{"1": {"fulltext": "FLORIDA SKETCH BOr^\\nBRADFORD Orii li\\n7T\\nr-", "height": "3369", "width": "2121", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.\\nin^Wk \u00c2\u00a9op^rig]^ Ifo.\\nShelf...n;M-\\nUMTED STATES OF AMERICA.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "^QtiU ijp iHr,\\ni6mo, $1.25.\\nBIRDS IN THE BUSH.\\nA RAMBLER S LEASE.\\ni6mo, $1.25.\\nTHE FOOT-PATH WAY.\\ni6mo, gilt\\ntop,\\n$1.25.\\nA FLORIDA SKETCH-BOOK. i6mo,\\n1.25.\\nHOUGHTON, MIFFLIN CO.\\nBoston and New York.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "A FLORIDA SKETCH-BOOK\\nBY\\nBRADFORD TORREY\\n.a^ OF COyV/^.-\\nI\\nBOSTON AND NEW YORK\\nHOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY\\n1894", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "Copyright, 1894,\\nBy BRADFORD TORREY.\\nAll rights reserved.\\nThe Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.\\nElectrotyped aud Printed by H. O. Houghton Co.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0010.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "CONTENTS\\nIn the Flat-Woods\\nBeside the Marsh\\nOn the Beach at Daytona\\nAlong the Hillsborough\\nA Morning at the Old Sugar Mill\\nOn the Upper St. John s\\nOn the St. Augustine Road\\nOrnithology on a Cotton Plantation\\nA Florida Shrine\\nWalks about Tallael^ssee\\nPAGE\\n1\\n34\\n41\\n68\\n102\\n121\\n151\\n180\\n193\\n204", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0011.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0012.jp2"}, "13": {"fulltext": "A FLORIDA SKETCH-BOOK.\\nIN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\nIn approaching Jacksonville by rail, the\\ntraveler rides hour after hour through seem-\\ningly endless pine barrens, otherwise known\\nas low pine-woods and flat-woods, till he\\nwearies of the sight. It would be hard, he\\nthinks, to imagine a region more unwhole-\\nsome looking and uninteresting, more pov-\\nerty-stricken and God-forsaken, in its entire\\naspect. Surely, men who would risk life in\\nbehaK of such a country deserved to win\\ntheir cause.\\nMonotonous as the flat-woods were, how-\\never, and malarious as they looked, arid\\nwastes and stretches of stagnant water flying\\npast the car window in perpetual alternation,\\nI was impatient to get into them. They\\nwere a world the like of which I had\\nnever seen and wherever I went in eastern\\nFlorida, I made it one of my earliest concerns\\nto seek them out.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0013.jp2"}, "14": {"fulltext": "2 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\nMy first impression was one of disappoint-\\nment, or perhaps I should rather say, of\\nbewilderment. In fact, I returned from my\\nfirst visit to the flat-woods under the delusion\\nthat I had not been into them at all. This\\nwas at St. Augustine, whither I had gone\\nafter a night only in Jacksonville. I looked\\nabout the quaint little city, of course, and\\nwent to the South Beach, on St. Anastasia\\nIsland then I wished to see the pine lands.\\nThey were to be found, I was told, on the\\nother side of the San Sebastian. The sun\\nwas hot (or so it seemed to a man fresh\\nfrom the rigors of a New England winter),\\nand the sand was deep but I sauntered\\nthrough New Augustine, and pushed on up\\nthe road toward Moultrie (I believe it was),\\ntill the last houses were passed and I came\\nto the edge of the pine-woods. Here, pres-\\nently, the roads began to fork in a very\\nconfusing manner. The first man I met\\na kindly cracker cautioned me against\\ngetting lost but I had no thought of taking\\nthe slightest risk of that kind. I was not\\ngoing to ex plore the woods, but only to enter\\nthem, sit down, look about me, and listen.\\nThe difficulty was to get into them. As I", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0014.jp2"}, "15": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT- WOODS.\\nadvanced, they receded. It was still only\\nthe beginning of a wood the trees far apart\\nand comparatively small, the ground covered\\nthickly with saw palmetto, interspersed here\\nand there with patches of brown grass or\\nsedge.\\nIn many places the roads were under\\nwater, and as I seemed to be making little\\nprogress, I pretty soon sat down in a pleas-\\nantly shaded spot. Wagons came along at\\nintervals, all going toward the city, most of\\nthem with loads of wood ridiculously small\\nloads, such as a Yankee boy would put upon\\na wheelbarrow. A fine day, said I to the\\ndriver of such a cart. Yes, sir, he an-\\nswered, it s a pretti/ day. He spoke with\\nan emphasis which seemed to imply that he\\naccepted my remark as well meant, but\\nhardly adequate to the occasion. Perhaps,\\nif the day had been a few shades brighter,\\nhe would have called it handsome, or even\\ngood looking. Expressions of this kind,\\nhowever, are matters of local or individual\\ntaste, and as such are not to be disputed\\nabout. Thus, a man stopped me in Talla-\\nhassee to inquire what time it was. I told\\nhim, and he said, Ah, a little sooner than", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0015.jp2"}, "16": {"fulltext": "4 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\nI thought. And why not sooner as\\nwell as earlier But when, on the same\\nroad, two white girls in an ox-cart hailed me\\nwith the question, What time t is? I\\nthought the interrogative idiom a little queer\\nalmost as queer, shall we say, as How do\\nyou do may have sounded to the first\\nman who heard it, if the reader is able\\nto imagine such a person.\\nMeanwhile, let the morning be fine or\\npretty, it was all one to the birds. The\\nwoods were vocal with the cackling of robins,\\nthe warble of bluebirds, and the trills of\\npine warblers. Flickers were shouting or\\nlaughing, if one pleased to hear it so with\\ntrue flickerish prolixity, and a single downy\\nwoodpecker called sharply again and again.\\nA mocking-bird near me (there is always a\\nmocking-bird near you, in Florida) added\\nhis voice for a time, but soon relapsed into\\nsilence. The fact was characteristic for,\\nwherever I went, I found it true that the\\nmocker grew less musical as the place grew\\nwilder. By instinct he is a public performer\\nhe demands an audience and it is only in\\ncities, like St. Augustine and Tallahassee,\\nthat he is heard at his freest and best. A", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0016.jp2"}, "17": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 5\\nloggerhead shrike now close at my elbow,\\nnow farther away was practicing his ex-\\ntensive vocabulary with perseverance, if not\\nwith enthusiasm. Like his relative the\\ngreat northern, though perhaps in a less\\ndegree, the loggerhead is commonly at an\\nextreme, either loquacious or dimib as if he\\ncould not let his moderation be known unto\\nany man. Sometimes I fancied him pos-\\nsessed with an insane ambition to match the\\nmocking-bird in song as well as in personal\\nappearance. If so, it is not surprising that\\nhe should be subject to fits of discourage-\\nment and silence. Aiming at the sun,\\nthough a good and virtuous exercise, as we\\nhave all heard, is apt to prove dispiriting to\\nsensible marksmen. Crows (fish crows, in\\nall probability, but at the time I did not\\nknow it) uttered strange, hoarse, flat-sound-\\ning caws. Every bird of them must have\\nbeen born without a palate, it seemed to me.