136 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



rected towards the water, but on high, where flew some 

 thousands of snowy Pelicans, which had fled afi'righted from 

 their resting grounds. How beautifully they performed their 

 broad gyrations, and how matchless, after awhile, was the 

 marshalling of their files, as they flew past us ! 



On the tide we proceeded apace. Myriads of Cormorants 

 covered the face of the waters, and over it Fish-Crows innu- 

 merable were already arriving from their distant roosts. 

 We landed at one place to search for the birds whose charm- 

 ing melodies had engaged our attention, and here and there 

 some young Eagles we shot, to add to our store of fresh pro- 

 visions ! 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 

 sluggish 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 considerable way, during which our com- 

 mander and officers took the soundings, as well as the angles 

 and bearings of every nook and crook of the sinuous stream, 

 we anchored one evening at a distance of fully one hundred 

 miles from the mouth of the river. The weather, although it 

 was the 12th of February, was quite warm, the thermometer 

 on board standing at 75°, and on shore at 90°. The fog 

 was so thick that neither of the shores could be seen, and 

 yet the river was not a mile in breadth. The "blind mus- 

 quitoes" covered every object, even in the cabin, and so won- 

 derfully abundant were these tormentors, that they more 

 than once fairly extinguished the candles whilst I was writing 

 my journal, which I closed in despair, crushing between the 

 leaves more than a hundred of the little wretches. Bad as 

 they are, however, these blind musquitoes do not bite. As if 

 purposely to render our situation doubly uncomfortable, there 

 was an establishment for jerking beef, on the nearer shores 



