Introduction
EIGHTEEN months ago the author gave to the public his "VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE:--A GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNEY OF 2500 MILES FROM QUEBEC TO THE GULF OF MEXICO, DURING THE YEARS 1874-5."
The kind reception by the American press of the author's first journey to the great southern sea, and its republication in Great Britain and in France within so short a time of its appearance in the United States, have encouraged him to give the public a companion volume,--"FOUR MONTHS IN A SNEAK-BOX,"--which is a relation of the experiences of a second cruise to the Gulf of Mexico, but by a different route from that followed in the "VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE." This time the author procured one of the smallest and most comfortable of boats--a purely American model, developed by the bay-men of the New Jersey coast of the United States, and recently introduced to the gunning
fraternity as the BARNEGAT SNEAK-BOX. This curious and stanch little craft, though only twelve feet in length, proved a most comfortable and serviceable home while the author rowed in it more than 2600 miles down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, until he reached the goal of his voyage--the mouth of the wild Suwanee River--which was the terminus of his "VOYAGE OF THE PAPER CANOE." The maps which illustrate the contours of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, like those in the other volume, are the most reliable ever given to the public, having been drawn and engraved, by contract for the work, by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Bureau.
LAKE GEORGE, WARREN CO.,
NEW YORK STATE,SEPTEMBER 1st, 1879.