FLORIDA: THE GULF COAST 159 



waters where the herons waded, and kept just 

 behind, but followed close. 



Here the swallows surely did not hibernate. 

 Four kinds were present in numbers. Tree and 

 barn swallows were perhaps the more frequent, 

 but the purple martin and bank swallow were 

 constantly seen. Over the golden waterways 

 they flew and dipped with no seeming thought of 

 retreat to the shelter of the ooze at the bottom of 

 ice-covered ponds in the North. 



Late fall in Florida has a prolonged period of 

 Indian summer. Day after day may be described 

 as "golden." The waters of the Gulf lie unrip- 

 pled by a breeze, the sunsets are unmarked by 

 clouds. In the late afternoon, as the red orb 

 dipped into the Gulf on. the western horizon, oc- 

 curred a remarkable phenomenon. The stillness 

 and the light and color on the water seemed in 

 accord with the placid mood of the sea and air. 

 Then, seemingly, far out in the west, from the 

 place " where the sun went down," came a strange 

 medley of sound. The pufifing of schools of por- 

 poises, the rush of the leviathan in pursuit of his 

 finny prey, was mingled with the weird laugh of 

 loons, the gabble of hosts of gulls, and sometimes 

 the shrill cry of a single tern ; the splash of the 

 brown pelican as he struck the water, and count- 

 less unknown sounds and noises that seemed to 

 come from a given point, together produced the 



