290 A BOOK-LOVER S HOLIDAYS 



tropical storms not only change the channels 

 and alter the shape of many of the islands, but 

 may even break up some very big island. In 

 such case an island with trees and water may 

 for years be entirely uninhabited by coons, and 

 the birds may form huge rookeries thereon. 

 The government should exterminate the coons 

 and minks on all the large islands, so as to en 

 able the birds to breed on them; for on the 

 small islands the storms and tides work huge 

 havoc with the nests. 



Captain Young proved himself not only a 

 first-class captain but a first-class pilot through 

 the shifting and tangled maze of channels and 

 islands. The Royal Tern, her engines breaking 

 down intermittently, fell so far in the rear that 

 in the early afternoon we anchored, to wait 

 for her, off an island to which a band of pelicans 

 resorted - - they had nested, earlier in the year, 

 on another island some leagues distant. The 

 big birds, forty or thereabouts in number, were 

 sitting on a sand-spit which projected into the 

 water, enjoying a noontide rest. As we ap 

 proached they rose and flapped lazily out to 

 sea for a few hundred yards before again light 

 ing. Later in the afternoon they began to fly 

 to the fishing-grounds, and back and forth, 

 singly and in small groups. In flying they 