\\nWhite-eyed chewinks were at home in the\\ndense palmetto scrub, whence they announced\\nthemselves unmistakably by sharp whistles.\\nNow and then one of them mounted a leaf,\\nand allowed me to see his pale yellow iris.\\nExcept for this mark, recognizable almost as", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0017.jp2"}, "18": {"fulltext": "6 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\nfar as the bird could be distinguished at all,\\nlie looked exactly like our common New\\nEngland towhee. Somewhere behind me\\nwas a king-fisher s rattle, and from a savanna\\nin the same direction came the songs of\\nmeadow larks familiar, but with something\\nunfamiliar about them at the same time,\\nunless my ears deceived me.\\nMore interesting than any of the birds yet\\nnamed, because more strictly characteristic\\nof the place, as well as more strictly new to\\nme, were the brown-headed nuthatches. I\\nwas on the watch for them they were one\\nof the three novelties which I knew were to\\nbe found in the pine lands, and nowhere else,\\nthe other two being the red-cockaded\\nwoodpecker and the pine-wood sparrow and\\nbeing thus on the lookout, I did not expect\\nto be taken by surprise, if such a paradox\\n(it is nothing worse) may be allowed to pass.\\nBut when I heard them twittering in the\\ndistance, as I did almost immediately, I had\\nno suspicion of what they were. The voice\\nhad nothing of that nasal quality, that Yan-\\nkee twang, as some people would call it,\\nwhich I had always associated with the nut-\\nhatch family. On the contrary, it was de-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0018.jp2"}, "19": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 7\\ncidedly finchlike, so much so that some of\\nthe notes, taken by themselves, woukl have\\nbeen ascribed without hesitation to the gold-\\nfinch or the pine finch, had I heard them in\\nNew England and even as things were, I\\nwas more than once deceived for the moment.\\nAs for the birds themselves, they were evi-\\ndently a cheerful and thrifty race, much\\nmore numerous than the red-cockaded wood-\\npeckers, and much less easily overlooked\\nthan the pine-wood sparrows. I seldom\\nentered the flat-woods anywhere without\\nfinding them. They seek their food largely\\nabout the leafy ends of the pine branches,\\nresembling the Canadian nuthatches in this\\nrespect, so that it is only on rare occasions\\nthat one sees them creeping about the trunks\\nor larger limbs. Unlike their two Northern\\nrelatives, they are eminently social, often\\ntraveling in small flocks, even in the breed-\\ning season, and keeping up an almost inces-\\nsant chorus of shrill twitters as they flit\\nhither and thither through the woods. The\\nfirst one to come near me was full of inquisi-\\ntiveness he flew back and forth past my head,\\nexactly as chickadees do in a similar mood,\\nand once seemed almost ready to alight on", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0019.jp2"}, "20": {"fulltext": "8 IN THE FLAT-WOODS,\\nmy hat. Let us have a look at this\\nstranger, he appeared to be saying. Pos-\\nsibly his nest was not far off, but I made no\\nsearch for it. Afterwards I found two nests,\\none in a low stump, and one in the trunk of\\na pine, fifteen or twenty feet from the ground.\\nBoth of them contained young ones (March\\n31 and April 2), as I knew by the continual\\ngoings-in-and-out of the fathers and mothers.\\nIn dress the brown-head is dingy, with little\\nor nothing of the neat and attractive appear-\\nance of our New England nuthatches.\\nIn this pine-wood on the road to Moidtrie\\nI found no sign of the new woodpecker or\\nthe new sparrow. Nor was I greatly disap-\\npointed. The place itself was a sufficient\\nnovelty, the place and the summer weather.\\nThe pines murmured overhead, and the pal-\\nmettos rustled aU about. Now a butterfly\\nfluttered past me, and now a dragonfly.\\nMore than one little flock of tree swallows\\nwent over the wood, and once a pair of\\nphoebes amused me by an uncommonly pretty\\nlover s quarrel. Truly it was a pleasant\\nhour. In the midst of it there came along\\na man in a cart, with a load of wood. We\\nexchanged the time of day, and I remarked", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0020.jp2"}, "21": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 9\\nupon the smallness of his load. Yes, he said\\nbut it was a pretty heavy load to drag seven\\nor eight miles over such roads. Possibly he\\nunderstood me as implying that he seemed\\nto be in rather small business, although I had\\nno such purpose, for he went on to say In\\n1861, when this beautiful war broke out be-\\ntween our countries, my father owned nig-\\ngers. We did n t have to do this. But I\\ndon t complain. If I had n t got a buUet in\\nme, I should do pretty well.\\nThen you were in the war I said.\\nOh, yes, yes, sir I was in the Confed-\\nerate service. Yes, sir, I m a Southerner\\nto the backbone. My grandfather was a\\n(I missed the patronymic), and com-\\nmanded St. Augustine.\\nThe name had a foreign sound, and the\\nman s complexion was swarthy, and in all\\nsimplicity I asked if he was a Minorcan. I\\nmight as well have touched a lighted match\\nto powder. His eyes flashed, and he came\\nround the tail of the cart, gesticulating with\\nhis stick.\\nMinorcan he broke out. Spain and\\nthe island of Minorca are two places, ain t\\nthey?", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0021.jp2"}, "22": {"fulltext": "10 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\nI admitted meekly that tliey were.\\nYou are English, ain t you he went on.\\nYou are English, Yankee born, ain t\\nyou?\\nI owned it.\\nWell, I m Spanish. That ain t Minor-\\ncan. My grandfather was a and com-\\nmanded St. Augustine. He couldn t have\\ndone that if he had been Minorcan.\\nBy this time he was quieting down a bit.\\nHis father remembered the Indian war.\\nThe son had heard him tell about it.\\nThose were dangerous times, he re-\\nmarked. You couldn t have been stand-\\ninjr out here in the woods then.\\nThere is no danger here now, is there\\nsaid I.