seems to have no current, yet it is full of life, as presently appears. 

 Most of it is covered with floating vegetables, mainly lilies, and 

 upon these you may soon note an almost violently colored bird 

 of gawky outline, tramping about, looking, and occasionally 

 pecking. This creature is of a most magnificent color; a mixture 

 of iridescent blues, purples, and deep greens, with a sharply 

 contrasting bill of vivid flame tipped with yellow and a forehead 

 mask of pure white. This little bird is the Purple Gallinule. It is 

 devised to walk about on lily pads. 



Then the water gives a mild "blup," and if you stand up 

 quietly and look down, you will see a large alligator "wobbling" 

 along just below the surface surrounded by a mass of large gars 

 and bass — the one a very ancient type of fish, and the other a most 

 important factor in the natural economy of this whole area. Why 

 the reptile does not snap at the fish or the fish go away from 

 their natural enemy is inexplicable, but they all live in these 

 waters imperturbably and presumably contentedly. So also do 

 the water tortoises — locally called "turtles" — and countless 

 smaller fish called Gambusia, and fresh-water bream. Also below 

 the water is an abundance of water snails, fresh-water clams, 

 mussels, and other small food. As the sun drops lower, the birds 

 begin to arrive — wood ibis, herons of several kinds, and all man- 

 ner of ducks. They come soaring overhead, often just skimming 

 the low treetops, and usually landing either in the water or on 

 their appointed roosting trees with a considerable emphasis and 

 uproar. All manner of unseen ones make noises at you out of the 

 dense, tangled vegetation that grows knee-deep in the inky wa- 

 ters. This is an unforgettable place. 



During the summer the everglades are alive with animals, 

 but in winter they are a dead land and all the animals are con- 

 centrated in the water channels, where they are then so packed 

 together that the fish may nuzzle the alligators, as we have seen. 



All manner of birds, like cormorants, come at this time of year 

 to fish: in summer they go away to the coast. Sometimes the 

 water gets so low that the oxygen is not sufficient for the 

 crowded fish, and they die off by the ton; and it may get so low 

 that the big alligators drive all the lesser ones out into the ever- 

 glades, where they have to make wallows for themselves by 

 rocking back and forth to get down into the water table. 



There is a strange life cycle in this land that begins with 

 mosquitoes. When the summer rains begin, the water rises 

 quickly and starts to flood out onto the glades. This causes the 

 eggs of the mosquitoes, which have been lying dormant all win- 

 ter, to hatch. Then the little fish named the "gamboozie" come to 

 feed on the seething masses of larvae. Then the bream move out 

 in pursuit of the gamboozie, and next, the bass after the bream. 

 Then, the gars go after the bass, and finally the alligators move 

 out after the gars. In the fall everybody reverses himself and 

 — led by the gamboozie, who either get caught in small holes in 

 the rapidly drying saw grass or scuttle for their tiny winter food 

 in the perpetual water channels — they all stream back again. In 

 the national park there are only a thousand acres of winter wa- 

 ter compared to nearly a million acres of saw grass, so the con- 

 centration of life in the former is terrific. 



"HAMMOCKS" AND PHOENIX TREES 



The everglades have a dry winter season and a wet summer 

 season. The whole area — fifteen thousand square miles in extent, 

 of which three thousand are contained in Everglades National 

 Park — is quite flat and just about at sea level. Some ridges along 

 its eastern edge are of the great height of twelve feet, and some 

 of the hummocks reach an altitude of six feet. It is really divided 



The American Alligator is not aggressive, and even old hulls will move away from people un- 

 less molested. They make fearful noises in the swamps in the mating season. 



