70 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 
shine that flooded it all, these were beauty 
enough ; — beauty all the more keenly en- 
joyed because for much of the way it was 
seen only by glimpses, through vistas of pal- 
metto and live-oak. Sometimes the road 
came quite out of the woods, as it rounded a 
turn of the hammock. Then I stopped to 
gaze long at the scene. Elsewhere I pushed 
through the hedge at favorable points, and 
sat, or stood, looking up and down the river. 
A favorite seat was the prow of an old row- 
boat, which lay, falling to pieces, high and 
dry upon the sand. It had made its last 
cruise, but I found it still useful. 
The river is shallow. At low tide sand- 
bars and oyster-beds occupy much of its 
breadth ; and even when it looked full, a 
great blue heron would very likely be wad- 
ing in the middle of it. That was a sight 
to which I had grown accustomed in Florida, 
where this bird, familiarly known as “the 
major,’ is apparently ubiquitous. Too big 
to be easily hidden, it is also, as a general 
thing, too wary to be approached within 
gunshot. J am not sure that I ever came 
within sight of one, no matter how suddenly 
or how far away, that it did not give evi- 