\\nNo, no, not now. But as he drove\\nalong he turned to say that he was n t afraid\\nof any thing he was n t that kind of a man.\\nThen, with a final turn, he added, what I\\ncould not dispute, A man s life is always\\nin danger.\\nAfter he was gone, I regretted that I had\\noffered no apology for my unintentionally\\noffensive question but I was so taken by\\nsurprise, and so much interested in the man", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0022.jp2"}, "23": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 11\\nas a specimen, tliat I quite forgot my man-\\nners till it was too late. One thing I learned\\nthat it is not prudent, in these days, to judge\\na Southern man s blood, in either sense of\\nthe word, by his dress or occupation. This\\nman had brought seven or eight miles a load\\nof wood that might possibly be worth sev-\\nenty-five cents (I questioned the owner of\\nwhat looked like just such a load afterward,\\nand found his asking price half a dollar), and\\nfor clothing had on a pair of trousers and a\\nblue cotton shirt, the latter full of holes,\\nthrough which the skin was visible yet his\\nfather was a and had owned niggers.\\nA still more picturesque figure in this pro-\\ncession of wood-carters was a boy of perhaps\\nten or eleven. He rode his horse, and was\\nbarefooted and barelegged; but he had a\\ncigarette in his mouth, and to each brown\\nheel was fastened an enormous spur. Who\\nwas it that infected the world with the fool-\\nish and disastrous notion that work and play\\nare two different things And was it Em-\\nerson, or some other wise man, who said that\\na boy was the true philosopher\\nWhen it came time to think of returning\\nto St. Augustine for dinner, I appreciated", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0023.jp2"}, "24": {"fulltext": "12 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\nmy cracker s friendly warning against losing\\nmy way for though I had hardly so much\\nas entered the woods, and had taken, as I\\nthought, good heed to my steps, I was almost\\nat once in a quandary as to my road. There\\nwas no occasion for worry, with the sun\\nout, and my general course perfectly plain\\nbut here was a fork in the road, and whether\\nto bear to the left or to the right was a sim-\\nple matter of guess-work. I made the best\\nguess I could, and guessed wrong, as was\\napparent after a while, when I found the\\nroad under deep water for several rods. I\\nobjected to wading, and there was no ready\\nway of going round, since the oak and pal-\\nmetto scrub crowded close up to the road-\\nside, and just here was all but impenetrable.\\nWhat was still more conclusive, the road\\nwas the wrong one, as the inundation proved,\\nand, for aught I could tell, might carry me\\nfar out of my course. I turned back, there-\\nfore, under the midday sun, and by good\\nluck a second attempt brought me out of the\\nwoods very near where I had entered them.\\nI visited this particular piece of country\\nbut once afterward, having in the mean\\ntime discovered a better place of the same", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0024.jp2"}, "25": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 13\\nsort along the railroad, in the direction of\\nPalatka. There, on a Sunday morning, I\\nheard my first pine-wood sparrow. Time\\nand tune could hardly have been in truer\\naccord. The hour was of the quietest, the\\nstrain was of the simplest, and the bird sang\\nas if he were dreaming. For a long time I\\nlet him go on without attempting to make\\ncertain who he was. He seemed to be rather\\nfar off if I waited his pleasure, he woidd\\nperhaps move toward me if I disturbed him,\\nhe would probably become silent. So I sat\\non the end of a sleeper and listened. It was\\nnot great music. It made me think of the\\nswamp sparrow and the swamp sparrow is\\nfar from being a great singer. A single pro-\\nlonged, drawling note (in that respect un-\\nlike the swamp sparrow, of course), followed\\nby a succession of softer and sweeter ones,\\nthat was all, when I came to analyze it but\\nthat is no fair description of what I heard.\\nThe quality of the song is not there and it\\nwas the quality, the feeling, the soul of it,\\nif I may say what I mean, that made it, in\\nthe true sense of a much-abused word,\\ncharming.\\nThere could be little doubt that the bird was", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0025.jp2"}, "26": {"fulltext": "14 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\na pine-wood sparrow but such things are not\\nto be taken for granted. Once or twice, in-\\ndeed, the thought of some unfamiliar warbler\\nhad crossed my mind. At last, therefore, as\\nthe singer still kept out of sight, I leaped the\\nditch and pushed into the scrub. Happily I\\nhad not far to go he had been much nearer\\nthan I thought. A small bird flew up before\\nme, and dropped almost immediately into a\\nclump of palmetto. I edged toward the spot\\nand waited. Then the song began again,\\nthis time directly in front of me, but still far-\\naway-sounding and dreamy. I find that last\\nword in my hasty note penciled at the time,\\nand can think of no other that expresses the\\neffect half so well. I looked and looked, and\\nall at once there sat the bird on a palmetto\\nleaf. Once again he sang, putting up his\\nhead. Then he dropped out of sight, and I\\nheard nothing more. I had seen only his\\nhead and neck, enough to show him a spar-\\nrow, and almost of necessity the pine-wood\\nsparrow. No other strange member of the\\nfinch family was to be looked for in such a\\nplace.\\nOn further acquaintance, let me say at\\nonce, Puccea cestivalis proved to be a more", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0026.jp2"}, "27": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 15\\nversatile singer than tlie performances of my\\nfirst bird would have led me to suppose.\\nHe varies his tune freely, but always within\\na pretty narrow compass as is true, also, of\\nthe field sparrow, with whom, as I soon came\\nto feel, he has not a little in common. It is\\nin musical form only that he suggests the\\nswamp sparrow. In tone and spirit, in the\\nqualities of sweetness and expressiveness,\\nhe is nearly akin to Sjnzella pusilla. One\\ndoes for the Southern pine barren what the\\nother does for the Northern berry pasture.\\nAnd this is high praise for though in New\\nEngland we have many singers more brilliant\\nthan the field sparrow, we have none that\\nare sweeter, and few that in the long run\\ngive more pleasure to sensitive hearers.\\nI found the pine-wood sparrow afterward\\nin New Smyrna, Port Orange, Sanford, and\\nTallahassee. So far as I could tell, it was\\nalways the same bird but I shot no speci-\\nmens, and speak with no authority.