TRAVELS IN 
I5'2 
velvet black, like the eye in the feathers of a pea- 
cock’s train. He is a fifh of prodigious flrength 
and a£tivity in the water, a warrior in a gilded coat 
of mail; and gives no reft or quarter to fmall fifh, 
which he preys upon. They are delicious food and 
in great abundance. 
The orange grove is but narrow, betwixt the 
river banks and ancient Indian fields, where there 
are evident traces of the habitations of the ancients, 
furrounded with groves of live oak, laurel magno- 
lia, zanthoxylon, liquidambar, and others. 
How harmonious and foothing is this native fyl- 
van mufic now at flill evening ! inexpreflibly tender 
are the refponfive cooings of the innocent dove, in 
the fragrant zanthoxylon groves, and the variable 
and tuneful warblings of the nonpareil, with the 
more fprightly and elevated {trains of the blue linnet 
and golden icterus: this is indeed harmony, even 
amidft the incefiant croaking of the frogs : the 
fhades of filent night are made more cheerful, with 
the Ihrill voice of the whip-poor-will * and a£tive 
ipock-bird. 
My fituation high and airy : a brilk and cool breeze 
fteadily and inceflantly pafiing over the clear waters 
of the lake, and fluttering over me through the fur- 
rounding groves, wings its way to the moon-light 
favannas, while I repofe on my fweet and healthy 
couch of the foft tillandfia ufnea-adfcites, and the 
latter gloomy and {till hours of night pafs rapidly 
away as it were in a moment. I arofe, ftrengthen- 
* Caprimulgus rufus, called chnck-will’s-widow, from a fancied refem- 
|>3ance of his notes to thefe words : it inhabits the maritime parts of Carolina 
and Florida, and is more than twice the fize of the night hawk, or whip-poor" 
will. 
ed 
