when all of a sudden, this ill-favoured Neighbor of mine, set up such a Roaring, that he made the House shake about my Ears, and so continued, like a Bittern, (but a hundred times louder, if possible) for four or five times.  The Dog stared, as if he was frightened out of his Senses; nor indeed, could I imagine what it was , having never heard one of them before.  Immediately again I had another Lesson; and so a third.  Being at the time amongst none but Savages, I began to suspect, they were working some Piece of conjuration under my house, to get away my Goods; not but that, at another time, I have as little Faith in their, or any others working miracles, by diabolic means as any person living.  At last my man came in, to whom when I had told the Story, he laugh’d at me, and presently undeceived me, by telling me what it was that made that Noise.”

He also had lots of experiences with black bears while living in the North Carolina low country.

“The bears here are very common, though not so large as in Greenland, and the more Northern countries of Russia.  The Flesh of the Beast is very good and nourishing, and not inferior to the best Pork in Taste.  It stands betwixt Beef and Pork, and the young Cubs are a dish for the greatest epicure living.  I prefer their flesh before any Beef, Veal, Pork, or Mutton; and they look as well as they eat, their fat being as white as snow and the sweetest of any Creature’s in he World.  If a Man drink a Quart thereof melted, it never will rise in his Stomach.  We prefer it above all things, to fry Fish and other things in.  Those that are strangers to it, may judge otherwise; But I who have eaten a Great Deal of Bears Flesh in my Life-time (since my being an Inhabitant of America) do think it equalizes, if not excels any Meat I ever eat in Europe.  The Bacon made thereof is extraordinary meat; but it must be well saved, otherwise it will rust.  This Creature feeds upon all sorts of Wild Fruits.  When Herrings run, which is in March, the Flesh of such of those Bears as eat thereof, is nought, all that Season, and eats filthily.  Neither is it good, when he feeds on Gum-berries, as I intimated before.  They are great Devourers of Acorns, and oftentimes , meet the swine of the woods, which they kill and eat, especially when they are hungry, and can find no other food.  Now and then they get into the fields of Indian Corn or mais, where they make sad Havock, spoiling corn ten times as much as they eat.  The Potatoes of the Country are so agreeable to them, that they never fail to sweep ’em all clean, if they chance to come in their way.  They are seemingly a clumsy Creature, yet are very nimble in running up Trees, and traversing every Limb thereof.  When they come down, they run Tail foremost.  They sit by the Creek-sides, (which are very narrow) where the fish run in; and there they take them up as fast as it’s possible they can dip their paws into the Water.”

By herring, Lawson meant shad which is in the herring family.  He also wrote a long paragraph about hunting bears and the uses of bear’s oil.  Today, I don’t think there are any bears in the Carolina low country.

Lawson enjoyed an idyllic life of fishing, hunting, and farming while he lived in the North Carolina low country.  Like the majority of people living in the days prior to grocery stores, his life focused upon food production.  He grew corn, wheat, and vegetables, and he had a successful fruit orchard.  Unlike most fruits, peaches produce true to seed–the offspring resemble the quality of the parent.  Peaches were so widespread among the Indians that Lawson mistakenly believed they were a native fruit.  The Indians obtained peaches from the Spanish as early as 1550, and it quickly became an important food they ate fresh, dried, stewed, and in bread. Most, if not all, of the varieties Lawson grew came from seed he got from the Indians.  One variety was large and luscious.  Lawson called it a vinegar peach because he made vinegar from the fermented fruit.  He also had a tree that produced yellow freestone nectarines.  He claimed this tree never produced less than 15-20 bushels of fruit every year.  This is surprising considering he only farmed for about a decade and the tree must have been young.  He also claimed his peach trees began producing when they were as young as 3 years old.  Lawson’s vinyard consisted of native grapes, but he did have to import apple scions because all good cultivated apples are mutants.  Cider was an important drink and a substitute for beer which was considered essential for civilized life then.  His list of apple varieties includes rare antique types and some that are probably extinct.  He planted a 200 foot row of native strawberries, and like Bartram, he reported seeing wild strawberry fields of miles in extent. (See https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2011/04/)

John Lawson is the sole source of information for many of the Indian tribes who inhabited the Carolinas.  Most of these tribes suffered extinction during the 18th century.  Lawson estimated the population of Indians in the Carolinas decreased by 85% between 1650-1700, explaining why wilderness was reclaiming so much land.  Smallpox and alcohol addiction caused the decline.  The Indian words for rum (the chief spirit they imbibed) was sick or poison, yet they couldn’t control their addiction.  Indians evolved in isolation from these 2 scourges, and they had little resistance.  Smallpox occasionally annihilated whole Indian towns.

I was surprised to learn some Indians that bring to mind the far west lived in the Carolinas.  Most of the tribes were Sioux.  Lawson even met some Flatheads who made their skulls flat by fastening a board to their infants’ heads.

Most Indian culinary practices revolted Lawson.  They cooked most game without removing the entrails.  A favorite Indian dish was deer fawn, removed from a dead pregnant deer and cooked in the natural placental bag.  However, Lawson did praise 1 particular Indian cook who repeatedly washed her hands before cooking and could make white bread.  Other Indian women ladled out stew with their bare hands even though they possessed wooden ladles.  Red beans were an Indian favorite, and Lawson provides an amusing account of its effects.

