70 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 



shine that flooded it all, these were beauty 

 enough ; beauty all the more keenly en- 

 joyed because for much of the way it was 

 seen only by glimpses, through vistas of pal- 

 metto and live-oak. Sometimes the road 

 came quite out of the woods, as it rounded a 

 turn of the hammock. Then I stopped to 

 gaze long at the scene. Elsewhere I pushed 

 through the hedge at favorable points, and 

 sat, or stood, looking up and down the river. 

 A favorite seat was the prow of an old row- 

 boat, which lay, falling to pieces, high and 

 dry upon the sand. It had made its last 

 cruise, but I found it still useful. 



The river is shallow. At low tide sand- 

 bars and oyster-beds occupy much of its 

 breadth ; and even when it looked full, a 

 great blue heron would very likely be wad- 

 ing in the middle of it. That was a sight 

 to which I had grown accustomed in Florida, 

 where this bird, familiarly known as " the 

 major," is apparently ubiquitous. Too big 

 to be easily hidden, it is also, as a general 

 thing, too wary to be approached within 

 gunshot. I am not sure that I ever came 

 within sight of one, no matter how suddenly 

 or how far away, that it did not give evi- 



