TRAMPS THROUGH THE GULF STATES I 



493 



have not been at work. Snakes of many forms and 

 rich colors are numerous in some localities; but these 

 are, as a rule, only taken by the out-and-out naturalist, 

 or destroyed by the thoughtless traveler, who rarely 

 realizes how useful and beneficial some of the species are. 



Leaving Florida and passing westward, the explorer 

 will find that some parts of Alabama, Mississippi, and 

 Louisiana are less known than the so-called wilds of the 

 western terri- 

 tories. This is 

 especially true 

 of the lower 

 forms of ani- 

 mal life rather 

 than of birds 

 and mammals ; 

 while southern 

 Louis i a n a is 

 distinctly sub- 

 tropical in these 

 respects, as is 

 her plant-life, 

 the country is 

 nowhere pro- 

 nouncedly so, 

 as one finds it 

 to be on the 

 southern part 

 of the Flori- 

 dian peninsula. 



Along the 

 Mississippi, and 

 everywhere 

 in the bound- 

 less marshes 

 and swamps, 

 grow hundreds 

 of fine cypress 

 trees, pecans, 

 and palmettoes, 

 and in such 

 places the writ- 

 er collected for 

 many months, 

 aided by a 

 number of 

 French river- 

 hands, who 

 were wholly 

 familiar with 

 the country, and thoroughly immune with respect to the 

 dangerous malarial attacks which the unacclimatized per- 

 son is subject to in a country of that character. In 

 summer the heat is often intense, while extreme humidity 

 prevails, rendering thorough exploration in the miry 

 swamps and endless bayous very enervating. In the first 

 named localities one often finds the undergrowth and 

 the palmettoes casting so dense a shade that the sunlight 

 is nearly entirely shut out. Everywhere big, fallen trees 



THE BARRED OWL 



Figure 6. All through the lowlands of southern Louisiana we meet with numbers of barred owls, of which 

 this one is a subadult in its first plumage. They are very numerous in extensive swamps, where 

 their favorite food may be obtained in plenty. 



and great logs, slippery with a peculiar kind of moss, 

 impede one's progress; and in the dense shadows, with 

 the water from knee to waist deep, the explorer must 

 constantly be on his guard against the many highly 

 venomous snakes that lie on top of logs and lurk in 

 places where their forms and deep brown color cause 

 them to closely resemble the gnarled roots of trees, 

 which one must ever and anon seize in order to prevent a 



fall caused by 

 the uncertainty 

 of one's foot- 

 ing beneath the 

 moss - covered 

 surface of the 

 water. In the 

 less frequented 

 regions, as 

 among the 

 lakes and bay- 

 ous of the 

 south eastern 

 part of the 

 State, the ani- 

 mal life is most 

 interesting, and 

 p ar ta cularly 

 does this apply 

 to the great 

 number of dif- 

 ferent species 

 of fish one is 

 able to capture 

 and study. 

 With the as- 

 sistance of his 

 collectors, the 

 writer obtain- 

 ed many of 

 these, together 

 with various 

 snakes and in- 

 sects, for the 

 Smith sonian 

 Institution and 

 othermuseums. 

 In those days, 

 Dr. S. Weir 

 Mitchell was 

 conducting, in 

 Phil adelphia, 

 his experiments on various animal venoms particularly 

 the salivas of the moccasins, rattlers, and the unneces- 

 sarily dreaded "Gila Monster" of the southwest. To the 

 laboratories of that eminent authority the writer shipped, 

 in a great, double cage, thirteen immense water mocca- 

 sins, and the curiosity and excitement they caused at the 

 railway stations and other stoppages en route has never 

 been forgotten. Still, Louisiana is a most fascinating 

 State for the naturalist to explore at all times, and for- 



