THE OSPREY. 



An Illustrated Magazine of Popular Ornithology. 



Puhlisbed |Vlonthlv. 



Volume V. 



MAY, iqoi. 



Number 5. 



Original Articles. 



A TRIP TO THE DISMAL SWAMP. III. 

 By Paul BarTSCH, Washington, D. C. 



The fifth, was a day whose memory will cling 

 for many a year to come. We crossed the lake 

 early in the morning, paddled along its south- 

 ern shore, visited the Outlet Canal at the east 

 end, and returned along its northern margin 

 late in the afternoon. 



The lake is a very shallow basin, some two 

 and one half miles in diameter, with a maximum 

 depth of sixteen feet. During the summer 

 mi tnths its waters become quite warm. < hi this 

 day our thermometer registered a temperature 

 of 96° Fahr. near the margin and l )2° at the 

 greatest depth we sounded, the water of its 

 tributaries being somewhat lower. The lake 

 seemed to be swarming with minute organisms, 

 for every little floating leaf which we picked up 

 from its surface was found to shelter a host of 

 invertebrate forms from the direct rays of the 

 blazing sun. 



In spite of the many praises and curative 

 properties accredited to this dusky liquid, my 

 internal anatomy absolutely refused to harbor 

 any of the stuff on this memorable day. I was 

 feeling all but well when we left in the morn- 

 ing, and became less and less so as the hours slip- 

 ped by, and oh, how I did long for a single drink 

 of pure water, just a little cooler than that about 

 us, and though we tried each little tributary, 

 luke warm or warmer it always proved to be, 

 and a single taste of it would suffice to cause me 

 to turn away from it with a shudder. 



About two o'clock in the afternoon we arrived 

 at the Outlet Canal; here we landed our canoe 

 and walked down the path along its high em- 

 bankment to the lock where we were greeted by 

 Mr. Marsh, the keeper of the lock. I asked him 

 immediately if he had anything cooler to drink 

 than ditch water, and he replied that he had a 

 well, which he said was located a couple hun- 

 dred yards back in the timber. I was too tired 

 to join them in their trip to the precious foun- 

 tain so stretched out under the shady trees and 

 waited long, longing, minutes for their return. 

 How I loved that pitcher as it came nearer and 



nearer, and finally poised over my cup. At last 

 I was to have that drink which I had craved so 

 many hours but. even as the liquid fell into the 

 glass my spirits sank and my frame weakened — 

 dark! the same old dark, swamp flavored fluid 

 only a few degrees cooler than that which had 

 mocked me all day. Mr. Palmer paddled me 

 home t" the hotel that afternoon, limp and de- 

 spondent, ready to give up all for a single drink 

 of pure, cool water. It required two days of rest 

 tn get myself in shape for further explorations. 

 The first of these was spent upon my bunk, the 

 second in taking care of collections and captur- 

 ing butterflies, which appeared abundantly 

 about the hotel. They seemed to be partial to 

 the dumping ground and judging from the man- 

 ner in which a number applied their long pro- 

 bosces to the carcass of a small mammal which 

 had been deprived of its skin, sipping up the 

 fluid brought to the surface by decomposition, 

 they were not disinclined toward a carnivorous 

 diet. By far the greater number seen here were 

 Papilioturnus. and P. palamedes; though P. ajax 

 and individuals of a number of other genera 

 were by no means rare. 



On the eighth we again visited the east end of 

 the lake and camped for a night at the Outlet 

 Lock. 



When the first white men visited the lake 

 many years ago. immense cypresses skirted its 

 margin. To-day we have only a fringing line 

 of stumps, which plainly mark the handiwork 

 of civilized man. with here and there a hollow 

 cypress shell which was too thin, even to furnish 

 shingles. These natural chimneys furnish 

 nesting sites to the Swifts, and almost every 

 one fit for such use appeared to be tenanted by 

 a pair or more of these dusky individuals. Not 

 solely by them however, for we found several 

 species of bats. Lasiurus borealis, Nycticeius 

 humeralis, and that curiously large-eared species 

 Corynorhinus macrotis taking refuge within 

 their walls, while upon their wide spread partly 

 submerged roots sundry species of water snakes 



