30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



in front of us or speeding directly ahead, risked instant death. 

 "Whip-poor-wills rose in lumbering flight almost too slow to 

 escape the radiator, or crouching permitted us to pass over 

 them. Near Elwood a racoon underestimated our speed and 

 ne^ixly lost his tail thereby. And at Estillville two quail 

 thundered up from the road. But the most interesting incident 

 occurred three miles from 'Egg Harbor. Two adjoining tele- 

 phone poles were inhabited. From one we shocked into startled 

 flight a Fhcker and from the other a Bluebird. As the nest 

 holes were at the same height, and resembled each other in 

 general appearance, except that the Bluebird's was more 

 weather-soiled, we assumed that the Flicker had excAvated 

 both, one in 1907 and the other in 1908. being compelled to 

 hollow the second by the Bluebird's preemption of the first. 

 The last part of our trip twisted and turned over rollicking hills 

 to a farm-house on the borders of Griscom Swamp. 



Plans having been settled and a friend secured as guide, 

 after an hour's delay, we were winding over a wretched 

 road toward the center of Griscom. Part of the way was sand, 

 much of it mud, and the rest corduroy. It was so dangerously 

 narrow, and set us hitching and tossing so distractingly, we 

 could hardly appreciate the stretches of pines, the gloom of 

 cedar swamps, or the flashing sunlight of bayberry openings. 

 The two miles were not covered at a speed to excite the greed 

 even of a South Jersey justice. What with butting the sand 

 and bumping the logs we made slow work of it, and vigorously 

 prepared our digestive systems for lunch. Nor did that meal 

 beckon alluringly ahead when every glance to the rear focussed 

 a horde of mosquitoes augmenting in fierce pursuit. At last we 

 jolted into the open space about Griscom Mill, and at once 

 lunched in pestered ease. 



We were now in the middle of Griscom Swamp. For nearly 

 a mile we had labored acro^ its western arm and had reached a 

 small clearing perhaps an acre in extent, somewhat elevated 

 and therefore dry. Before us to the east lay the main swamp. 

 Across it one mile would bring us to the Great Egg Harbor 

 Meadows. North or south we could travel either way two and 

 a half miles without emerging. A wilder place is not to be 



