A PEEP AT THE EVERGLADES 121 



But though we Northern visitors may some- 

 times envy our Southern brethren their gift of 

 happy insouciance, it is not for our possessing. 

 We were born under another star. Our lack is 

 the precise opposite of theirs ; even in our vaca- 

 tion hours we have seldom time to sit still. 



So it happened that on a sultry, dog-day morn- 

 ing, with a south wind blowing, the sky partly 

 clouded, — a comfort to the eyes, — the pro- 

 fessor and the bird-gazer, after an early break- 

 fast, set forth upon a reconnoissance of the 

 Everglades. We took each a boat and an oars- 

 man, planning to go up the Miami River, or 

 rather its south branch, till we were among the 

 " islands " — small pieces of hammock woods 

 scattered amid the wilderness of saw-grass. 



As each of us had his own boat, so each had 

 his own errand, one botanical, the other lazUy 

 ornithological. The professor expected to see 

 and learn much — especially about the adapts^ 

 tion of plants to their surroundings ; his asso- 

 ciate expected to see and learn little — little or 

 nothing ; and according to each man's faith, so 

 it was unto him. 



For the first mQe or so — as far as the tide 

 runs, perhaps — the river is densely beset on 

 either side by a shining green hedge of man- 

 grove bushes, every branch sending down " aerial 