^ Living\\n1 Two races of the pine-wood sparrow are reeog nized\\nby omitholog-ists, Puccea cestivalis and P. cestivalis bach-\\nmanii, and both of them have been found in Florida but,\\nif I understand the matter right, Puccea cestivalis is the\\ncommon and typical Florida bird.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0027.jp2"}, "28": {"fulltext": "16 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\nalways in tlie pine lands, and haunting the\\ndense undergrowth, it is heard a hundred\\ntimes where it is seen once, a point greatly\\nin favor of its effectiveness as a musician.\\nMr. Brewster speaks of it as singing always\\nfrom an elevated perch, while the birds that\\nI saw in the act of song, a very limited num-\\nber, were invariably perched low. One that\\nI watched in New Smyrna (one of a small\\nchorus, the others being invisible) sang for\\na quarter of an hour from a stake or stump\\nwhich rose perhaps a foot above the dwarf\\npalmetto. It was the same song that I had\\nheard in St. Augustine only the birds here\\nwere in a livelier mood, and sang out instead\\nof sotto voce. The long introductory note\\nsounded sometimes as if it were indrawn, and\\noften, if not always, had a considerable burr\\nin it. Once in a while the strain was caught\\nup at the end and sung over again, after the\\nmanner of the field sparrow, one of that\\nbird s prettiest tricks. At other times the\\nsong was delivered with full voice, and then\\nrepeated almost under the singer s breath.\\nThis was done beautifully in the Port Orange\\nflat-woods, the bird being almost at my feet.\\nI had seen him a moment before, and saw him", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0028.jp2"}, "29": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 17\\nagain half a minute later, but at that in-\\nstant he was out of sight in the scrub, and\\nseemingly on the ground. This feature of\\nthe song, one of its chief merits and its most\\nstriking peculiarity, is well described by Mr.\\nBrewster. Now, he says, it has a full,\\nbell-like ring that seems to fill the air around\\nnext it is soft and low and inexpressibly ten-\\nder now it is clear again, but so modidated\\nthat the sound seems to come from a great\\ndistance.\\nNot many other birds, I think (I cannot\\nrecall any), habitually vary their song in this\\nmanner. Other birds sing almost inaudibly\\nat times, especially in the autumnal season.\\nEven the brown thrasher, whose ordinary\\nperformance is so full-voiced, not to say bois-\\nterous, will sometimes soliloquize, or seem to\\nsoliloquize, in the faintest of undertones.\\nThe formless autumnal warble of the song\\nsparrow is familiar to every one. And in\\nthis connection I remember, and am not\\nlikely ever to forget, a winter wren who\\nfavored me with what I thought the most\\nbewitching bit of vocalism to which I had\\n1 Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, vol. vii.\\np. 98.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0029.jp2"}, "30": {"fulltext": "18 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\never listened. He was in tlie bushes close\\nat my side, in the Franconia Notch, and de-\\nlivered his whole song, with all its customary\\nlength, intricacy, and speed, in a tone a\\nwhisper, I may almost say that ran along\\nthe very edge of silence. The unexpected\\nproximity of a stranger may have had some-\\nthing to do with his conduct, as it often\\nappears to have with the thrasher s but,\\nhowever that may be, the cases are not\\nparallel with that of the j^ine-wood sparrow,\\ninasmuch as the latter bird not merely sings\\nunder his breath on special occasions, whether\\non account of the nearness of a listener or\\nfor any other reason, but in his ordinary sing-\\ning uses louder and softer tones interchange-\\nably, almost exactly as human singers and\\nplayers do as if, in the practice of his art,\\nhe had learned to appreciate, consciously or\\nunconsciously (and practice naturally goes\\nbefore theory), the expressive value of what\\nI believe is called musical dynamics.\\nI spent many half-days in the pine lands\\n(how gladly now would I spend another\\nbut never got far into them. Into their\\ndepths, my pen was on the point of making\\nme say but that would have been a false", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0030.jp2"}, "31": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 19\\nnote. The flat-woods have no depths.\\nWhether I followed the railway, in many-\\nrespects a pretty satisfactory method, or\\nsome roundabout, aimless carriage road, a\\nmile or two was generally enough. The\\ncountry offers no temptation to pedestrian\\nfeats, nor does the imagination find its ac-\\ncount in going farther and farther. For the\\nreader is not to think of the flat-woods as in\\nthe least resembling a Northern forest, which\\nat every turn opens before the visitor and\\nbeckons him forward. Beyond and behind,\\nand on either side, the pine-woods are ever\\nthe same. It is this monotony, by the bye,\\nthis utter absence of landmarks, that makes\\nit so unsafe for the stranger to wander far\\nfrom the beaten track. The sand is deep,\\nthe sun is hot one place is as good as an-\\nother. What use, then, to tire yourself?\\nAnd so, unless the traveler is going some-\\nwhere, as I seldom was, he is continually\\nstopping by the way. Now a shady spot\\nentices him to put down his umbrella, for\\nthere is a shady spot, here and there, even\\nin a Florida pine-Wood or blossoms are to\\nbe plucked or a butterfly, some gorgeous\\nand nameless creature, brightens the wood", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0031.jp2"}, "32": {"fulltext": "20 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\nas it j)asses or a bird is singing or an\\neagle is soaring far overhead, and must be\\nwatched out of sight or a buzzard, with\\nupturned wings, floats suspiciously near the\\nwanderer, as if with sinister intent (buzzard\\nshadows are a regular feature of the flat-\\nwood landscape, just as cloud shadows are\\nin a mountainous country) or a snake lies\\nstretched out in the sun, a whip snake,\\nperhaps, that frightens the unwary stroller\\nby the amazing swiftness with which it runs\\naway from him or some strange invisible\\ninsect is making uncanny noises in the\\nunderbrush. One of my recollections of\\nthe railway woods at St. Augustine is of\\na cricket, or locust, or something else, I\\nnever saw it, that amused me often with\\na formless rattling or drumming sound. I\\ncould think of nothing but a boy s first les-\\nson upon the bones, the rhythm of the beats\\nwas so comically mistimed and bungled.