PELICAN ISLAND 



197 



from fishing expeditions, platoons were resting on 

 the sandy points, some were bathing, others sailing 

 in broad circles high overhead. Soon we could hear 

 the sound of many voices a medley of strange cries 



101. Pelicans on ground nests. 



in an unknown tongue. Arriving and departing on 

 wings, the inhabitants of Pelican Island have little 

 need of deep water harbors, and we were obliged to 

 anchor our sloop about a hundred yards from the 

 island and go ashore in a small boat. 



No traveler ever entered the gates of a foreign 

 city with greater expectancy than I felt as I stepped 

 from my boat on the muddy edge of this City of 

 the Pelicans. The old birds, without a word of pro- 

 test, deserted their homes, leaving their eggs and 

 young at my mercy. But the young were as abu- 

 sive and threatening as their parents were silent and 



