30 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



light looks green, then blue, like that of a sea- 

 cavern, and there is indescribable beauty in the 

 changing effects as the sunlight filters through 

 the leafy screen. Over all these tropical 

 scenes, over cool forest and burning desert, 

 broods the pitiless brazen sky, of copper hue 

 throughout the day, but passing morning and 

 evening through every shade of blue, indigo, 

 turquoise, and back to ultramarine, violet as 

 the sun goes down over the edge of the desert, 

 and, just at the last, an uncanny green. I 

 have noticed this strange green ending to the 

 day in two arid regions, Egypt and Arizona, 

 just after the going of the sun, and never in 

 the open elsewhere. 



Another scene, almost within the tropics, 

 not beautiful, perhaps, but with a picturesque- 

 ness of its own, is to be found among the 

 swampy Keys of Florida. In the early part of 

 the year, when the sun still tempers strength 

 with mercy, and the mosquitoes are not yet 

 alive to their opportunities, this is a very 

 pleasant land to do nothing in. Laziness is 

 its creed. Like the alligators and the turtles, 

 mankind in that region moves only under com- 

 pulsion, and always unwillingly. In these 

 mangrove swamps millions of fiddler -crabs 

 lie basking in the sun, scuttling back to their 

 burrows when disturbed with a noise like that 

 of rushing water. Heavy reptiles lurk in the 