\\nOne fine morning, it was the 18th of\\nFebruary, I had gone down the railroad\\na little farther than usual, attracted by the\\nencouraging appearance of a swampy patch\\nof rather large deciduous trees. Some of\\nthem, I remember, were red maples, already", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0032.jp2"}, "33": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 21\\nfull of handsome, higli-colored fruit. As I\\ndrew near, I heard indistinctly from among\\nthem what might have been the song of a\\nblack-throated green warbler, a bird that\\nwould have made a valued addition to my\\nFlorida list, especially at that early date.^\\nNo sooner was the song repeated, however,\\nthan I saw that I had beep, deceived it was\\nsomething I had never heard before. But\\nit certainly had much of the black-throated\\ngreen s quality, and without question was\\nthe note of a warbler of some kind. What\\na shame if the bird should give me the slip\\nMeanwhile, it kept on singing at brief inter-\\nvals, and was not so far away but that, with\\nmy glass, I should be well able to make it\\nout, if only I could once get my eyes on it.\\nThat was the difficulty. Something stirred\\namong the branches. Yes, a yellow-throated\\nwarbler (^Dendroica dominica)^ a bird of\\nwhich I had seen my first specimens, all\\nof them silent, during the last eight days.\\nProbably he was the singer. I hoped so, at\\nany rate. That would be an ideal case of a\\n1 As it was, I did not find Dendroica virens in Florida.\\nOn my way home, in Atlanta, April 20, 1 saw one bird in\\na dooryard shade-tree.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0033.jp2"}, "34": {"fulltext": "22 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\nbeautiful bird with a song to match. I kept\\nhim under my glass, and presently the strain\\nwas repeated, but not by him. Then it\\nceased, and I was none the wiser. Perhaps\\nI never should be. It was indeed a shame.\\nSuch a taking song so simple, and yet so\\npretty, and so thoroughly distinctive. I\\nwrote it down thus tee-hoi^ tee-koo^ two\\ncouplets, the first syllable of each a little\\nemphasized and dwelt upon, not drawled,\\nand a little higher in pitch than its fellow.\\nPerhaps it might be expressed thus\\nf\\n:^e3\\nI cannot profess to be sure of that, however,\\nnor have I unqualified confidence in the\\nadequacy of musical notation, no matter\\nhow skillfully employed, to convey a truthful\\nidea of any bird song.\\nThe affair remained a mystery till, in\\nDaytona, nine days afterward, the same\\nnotes were heard again, this time in lower\\ntrees that did not stand in deep water. Then\\nit transpired that my mysterious warbler was\\nnot a warbler at all, but the Carolina chicka-\\ndee. That was an outcome quite unexpected,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0034.jp2"}, "35": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 23\\nalthougli I now remembered that chickadees\\nwere in or near the St. Augustine swamp\\nand what was more to the purpose, I could\\nnow discern some relationship between the\\ntee-koi^ tee-hoo (or, as I now wrote it, see-tol^\\nsee-too^, and the familiar so-called phcebe\\nwhistle of the black-capped titmouse. The\\nSouthern bird, I am bound to acknowledge,\\nis much the more accomplished singer of the\\ntwo. Sometimes he repeats the second dis-\\nsyllable, making six notes in all. At other\\ntimes he breaks out with a characteristic\\nvolley of fine chickadee notes, and runs with-\\nout a break into the see-toi, see-too, with a\\nhighly pleasing effect. Then if, on the top\\nof this, he doubles the see-too, we have a really\\nprolonged and elaborate musical effort, quite\\nputting into the shade our New England\\nbird s hea7% hear me, sweet and welcome as\\nthat always is.\\nThe Southern chickadee, it should be said,\\nis not to be distinguished from its Northern\\nrelative in the bush, I mean except by\\nits notes. It is slightly smaller, like South-\\nern birds in general, but is practically iden-\\ntical in plumage. Apart from its song, what\\nmost impressed me was its scarcity. It was", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0035.jp2"}, "36": {"fulltext": "24 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\nfound, sooner or later, wherever I went, I be-\\nlieve, but always in surprisingly small num-\\nbers, and I saw only one nest. That was\\nbuilt in a roadside china-tree in Tallahassee,\\nand contained young ones (April 17), as was\\nclear from the conduct of its owners.\\nIt must not be supj)osed that I left St.\\nAugustine without another search for my\\nunknown warbler. The very next morn-\\ning found me again at the swamj), where for\\nat least an hour I sat and listened. I heard\\nno tee-koi, tee-7wo, but was rewarded twice\\nover for my walk. In the first place, before\\nreaching the swamp, I found the third of my\\nflat-wood novelties, the red-cockaded wood-\\npecker. As had happened with the nuthatch\\nand the sparrow, I heard him before seeing\\nhim first some notes, which by themselves\\nwould hardly have suggested a woodpecker\\norigin, and then a noise of hammering.\\nTaken together, the two sounds left little\\ndoubt as to their author and presently I\\nsaw him, or rather them, for there were\\ntwo birds. I learned nothing about them,\\neither then or afterwards (I saw perhaps\\neight individuals during my ten weeks\\nvisit), but it was worth something barely to", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0036.jp2"}, "37": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 25\\nsee and hear them. Henceforth Dryohates\\nhorealis is a bird, and not merely a name.\\nThis, as I have said, was among the\\npines, before reaching the swamp. In the\\nswamp itself, there suddenly appeared from\\nsomewhere, as if by magic (a dramatic en-\\ntrance is not without its value, even out-of-\\ndoors), a less novel but far more impressive\\nfigure, a pileated woodpecker a truly sj^len-\\ndid fellow, with the scarlet cheek-patches.\\nWhen I caught sight of him, he stood on one\\nof the upper branches of a tall j)ine, look-\\ning wonderfully alert and wide-awake now\\nstretching out his scrawny neck, and now\\ndrawing it in again, his long crest all the\\nwhile erect and flaming. After a little he\\ndropped into the underbrush, out of which\\ncame at intervals a succession of raps. I\\nwould have given something to have had\\nhim under my glass just then, for I had long\\nfelt curious to see him in the act of chiseling\\nout those big, oblong, clean-cut, sharp-angled\\npeck-holes which, close to the base of the\\ntree, make so common and notable a feature\\nof Vermont and New Hampshire forests but,\\nthough I did my best, I could not find him,\\ntill all at once he came up again and took to", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0037.jp2"}, "38": {"fulltext": "26 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\na tall pine, tlie tallest in the wood, where\\nhe pranced about for a while, striking sundry\\npicturesque but seemingly aimless attitudes,\\nand then made off for good. All in all, he\\nwas a wild-looking bird, if ever I saw one.