BLACK VULTURE 



all probability, without an equal in natural history or photog- 

 raphy. The Limberlost at that time was dangerous. It had not 

 been shorn, branded and tamed. There were excellent reasons 

 why I should not go there. Most of it was impenetrable. There 

 had been one or two roads cut by expert lumbermen, who had 

 located valuable trees; a very little timber had been taken out. 

 No one knew when tree-hunters were there, while always it had 

 been a rendezvous for outlaws and cutthroats in hiding. The 

 swamp was named for a man who became lost in its fastnesses 

 and wandered around, failing to find a way out until he died of 

 starvation. In. its physical aspect it was steaming, fetid, 

 treacherous swamp and quagmire, filled with every danger 

 common to the central states. 



A few oil-wells had been drilled near the head of the swamp. 

 It was over a road, cut to one of these, that we were to travel as 

 far as a certain well. After that the way led north a quarter of 

 a mile, then straight east, until we came to the prostrate trunk 

 of a giant elm, with a hollow five feet in diameter. That sounds 

 easy, but it was not. In the beginning I had to pay a tenant a 

 dollar for the privilege of driving over the road the oil and lumber- 

 men used. A rod inside the swamp the carriage wheels on one 

 side mired to the hub. Another rod, I took the camera intended 

 for use in my lap, shielding it with my arms. Every few yards, 

 I expected the light carriage we drove to be twisted to pieces. We 

 left it at the oil-well, starting on foot with an ax, hatchet and two 

 revolvers, to find the tree. 



The Deacon wore high, heavy leather boots, while I wore 

 waist-high rubber waders. We had to cut our way before us, as 

 the felled tree had been hollow, not worth taking out, so no road 

 had been made to it. For two hours we searched for that log. 

 The time was late June; there was not a breath of air stirring in 

 the swamp; there were steaming, fetid pools everywhere, swarms 



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