FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 63 



of landscape has wonderfully gone up in a breath- 

 less age when those who perforce live in cities are 

 willing to pay a good price for the privilege of a 

 holiday in scenes of untamed nature, and standing 

 trees may be a greater asset to an estate than fallen 

 lumber. Of this the man who drove with me that 

 day was fully aware, and I was amply convinced 

 that any future drafts made on the forest that 

 clothes the slopes of Toxaway would be presented 

 with due regard for its aesthetic solvency. 



Of the wild life of these hills so short a stay as 

 mine revealed almost as little as I had any right to 

 expect, yet the drive was not without its surprises. 

 At one turn, just after lunch, we put up a cock 

 ruffed grouse, the favourite game bird of the dis- 

 trict, where it is known as the " pheasant." A little 

 later in the day I saw the bright crimson body of 

 the " Toxaway," as the Cherokee Indian called the 

 Cardinal, or Virginia Nightingale, the bird that has 

 given its name to this enchanting country ; but the 

 most conspicuous feathered family was that of the 

 woodpeckers, as indeed might be expected in such 

 a paradise of timber. Few trunks beside the track 

 were free from the evidence of their bills. On one 

 tree I noticed three downy woodpeckers at work ; 

 on another was the little " Flicker," the only 

 American woodpecker, I believe, without some red 

 in its plumage. On the lakes plunged loons and 

 grebes ; mocking-birds warbled in every thicket ; 

 and from the swampy margin of the waters came 

 the deep song of bull-frogs. Across Lake Sapphire, 

 under the bow of a boat in which we presently 

 examined some haunts of local trout, paddled a 

 long, black snake, panic-stricken, and making for the 



