1890                                                            
March 28 
Suwanee River, Florida. 
Morning clear, clouding over at noon.  A heavy shower early 
in the afternoon. Wind strong from the S. all day.
  Starting off alone at 10.A.M. I paddled down
the west pass for about a mile then entered a large
creek on the W. side. Just before reaching it I
had a long shot at an Anhinga, a [female] which was
sitting on a stake. She fell at the shot and when
I reached her was lying on her back apparently dead
but as the bow of my conoe struck her she dove
came up over then dove again & I saw her no more.
For the first mile up the creek I saw nothing
save two Little Blue Herons. At length as I
rounded a bend I came suddenly on a
huge alligator (at least eleven feet long) lying well
up on the bank. As he plunged into the
water the surge caused the canoe to rock 
violently. The noise he made startled three
Herons, an A. egretta and a pair of Nycteardia 
nivaea, which flapped out from the trees out
of range. I started all three several times
afterwards but failed to get a shot. Twice I
saw three large garfish swimming together
the largest in the middle, a smaller one on 
each side. I think they were two males following
a female. Our trio swam with their bills out of
water.
  My creek soon came to an end in a saw
grass marsh and I turned back and tried 
a smaller one which entered it on the south
side. From this I again turned into another
& still smaller one over which the trees interlocked
their branches forming a perfect arch. I had