\\nI was no sooner in St. Augustine, of course,\\nthan my eyes were open for wild flowers.\\nPerhaps I felt a little disappointed. Cer-\\ntainly the land was not ablaze with color.\\nIn the grass about the old fort there was\\nplenty of the yellow oxalis and the creeping\\nwhite houstonia and from a crevice in the\\nwall, out of reach, leaned a stalk of golden-\\nrod in full bloom. The reader may smile,\\nif he will, but this last flower was a surprise\\nand a stumbling-block. A vernal goldenrod\\nDr. Chapman s Flora made no mention of\\nsuch an anomaly. Sow thistles, too, looked\\nstrangely anachronistic. I had never thought\\nof them as harbingers of springtime. The\\ntruth did not break upon me till a week\\nor so afterward. Then, on the way to the\\nbeach at Daytona, where the pleasant penin-\\nsula road traverses a thick forest of short-\\nleaved pines, every tree of which leans heav-\\nily inland at the same angle the leaning\\npines of Daytona, I always said to myself,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0038.jp2"}, "39": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 27\\nas I passed), I came upon some white beg-\\ngar s-ticks, like daisies and as I stopped\\nto see what they were, I noticed the presence\\nof ripe seeds. The plant had been in flower\\na longtime. And then I laughed at my own\\ndullness. It fairly deserved a medal. As\\nif, even in Massachusetts, autumnal flowers\\nthe groundsel, at least did not some-\\ntimes persist in blossoming far into the win-\\nter A day or two after this, I saw a mullein\\nstalk still presenting arms, as it were (the\\nmullein always looks the soldier to me), with\\none bright flower. If I had found that in\\nSt. Augustine, I flatter myself I should have\\nbeen less easily fooled.\\nThere were no such last-year relics in the\\nflat-woods, so far as I remember, but spring\\nblossoms were beginning to make their\\nappearance there by the middle of February,\\nparticidarly along the railroad, violets in\\nabundance Viola cucuUata dwsiri orange-\\ncolored dandelions (^Krigia), the Judas-\\ntree, or redbud, St. Peter s-wort, blackberry,\\nthe yellow star-flower {Hypoxis jiincea) and\\nbutterworts. I recall, too, in a swampy spot,\\na fine fresh tuft of the golden club, with its\\ngorgeous yellow spadix, a plant that I had", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0039.jp2"}, "40": {"fulltext": "28 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\nnever seen in bloom before, although I had\\nonce admired a Cape Cod hollow full of\\nthe rank tropical leaves. St. Peter s-wort,\\na low shrub, thrives everywhere in the pine\\nbarrens, and, without being especially attrac-\\ntive, its rather sparse yellow flowers not\\nunlike the St. John s-wort do something to\\nenliven the general waste. The butterworts\\nare beauties, and true children of the spring.\\nI picked my first ones, which by chance were\\nof the smaller purple species (^Pinguicula\\npumila)^ on my way down from the woods,\\non a moist bank. At that moment a white\\nman came up the road. What do you call\\nthis flower said I. Valentine s flower,\\nhe answered at once. Ah, said I, be-\\ncause it is in bloom on St. Valentine s Day,\\nI suppose No, sir, he said. Do you\\nspeak Spanish I had to shake my head.\\nBecause I could explain it better in Span-\\nish, he continued, as if by way of apology\\nbut he went on in perfectly good English\\nIf you put one of them under your pillow,\\nand think of some one you would like very\\nmuch to see, some one who has been dead\\na long time, you will be likely to dream of\\nhim. It is a very pretty flower, he added.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0040.jp2"}, "41": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 29\\nAnd so it is hardly prettier, however, to my\\nthinking, than the blossoms of the early\\ncreeping blackberry (^Ruhiistrimalis). With\\nthem I fairly fell in love true white roses,\\nI called them, each with its central ring of\\ndark purplish stamens as beautiful as the\\ncloudberry, which once, ten years before, I\\nhad found on the summit of Mount Clinton,\\nin New Hampshire, and refused to believe\\na Huhus, though Dr. Gray s key led me to\\nthat genus again and again. There is some-\\nthing in a name, say what you will.\\nSome weeks later, and a little farther\\nsouth, in the flat-woods behind New\\nSmyrna, I saw other flowers, but never\\nanything of that tropical exuberance at which\\nthe average Northern tourist expects to find\\nhimself staring. Boggy places were full of\\nblue iris (the common /ris versicolor of New\\nEngland, but of ranker growth), and here\\nand there a pool was yellow with bladder-\\nwort. I was taken also with the larger\\nand taller (yellow) butterwort, which I\\nused never to see as I went through the\\nwoods in the morning, but was sure to find\\nstanding in the tall dry grass along the\\nborder of the sandy road, here one and", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0041.jp2"}, "42": {"fulltext": "30 IN TUE FLAT-WOODS.\\nthere one, on my return at noon. In simi-\\nlar places grew a yellow daisy (^Lepto-\\npoda^, a single big head, of a deep color,\\nat the top of a leafless stem. It seemed to\\nbe one of the most abundant of Florida\\nspring flowers, but I could not learn that it\\nwent by any distinctive vernacular name.\\nBeside the railway track were blue-eyed\\ngrass and pipewort, and a dainty blue lobelia\\n(iy. Feayana)^ with once in a while an ex-\\ntremely pretty coreopsis, having a purple\\ncentre, and scarcely to be distinguished from\\none that is common in gardens. No doubt\\nthe advancing season brings an increasing\\nwealth of such beauty to the flat-woods.\\nNo doubt, too, I missed the larger half of\\nwhat might have been found even at the\\ntime of my visit; for I made no pretense\\nof doing any real botanical work, having\\nneither the time nor the equipment. The\\nbirds kept me busy, for the most part, when\\nthe country itseK did not absorb my at-\\ntention.\\nMore interesting, and a thousand times\\nmore memorable, than any flower or bird\\nwas the pine barren itself. I have given no\\ntrue idea of it, I am perfectly aware open,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0042.jp2"}, "43": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 31\\nparklike, flooded with sunshine, level as a\\nfloor. What heartache, Lanier breaks\\nout, poor exile, dying of consumption,\\nwhat heartache Ne er a hill A dreary\\ncountry to ride through, hour after hour an\\nimpossible country to live in, but most\\npleasant for a half-day winter stroll. Not-\\nwithstanding I never went far into it, as I\\nhave already said, I had always a profound\\nsensation of remoteness as if I might go\\non forever, and be no farther away.