washed-in timber, muck, moss and dis- 
integrated oaks, which had taken sick 
and died of a disease peculiar to them, 
we saw the majesty, the thundering 
power of fire. The vegetation was evi- 
dently more susceptible to it than its 
appearance suggested. And, after all, 
the northern area had been drawn al- 
most dry by the canal. Not alone sin- 
gle bay trees, and heady cypresses, but 
compact forests of them flared up, as 
if deluged with oil and touched off with 
a match. It was spontaneous combus- 
tion of a particularly spectacular kind, 
vivid, hideous, irresistible. And the 
smoke hung above all of the hammock 
which came within our range, black, 
sinister. Great black masses of it, in- 
terspersed with smoldering dots, and 
intermittant pin-points of fire, raced 
far past us, overhead, at express speed, 
eastward bound on the romping back 
of that relentless wind! 
Back there, from whence we had 
come, the floor of the hammock must 
have been a furnace! 
“It’s getting dark,’ Sonnyboy sput- 
tered, “is it—is it clouds or—or the 
smoke?” 
“A smoke smudge,” was my reply, 
“if it gets any worse, it will be as dan- 
gerous as a heavy fog... we won't 
be able to find our way. Throw off the 
blankets and the other stuff—every- 
thing but your rod case and your rifle,” 
I called, “we should have known enough 
to get rid of these things before. They 
help to hold us back—I’m catching them 
in every bush and on every gall-berry 
patch.” 
Relieved of these trappings, we 
started on again, with less difficulty. 
The dense smoke-fog, known and 
dreaded in all parts of southern Flor- 
ida, was upon us, however. I have 
witnessed it on the streets of Miami, 
when a hammock fire ranged in the 
Everglades, miles and miles away, and 
people were compelled to grope their 
way along! It seldom happens, but 
when it does—it is an unforgettable 
event. 
Some instinct appeared to guide Son- 
nyboy. Once I lost him, only to hear 
his cheerie-o call through the haze: 
“Dad—Dad—this way. It’s the beach!” 
TReRAS had been no opportunity to 
locate the occasionally machete- 
blazed trail we had taken on entering 
the hammock. The good fortune which 
at least brought us into the open au- 
tomatically saved our lives. I can be- 
lieve nothing short of this. There was 
a white, compact beach, through the 
sand of which projected gnarled snags 
of marl and limestone, and while it was 
no more than eight feet across, before 
it met black, pasty, impassable muck, 
it formed a natural runway along which 
the two of us raced at a satisfactory 
clip. Moreover, by some freak of air 






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Page 169 In writing to Advertisers mention Forest and Stream. It will identify you. 
