TTTBKEY HUNTING. 11 



bringing in her train the fragrance of the earth, with the 

 colors of the sky, decking her tallest trees with flowers 

 proportioned to their grandeur. There the lakes and 

 rivers are broad and deep, and teem with curious animal 

 life. There the birds of the air are painted with crimson, 

 and sing in dialects consonant with the voluptuous clime. 

 There the great queen lily rides the lagoon, where 

 drooping moss from the live oaks so curtain its retreat 

 that no eye ever sees it but the wild bird's, and there the 

 earth is so prolific of her fruits that there is abundance 

 for all the crowded forest. No single life is forgotten, 

 and the minute insect that feeds on the pollen of the 

 tiger lily, lives as abundantly as the alligator that takes 

 his toll from the whole animal creation. 



Thus from year to year have the seasons come and 

 gone ; animal and vegetable life has reached its limit of 

 years, has fallen and decayed, and wealth that would have 

 enriched a nation has only formed the subsoil for another 

 age, nor eye of man has seen, nor pen of man has told, 

 the wonders of that inner forest that was barred by 

 nature and the Seminole from the civilized world. 



Under such a wood, near where the Stinhatehee River 

 empties its dark waters into the Gulf of Mexico, at Dead- 

 man's Bay, the grey light came to my eyes as I lay 

 wrapped in my blanket, by the smoldering camp-fire, a 

 few years ago. Hunters and negroes were all still buried 

 in dreams, and the weary hounds lay stretched around 

 indiscriminately among the sleepers. No tent was raised, 

 for the elements required none, though a screen of 



