20 DHEA UD UB ON 2B Ut nee 
Ten thousand years in creation. 
~ 
generously to sustain as well as lure waterfowl within camera view of 
the shelter. 
In the sleeping season of winter the curving blue stream in this ob- 
servation area froze over, and we returned at Christmas season to explore 
the Swamp again. When the green tree was up in the big white house, 
the log fires ablaze, the glittering gifts piled high, and Christmas music 
floating through the house, we made a wild dash for the outdoors with 
mittens, heavy jackets, binoculars and camera. 
As we drove off, the big white porch was barren, the split-rail fence 
empty, and the woodlands browned with fallen leaves. Out the old road — 
we went to the welcoming redwood sign, ENTERING GREAT SWAMP 
NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, with all the winter fences posted: regu- 
larly with the federal symbol of the wild waterfowl. A few patches of 
snow whitened the roadsides. The swamp water was frozen to gray ice, 
spiked with grasses, stiff and brown. Cattails were stark. Ferns 
curled dry. 
Gingerly we walked on frozen water to photograph the winter land- 
scape, while huge steel gray clouds were moving in overhead in a cold 
front. The forest edges were thorny tangles against the sky. The immensity 
ot the swamp swallowed us up in winter. An old swamp road that was 
soon to be sealed off at both ends and allowed to grow wild was still open. 
Our last chance to get into that area by car. We decided to risk it and drove 
off a few miles in that remote direction. As we parked the car, splintered 
