46 WILD WINGS 



liked to hide for an hour or two, to secure pictures of the shy 

 returning ibises as they alighted upon their nests. But already 

 the day was waning, and we had the long, hard tramp before 

 us. For want of time, another lake connected with this one 

 was left unexplored. 



How we suffered that day from thirst ! We had been told 

 that we could get fresh water here. But a combination of low 

 water inland and high tides seaward had made the water 

 brackish and poisonous. I became so parched climbing and 

 photographing that I yielded to temptation, and was sorry 

 enough, as for the next few days I lay in camp under a mos- 

 quito-net sick with dysentery and fever. It was about eighty 

 miles, two days' sail, to the nearest medical aid, at Key West. 

 Our vessel was gone, and another which we had engaged 

 had not arrived. I seemed to be caught like a rat in a trap. 

 But finally raw white of egg a good thing to remember 

 checked the dysentery, and I was at length able to resume 

 the exploration, though for a time rather weak. 



A dry and thirsty land is Cape Sable, with all its swamps, 

 overflowed as they are by the sea, and no drinking water 

 to be had, save from the clouds. Our water-barrels were 

 nearly empty ; so one night, when a vessel had been secured, 

 we dropped off the soap-flat and sailed westward around Cape 

 Sable and up near " Middle Cape," where at last we found a 

 tolerable well, from which to fill the casks. Along the " Capes " 

 there are no mud-flats, but deep water extends close in to the 

 fine beach of shell-sand. Here a chain of lakes approaches 

 very near the coast, and we took the opportunity to explore 

 them. The lone settler here kindly lent us his boat, a flat 

 scow, propelled by poling. These lakes are the resorts of large 

 numbers of the American White Pelicans, that usually breed 

 in the far North. Yet I was not without hope that possibly 

 we might find them nesting in this Southern wilderness. 



