Fe1!14UAKV, iS^"^.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



covered. On the centre seat was Cross, who, 

 with his paddle, was aiding me to propel the 

 boat. 'I'he oak and bay soon gave way to 

 tall forests of juniper, cypress and gum. 



.After passing for several hours through this 

 primiti\e forest, we came suddenly upon a 

 logging camp. 



K.xtending far back into the shades of the 

 forest were corduroy roads, o^er which juni- 

 ])er logs, cut into five foot blocks, are drawn 

 by mules and afterwards rafted down to Nor- 

 folk. Near the wharf lay two boats just 

 loaded, each with its man at the prow ready 

 to convey these sixty-five foot crafts to their 

 destination, which feat they accomplished by 

 pushing on either bank with their long poles. 

 This industry has been kept up ever since the 

 revolutionary war. Washington at one time 

 owned a large part of the swamp, and had 

 some of the canals dug which are in use now. 



Frequent unsuccessful attempts were made 

 to penetrate the wilderness around us, but 

 the ground was everywhere so soft that, after 

 getting off the slight bank of the canal, we 

 invariably sank up to our knees in the jseat. 

 Even in the firmer places the ground could 

 be shaken for a radius of eight or ten feet by 

 simply springing the foot. 



.As we advanced still farther into the swamp 

 small birds became more plentiful, although 

 at no point was bird life abundant. 



\\'arblers and Thrushes flitted across the 

 wav in advance only to plunge into the oppo- 

 site thicket. Turtles tumbled off their fa\-Drite 

 logs, and, rarely, a water snake glided away 

 on our near approach. Long stretches of 

 reeds from ten to fifteen feet in height now 

 came into view, and by climbing a juniper 

 tree the eye swept away for miles over a \ast 

 expanse of reeds, broken only here and there 

 by an isolated juniper or cypress. These 

 reeds grew very thick, and it seemed to us 

 almost impossible for any animal to force a 

 passage through them. Vet it is said that only 

 a few years ago a man succeeded in passing 

 clear through the swamp on foot, accom- 

 panied by his dog. ^^'e camped at night 



upon some slightly elevated knoll, drawing 

 the boat well up on shore and sleeping on the 

 ground. 



Thus wrapped in onrblankets, we lay listen- 

 ing to the dreamy murmur of the mosquito 

 and the clamorous love-cry of the c\er present 

 bull-frog : while e\er and anon borne upon 

 the night breeze came the distant hooting of 

 the Barred Owl. A little after noon on the 

 second day off, being now in the last of a 

 series of three canaLs, through the opening 

 ahead we disco^•ered Lake Drummon, and 

 half an hour later our little boat was tossing 

 about on the waves while we were endeavor- 

 ing to make fast to a cypress tree. Lake 

 Drummon, situated as it is in the very heart 

 of the swamp, has no .sandy margin, but the 

 waves, hurled by the wind, which here has a 

 clear sweep of seven miles across the water, 

 wash in among the cypress trunks far back 

 into the interior. The lake as well as all the 

 water in the swamp is dark red in color, being 

 turned so by coming in contact with the roots 

 of the juniper. 



While the others ate their dinner I took a 

 plunge beneath the dusky waves and found 

 the water to be about eight feet deep at the 

 spot where we were. The swimming was ex- 

 cellent. Two hours later we had left the 

 "Dusky Lake" and were jiassing down one 

 of those canals which forms its outlet. The 

 water in this stream has about a two mile 

 current. Once again we landed, and this 

 time found the ground firm enough to bear 

 our weight. Back into the forest we pressed 

 for several hundred yards, the limbs of the 

 giant trees completely shut out the sunlight. 



Through this forest, whose shades were as 

 dark, and whose ground was as treacherous 

 as ever Livingston roamed over, here in the 

 semi-darkness of the gloomy swamp, im- 

 jjrinted deep in the damp, black, earth were 

 found tracks of Coon and Wildcat. Not even 

 an insectbroke the melancholy silence of this 

 weird forest. 



The catacombs of Rome or the sepulchres 

 of Egypt could not be more death like or 



