296 Union Bay 



complete lack of visibility. I was in much the same position 

 as I have been when I awoke at night in a strange room and 

 tried to find my way to a door or a closet. There were no 

 landmarks, shadows, or aids to direction. 



I listened for the sound of birds but they had moved to a 

 quieter part of the bay, and I heard only the distant murmur 

 of the calling baldpates. The center of the bay offered no 

 more events of interest. I turned to the traffic sounds in the 

 west and soon approached a shore which, when I was three 

 or four yards away, loomed up as a few perpendicular nar- 

 row stripes, then assumed more shape and detail until, a 

 paddle length away, I could distinguish cattails and other 

 marsh plants. This approach showed the typical pattern of' 

 the marsh fog; it began with formlessness, merged into blur- 

 riness, and changed, at close quarters, into detail. 



Movement among the birds increased in the channel I fol- 

 lowed. They flew noisily before I could see them. Herbie, 

 with no inhibitions of imagination, could have labeled them 

 eagles, albatrosses, swans, penguins, or any other birds of ad- 

 venture, but I was forced to place them by their cries, as bit- 

 terns, green-winged teal, coots, blue herons, and mallards. 

 They flew noisily and grumpily as if irritated by the intru- 

 sion. I heard the cry of gulls far above and envied them their 

 extradimensional ability which took them out of the ground 

 obscurity. Undoubtedly the fog layer was not deep and they 

 were flying in clear air above it. Thus they easily avoided 

 the problems of the marsh residents in the murk below.. 



I speculated about these problems. A dense fog must alter 

 the relations between the predators and the preyed-upon. It 

 might give the hunted a respite or it could increase their 

 danger by allowing the predator to approach closer before 

 making the final spring. Or did the murkiness bring about a 

 temporary truce? My experience was not sufficient to justify 

 an opinion. I only knew that when I approached birds in a 

 light fog, they seemed much more alert, and the ducks, bit- 



