186 The Wonders of the Permian 



sound in these swamps and everglades, it sounded 

 very much like the cutting of trees I could hear 

 the crush of mingled vegetation as if a tree fern 

 had been felled at one strong blow and it came 

 sliding down against the thickly planted vegeta- 

 tion, I could hear the swish as it was dragged 

 away, to make room for another that quickly fell. 

 Yes ! I could hear human voices I was sure, and 

 soon I heard wafted across the lake the loved 

 name Maud. I could see the trees swaying, and 

 then one by one come down in a straight line for 

 the lake, and I knew that in these solitudes I 

 was not alone. That God had brought others to 

 this young earth. Whose surface still felt the 

 subterraneous heat, whose crust was so thin it 

 often sank into the sea or was raised just above 

 high tide. I sprang forward on the beach to the 

 water's edge just as the last obstruction in the 

 shape of a trunked cycad with its tangled mass 

 of leaflets crushed to the earth and behind the 

 ambuscade of vegetation stood my whole family 

 from Mamma to Levi, and close beside him was 

 Maud. George and Charlie were the ones who 

 welded their picks, Mabel and Myrtle and the 

 children and the others dragged the trees away 

 and they had their hands on the cycad when they 

 suddenly beheld me standing petrified on the 

 beach. Such a shout went up was never heard 

 before. I waved my pick speechless with sur- 

 prise, for once at least in my life, as you have all 



