1890
March 31
Suwanee River, Florida
places like a narrow wood walled in by
straight cypresses hung thickly with dark Tillandsia.
In places the bay trees formed almost the sole
growth. Their roots washed clean by the overflows
or perhaps growing naturally above, instead of
under, the surface literally covered the ground
so thickly that one could walk on them in 
slippers as on a dry floor. They resembled nothing
so much as great beds of snakes lying stretched 
at full length in loose coils, or entwined together
in masses. Their general color was a plain
stone gray mottled with darker very like that
of a cotton-mouth moccasin and their bark was
in texture not unlike that of the skin of a 
large serpent. In fact the general resemblance,
or perhaps I should say suggestiveness, was so
strong that I could not walk on them without
a shrinking sensation. It would be next to
impossible to discover a real snake among them.
Along the sides of the creek they formed in
many places a clearly defined vertical bank
or wall. They did not seem to extend under 
water or to encroach anywhere on the bed of
the creek.
  On the lower reaches of the creek I saw 
a few large birds. A solitary Great Blue Heron, an
Osprey sitting above its nest whistling shrilly
and eyeing me suspiciously as I paddled
past, a Red-Shouldered Hawk and a
Kingfisher or two. Small birds were numerous
especially Prothonotaries of which I passed
a dozen or more several of them females They