DOWN THE ST. JOE RIVER 



light skiff. For there the river runs swiftly, 

 and an overturning at that point will surely 

 be dangerous. 



For many miles these mute evidences of 

 the river's power are strewn along, most of 

 them in the current still, some of them 

 dragged up on the bank and left there by 

 steamboat-men to make clear a passage for 

 the boats. Some are there green in the pride 

 of summer, not yet stripped of leaves and 

 branches, and the great holes above show 

 where the sly current has wrought its work 

 so well. Year in and year out this goes on, 

 and the timber-line recedes from the edge of 

 the water and marches back into the woods 

 beyond. 



On these bald snags turtles lie in long 

 lines, or solitary, as it may chance. Some of 

 them are the soft-shelled kind, jelly-like in 

 appearance, awkward, reptilian, and hideous. 

 The " hard-shells " are not so ugly, but they 

 are all repulsive when they have attained any 

 size. The smaller turtles, the wee baby tur- 

 tles, especially the hard-shelled infants, are 

 smooth little fellows, and entirely without the 

 ugliness of those of a larger growth. These 



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