\\nYet even here I had more than one re-\\nminder that the world is a small place. I\\nmet a burly negro in a cart, and fell into\\ntalk with him about the Florida climate, an\\nendless topic, out of which a cynical traveler\\nmay easily extract almost endless amuse-\\nment. How about the summers here I\\ninquired. Were they really as paradisaical\\n(I did not use that word) as some reports\\nwould lead one to sup230se The man smiled,\\nas if he had heard something like that before.\\nHe did not think the Florida summer a dream\\nof delight, even on the east coast. I m\\ntellin you the truth, sah the mosquiters an\\nsandflies is awful. Was he born here? I\\nNo; he came from B Ala-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0043.jp2"}, "44": {"fulltext": "32 IN THE FLAT-WOODS.\\nbama. Everybody in eastern Florida came\\nfrom somewliere, as well as I could make out.\\nOil, from B said I. Did you know\\nMr. W of the Iron Works?\\nHe smiled again. Yes, sali I used to\\nwork for him. He s a nice man. He spoke\\nthe truth that time beyond a peradventure.\\nHe was healthier here than in the other\\nplace, he thought, and wages were higher\\nbut he liked the other place better for\\npleasure. It was an odd coincidence, was\\nit not, that I should meet in this solitude a\\nman who knew the only citizen of Alabama\\nwith whom I was ever acquainted.\\nAt another time I fell in with an oldish\\ncolored man, who, like myself, had taken to\\nthe woods for a quiet Sunday stroll. He was\\nfrom Mississippi, he told me. Oh, yes, he\\nremembered the war he was a slave, twenty-\\none years old, when it broke out. To his\\nmind, the present generation of niggers\\nwere a pretty poor lot, for all their edica-\\ntion. He had seen them crowding folks off\\nthe sidewalk, and puffing smoke in their\\nfaces. All of which was nothing new I had\\nfound that story more or less common among\\nnegroes of his age. He did n t believe much", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0044.jp2"}, "45": {"fulltext": "IN THE FLAT-WOODS, 33\\nin edication but wlien I asked if he\\nthought the blacks were better off in slavery\\ntimes, he answered quickly, I d rather be\\na free man, had. He was n t married\\nhe had plenty to do to take care of himself.\\nWe separated, he going one way and I the\\nother; but he turned to ask, with much\\nseriousness (the reader must remember that\\nthis was only three months after a national\\nelection), Do you think they U get free\\ntrade Truly, said I to myself, the\\nworld is too much with us. Even in the\\nflat-woods there is no escaping the tariff ques-\\ntion. But I answered, in what was meant\\nto be a reassuring tone, Not yet awhile.\\nSome time. I hope not, he said, as if\\nliberty to buy and sell would be a dreadful\\nblow to a man living in a shanty in a Florida\\npine barren! He was taking the matter\\nrather too much to heart, perhaps; but\\nsurely it was encouraging to see such a man\\ninterested in broad economical questions, and\\nI realized as never before the truth of what\\nthe newspapers so continually tell us, that\\npolitical campaigns are educational.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0045.jp2"}, "46": {"fulltext": "BESIDE THE MARSH.\\nI AM sitting u23on the upland bank of a\\nnarrow winding creek. Before me is a sea\\nof grass, brown and green of many shades.\\nTo the north the marsh is bounded by live-\\noak woods, a line with numberless inden-\\ntations, beyond which runs the Matanzas\\nRiver, as I know by the passing and repass-\\ning of sails behind the trees. Eastward are\\nsand-hills, dazzling white in the sun, with a\\nragged green fringe along their tops. Then\\ncomes a stretch of the open sea, and then,\\nmore to the south, St. Anastasia Island, with\\nits tall black-and-white lighthouse and the\\ncluster of lower buildings at its base. Small\\nsailboats, and now and then a tiny steamer,\\npass up and down the river to and from St.\\nAugustine.\\nA delicious south wind is blowing (it is\\nthe 15th of February), and I sit in the shade\\nof a cedar-tree and enjoy the air and the\\nscene. A contrast, this, to the frozen world\\nI was living in, less than a week ago.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0046.jp2"}, "47": {"fulltext": "BESIDE THE MARSH. 35\\nAs I approached the creek, a single spotted\\nsandpiper was teetering along the edge of\\nthe water, and the next moment a big blue\\nheron rose just beyond him and went flap-\\nping away to the middle of the marsh. Now,\\nan hour afterward, he is still standing there,\\ntowering above the tall grass. Once when I\\nturned that way I saw, as I thought, a stake,\\nand then something moved upon it, a bird\\nof some kind. And what an enormous beak\\nI raised my field-glass. It was the heron.\\nHis body was the post, and his head was the\\nbird. Meanwhile, the sandpiper has stolen\\naway, I know not when or where. He must\\nhave omitted the tweet^ tioeet., with which\\nordinarily he signalizes his flight. He is the\\nfirst of his kind that I have seen during my\\nbrief stay in these parts.\\nNow a multitude of crows pass over fish\\ncrows, I think they must be, from their small\\nsize and their strange, ridiculous voices. And\\nnow a second great blue heron comes in sight,\\nand keeps on over the marsh and over the\\nlive-oak wood, on his way to the San Sebas-\\ntian marshes, or some point still more remote.\\nA fine show he makes, with his wide expanse\\nof wing, and his feet drawn up and standing", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0047.jp2"}, "48": {"fulltext": "36 BESIDE THE MARSH,\\nout behind him. Next a marsh hawk in\\nbrown plumage comes skimming over the\\ngrass. This way and that he swerves in ever\\ngraceful lines. For one to whom ease and\\ngrace come by nature, even the chase of\\nmeadow mice is an act of beauty, while an-\\nother goes awkwardly though in pursuit of a\\ngoddess.\\nSeveral times I have noticed a kingfisher\\nhovering above the grass (so it looks, but no\\ndoubt he is over an arm of the creek), strik-\\ning the air with quick strokes, and keeping\\nhis head* pointed downward, after the manner\\nof a tern. Then he disappeared while I was\\nlooking at something else. Now I remark\\nhim sitting motionless upon the top of a post\\nin the midst of the marsh.