IN CALIFORNIA MARSHES. 4^7 



after walking out of the very high rushes which bor- 

 dered the slough, we shoved an oar into the ground and 

 tied a handkerchief to it to mark the place where we 

 had left the boats. This was a very necessary opera- 

 tion, as we would otherwise never find our boats again 

 on account of the similarity of the rushes. Separating 

 about fifty yards apart, we started to look for what I 

 was inclined to think was a phantom pond. We walked 

 and we walked; the sun was hot; the ground was 

 mushy and the tules high ; but no signs of a pond. Soon 

 after we had left the boats we had come to another 

 slough, and had followed it to the right. After walk- 

 ing along the bank about two miles, I should judge, 

 and meeting other sloughs, we retraced our steps, tired 

 and disgusted, and we had lain down to rest just at the 

 point where we had first struck the slough we had been 

 following. 



We had hardly been lying there more than a minute 

 or two when one of us noticed two swans flying totvard 

 us — nothing very extraordinary, as we had seen a 

 great number of swans and plenty of ducks and geese 

 flying around us all day. But these two swans passed 

 us about three hundred yards to the right, and then set 

 their wings and soon after lit about five hundred yards 

 away. We had seen a great many birds alighting in 

 this same spot, but there always seemed to be a slough 

 separating us from the place, and our instructions were 

 not to cross any slough after rowing on the first one. 

 We jumped to our feet and both seemed struck with the 

 same idea, at the same instant, and, sure enough, we had 



