210 Life of Audubon, 



reader. At the break of day we were again at anchor 

 within the bar of St. Augustine. Our next attempt was 

 successful. Not many hours after we had crossed the bar 

 we perceived the star-like glimmer of the light in the 

 great lantern at the entrance into the St. John's river. 

 This was before daylight j and as the crossing of the 

 sand-banks or bars which occur at the mouths of all the 

 streams of this peninsula is difficult, and can be accom- 

 plished only when the tide is up, one of the guns was fired 

 as a signal for the government pilot. The good man it 

 seemed was unwilling to leave his couch, but a second 

 gun brought him in his canoe alongside. The depth of 

 the channel was barely sufficient. My eyes, however, 

 were not directed towards the waters, but on high, where 

 flew some thousands of ' snowy pelicans,' which had fled 

 affrighted from their resting grounds. How beautifully 

 they performed their broad gyrations, and how matchless 

 after a while, was the marshalling of their files as they 

 flew past us ! 



" On the tide we proceeded apace. Myriads of cor- 

 morants covered the face of the waters, and over it the 

 fish-crows innumerable were already arriving from their 

 distant roosts. We landed at one place to search for 

 the birds whose charming melodies had engaged our at- 

 tention, and here and there we shot some young eagles, 

 to add to our store of fresh provision. The river did 

 not seem to me equal in beauty to the fair Ohio ; the 

 shores were in many places low and swampy, to the great 

 delight of the numberless herons that moved along in 

 gracefulness, and the grim alligators that swam in slug- 

 gish sullenness. In going up a bayou we caught a great 

 number of the young of the latter, for the purpose of 

 making experiments upon them. After sailing a con- 

 siderable way, during which our commander and officers 

 took the soundings, as well as the angles and bearings of 



