THE TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS 63 



setting forth the claims of one Mr. Lossman and 

 others preferring the legend of a man lost upon 

 it. There is a hammock somewhere on Lostmans 

 reported to harbor a colony of the large tree snails. 

 I landed once for the purpose of stalking them. 

 There were five in our party and evening being 

 near, we separated and struck out for the interior, 

 agreeing that the first to reach the hammock 

 should shout for the others. From a sandy prairie 

 I entered a dense, lofty forest of mangroves and 

 Avicennias, not paying much attention to direc- 

 tion in my eagerness to find the hammock. Oc- 

 casionally the floor of the swamp was somewhat 

 open, probably because the forest was so dense 

 that nothing could grow under it. In other spots 

 the trees did not stand quite so close and young man- 

 groves and other littoral vegetation grew thickly. 

 It was a very dry time and the ground muck was 

 fairly firm, making walking less difficult; though in 

 places I sank at every step to my ankles. On ac- 

 count of the occasional thick undergrowth I could 

 not maintain a straight course, but hurried on 

 rapidly as possible toward what I supposed was 

 the center of the island. Having tramped and 

 floundered along for half a mile or more I noticed 



