ri 



1^- i ! 



354 



AUDUBON 



add to our store of fresh provisions. The river did not 

 seem to me equal in beauty to the fair Ohio; the shores 

 were in many places low and swampy, to the great delight 

 of the numberless Herons that moved along in graceful- 

 ness, and the grim Alligators that swam in sluggish sullen- 

 ness. In going up a bayou, we caught a great number of 

 the young of the latter for the purpose of making experi- 

 ments upon them. 



After sailing a considerable way, during which our com- 

 mander and officers took the soundings, as well as the 

 angles and bearings of every nook and crook of the sinu- 

 ous stream, we anchored one evening at a distance of 

 fully one hundred miles from the mouth of the river. 

 The weather, although it was the 12th of February, was 

 quite warm, the thermometer on board standing at 75°, 

 and on shore at 90". The fog was so thick that neither of 

 the shores could be seen, and yet the river was not a mile in 

 breadth. The " blind mosquitoes " covered every object, 

 even in the cabin, and so wonderfully abundant were these 

 tormentors that they more than once fairly extinguished 

 the cindles whilst I was writing my journal, which I 

 closed in despair, crushing between the leaves more than 

 a hundred of the little wretches. Bad as they are, how- 

 ever, these blind mosquitoes do not bite. As if purposely 

 to render our situation doubly uncomfortable, there was 

 an establishment for jerking beef on the nearer shores, to 

 the windward of our vessel, from which the breeze came 

 laden with no sweet odors. 



In the morning when I arose, the country was still 

 covered with thick fogs, so that although I could plainly 

 hear the notes of the birds on shore, not an object could 

 I see beyond the bowsprit, and the air was as close and 

 sultry as on the previous evening. Guided by the scent 

 of the jerkers' works we went on shore, where we found 

 the vegetation already far advanced. The blossoms of 

 the jessamine, ever pleasing, lay steeped in dew, the 