“The small red pease is very common with them, and they eat a great deal of that and other sorts boil’d with their Meat, or eaten with Bears Fat, which Food makes them break Wind backwards, which the Men frequently do, and laugh heartily at it, it being accounted no ill Manners amongst the Indians.  Yet the Women are more modest, than to follow that ill Custom.”

Lawson held liberal views on Indians, so it’s a shame they captured, tortured, and killed him in 1711.  The stupid, sadistic brutes tied him to a stake, stuck wooden splinters all over his body, and set him on fire.  Lawson never married his sweetheart, Hannah Smith, but she bore him a daughter.  He left all his land to them in his will.

Artist’s depiction of the Tuscarora Indians capturing Lawson who was surveying land up the Neuse River.  He must have known the Indians were unpredictable and his job was hazardous because he wrote a will.   They let his partner go to spread the word and scare the settlers.  It was an act of terrorism that ultimately failed.  A war between the settlers and the Tuscarora Indians broke out shortly after they burned Lawson alive, and the Indians were defeated.

Reference:

Lawson, John

A New Voyage to Carolina

The University of North Carolina Press 1967

The whole book is available for free online at http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1447078&pageno=6

The Interglacial Invasion of Warm Climate Species into Southeastern North America

Humans have been enjoying a relatively stable warm climate phase for roughly 11,000 years now–a period of time known as the Holocene.  We’ve probably been experiencing an interglacial because it’s likely we’re between Ice Ages, although with the extraordinary release of CO2 from industrial activities, there’s no telling when the next Ice Age will occur.  This phase of warm stable climate has allowed agriculture to flourish.  If climate had remained unstable and as cool as it did during the last Ice Age, civilization as we know it may never have come into existence.

The most recent interglacial previous to the present one was the Sangamonian Interglacial which lasted from 132,000 BP-118,000 BP.  Climate during the Sangamonian was even warmer than that of today.  At one point during this interglacial the north polar ice cap completely melted and sea levels were higher than they are now.  Cypress swamps grew as far north as Illinois, alligators swam in rivers flowing through what today is Missouri, and giant tortoises roamed the ridge and valley region of the southern Appalachians.  This wasn’t the warmest era in geological history–it wasn’t even close to as warm as much of the Pliocene, Miocene, Oligocene, etc. ages–but it was unusually warm compared to most of the Pleistocene.  This prolonged warm climate phase allowed many frost sensitive species of vertebrates to colonize much of southeastern North America, at least temporarily.  But because cold phases of climate during the Pleistocene lasted 10 times longer than warm phases, fossils of these tropical and subtropical species are in some cases extremely rare.  There are probably more species than the following pictorial cavalcade illustrates, but these are the ones confirmed by science.

Eremotherium laurillardi, the largest ground sloth to ever live in North America, grew to 18 feet long and weighed up to 3 tons.  Fossils of this species are quite common along Georgia’s coastal fossil sites which mostly date to the Sangamonian and early Wisconsinian.  Cold climate eventually drove them from what is now Georgia, but they persisted in Florida until maybe 30,000 BP when the beginning of the LGM became too cold for them even there.  They did continue to live in South America until 10,000 BP when hunting Indians likely drove them to extinction.  If it wasn’t for man, they may have recolonized the gulf coast of today.  2 species of ground sloths (Jefferson’s and Harlan’s) were able to survive in North America during the Ice Age, but Eremotherium must have been incapable of tolerating frosts.

Evidence that the South American marsh deer (Blastoceras dichotomous) once lived in the southeast comes from 1 mandible found at Saber-tooth Cave in Florida.  It was given the scientific name, Blastoceras extraneous, but was likely the same species populating the present day South American pampas.  Dr. Richard Hulbert expressed doubt in his book, The Fossil Vertebrates of Florida, that this mandible was correctly identified, but that was before he himself indentified the presence of collared peccaries in the Florida Pleistocene–a big surprise.

Collared peccaries were only identified from the Florida Pleistocene within the last few years.  Apparently, they colonized the south during the Sangamonian and probably other interglacials.  2 other species of peccaries–the flat-headed and the long-nosed–did commonly occur in the south during cold stages as well.

1 ocelot specimen from the Florida Pleistocene proves this cat lived in the south.  It seems that this cat should be able to survive in Florida today.  I suspect Indians coveting its spotted coat led to its demise there.

Fossil evidence of a small species of cat resembling the modern day margay comes from Florida and 2 widely separated sites in Georgia–Ladds and the Isle of Hope site.  Scientists are uncertain of the identification–it’s either a margay,  jaguarundi, or a distinct extinct species.  Despite the scientific genus name, Leopardus, it’s not at all closely related to a leopard.  Was it climate or paleo-Indian desire for spotted coats that restricted this species to isolated jungles?

Giant tortoise fossils dating to the Pleistocene were found at Ladds, the northernmost locality, though during the Pliocene, which was mostly warmer than the Pleistocene, they lived as far north as Kansas.  In contradiction to what most scientists think, I suspect giant tortoises were capable of surviving light frosts.  See my reasoning in a blog entry from my April 2011 archives.

In the Sangamonian of Georgia I suspect alligators may have ranged into the Etowah River.  If giant tortoises lived in the area, alligators surely must have been able to live there too.

Many species of South American and Central American birds also extended their range north in Sangamonian times.