them a hundred square miles are given to Ponce de Leon Bay, which
doesn't exist, unless the little depression in the coast which is
called Shark River Bight is accounted a bay. Rivers are omitted; one
with a mouth fifty feet wide is represented as a mile broad. A
little stream four miles long is sent wandering over a hundred and
forty miles of imaginary territory. I have sailed and paddled for
days at a time over the watercourses of South Florida, with a
compass before me and a pad at hand on which every change of course
was noted and distances estimated, and although no attempt at
accurate charting has ever been made, I am quite sure that none of
the natural features or products of the country traversed by the
young explorers have been misrepresented in the book.

The pictures are from photographs taken on the scene of the
incidents they illustrate. They show more conclusively than can any
words of mine, how beautiful is the region traversed by the boy
explorers and what interesting and exciting adventures they enjoyed.




CONTENTS


CHAPTER


I THE CHUMS

II DICK GOES TO SEA