\\nA third blue heron appears, and he too\\nflies over without stopping. Number One\\nstill keeps his place through the glass I can\\nsee him dressing his feathers with his clumsy\\nbeak. The lively strain of a white-eyed vireo,\\npertest of songsters, comes to me from some-\\nwhere on my right, and the soft chipping of\\nmyrtle warblers is all but incessant. I look\\nup from my paper to see a turkey buzzard\\nsailing majestically northward. I watch him", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0048.jp2"}, "49": {"fulltext": "BESIDE THE MABSH. 37\\ntill lie fades in the distance. Not once does\\nhe flap his wings, but sails and sails, going\\nwith the wind, yet turning again and again\\nto rise against it, helping himself thus to\\nits adverse, uplifting pressure in the place of\\nwing-strokes, perhaps, and passing onward\\nall the while in beautiful circles. He, too,\\nscavenger though he is, has a genius for be-\\ning graceful. One might almost be willing\\nto be a buzzard, to fly like that\\nThe kingfisher and the heron are still at\\ntheir posts. An exquisite yellow butterfly,\\nof a sort strange to my Yankee eyes, flits\\npast, followed by a red achniral. The marsh\\nhawk is on the wing again, and while look-\\ning at him I descry a second hawk, too far\\naway to be made out. Now the air behind\\nme is dark with crows, a hundred or two,\\nat least, circling over the low cedars. Some\\nmotive they have for all their clamor, but it\\npasses my owlish wisdom to guess what it\\ncan be. A fourth blue heron appears, and\\ndrops into the grass out of sight.\\nBetween my feet is a single blossom of the\\nyellow oxalis, the only flower to be seen and\\nvery pretty it is, each petal with an orange\\nspot at the base.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0049.jp2"}, "50": {"fulltext": "38 BESIDE THE MARSH.\\nAnotlier buzzard, another marsh hawk,\\nanother yellow butterfly, and then a smaller\\none, darker, almost orange. It passes too\\nquicldy over the creek and away. The marsh\\nhawk comes nearer, and I see the strong yel-\\nlow tinge of his plumage, especially under-\\nneath. He will grow handsomer as he grows\\nolder. A pity the same could not be true of\\nmen. Behind me are sharp cries of titlarks.\\nFrom the direction of the river come frequent\\nreports of guns. Somebody is doing his best\\nto be happy All at once I prick uj) my ears.\\nFrom the grass just across the creek rises the\\nbrief, hurried song of a long-billed marsh\\nwren. So he is in Florida, is he Already\\nI have heard confused noises which I feel\\nsure are the work of rails of some kind. No\\ndoubt there is abundant life concealed in\\nthose acres on acres of close grass.\\nThe heron and the kingfisher are still quiet.\\nTheir morning hunt was successful, and for\\nto-day Fate cannot harm them. A buzzard,\\nwith nervous, rustling beats, goes directly\\nabove the low cedar under which I am rest-\\ning.\\nAt last, after a siesta of two hours, the\\nheron has changed his place. I looked up", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0050.jp2"}, "51": {"fulltext": "BESIDE THE MARSH. 39\\njust in season to see him sweeping over the\\ngrass, into which he dropped the next instant.\\nThe tide is falling. The distant sand-hills\\nare winking in the heat, but the breeze is\\ndeliciously cool, the very perfection of tem-\\nperature, if a man is to sit still in the sliade.\\nIt is eleven o clock. I have a mile to go in\\nthe hot sun, and turn away. But first I sweep\\nthe line once more with my glass. Yonder\\nto the south are two more blue herons stand-\\ning in the grass. Perhaps there are more\\nstill. I sweep the line. Yes, far, far away\\nI can see four heads in a row. Heads and\\nnecks rise above the grass. But so far away\\nAre they birds, or only posts made alive by\\nmy imagination? I look again. I believe I\\nwas deceived. They are nothing but stakes.\\nSee how in a row they stand. I smile at my-\\nself. Just then one of them moves, and an-\\nother is pidled down suddenly into the grass.\\nI smile again. Ten great blue herons, I\\nsay to myself.\\nAll this has detained me, and meantime\\nthe kingfisher has taken wing and gone noisily\\nup the creek. The marsh hawk appears once\\nmore. A killdeer s sharp, rasping note a\\nfamiliar sound in St. Augustine comes", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0051.jp2"}, "52": {"fulltext": "40 BESIDE THE MARSH.\\nfrom I know not where. A procession of\\nmore than twenty black vultures passes over\\nmy head. I can see their feet drawn up\\nunder them. My own I must use in plodding\\nhomeward.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0052.jp2"}, "53": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTONA.\\nThe first eight days of my stay in Day-\\ntona were so deliglitfiil that I felt as if I\\nhad never before seen fuie weather, even in\\nmy dreams. My east window looked across\\nthe Halifax River to the peninsula woods.\\nBeyond them was the ocean. Immediately\\nafter breakfast, therefore, I made toward the\\nnorth bridge, and in half an hour or less was\\non the beach. Beaches are much the same\\nthe world over, and there is no need to de-\\nscribe this one Silver Beach, I think I\\nheard it called except to say that it is\\nbroad, hard, and, for a pleasure-seeker s\\npurpose, endless. It is backed by low sand-\\nhills covered with impenetrable scrub,\\noak and palmetto, beyond which is a\\ndense growth of short-leaved pines. Per-\\nfect weather, a perfect beach, and no throng\\nof people here were the conditions of hap-\\npiness and here for eight days I found it.\\nThe ocean itself was a solitude. Day after\\nday not a sail was in sight. Looking up", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0053.jp2"}, "54": {"fulltext": "42 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A.\\nand clown tlie beach, I could usually see\\nsomewhere in the distance a carriage or two,\\nand as many foot passengers but I often\\nwalked a mile, or sat for half an hour, with-\\nout being within hail of any one. Never\\nwere airs more gentle or colors more exqui-\\nsite.\\nAs for birds, they were surprisingly\\nscarce, but never wanting altogether. If\\neverything else failed, a few fish-hawks\\nwere sure to be in sight. I watched them\\nat first with eager interest. Up and down\\nthe beach they went, each by himself, with\\nheads pointed downward, scanning the shal-\\nlow water. Often they stopped in their\\ncourse, and by means of laborious flappings\\nheld themselves poised over a certain spot.\\nThen, perhaps, they set their wings and shot\\ndownward clean under water. If the plunge\\nwas unsuccessful, they shook their feathers\\ndry and were ready to begin again. They\\nhad the fisherman s gift. The second, and\\neven the third attempt might fail, but no\\nmatter; it was simply a question of time\\nand patience. If the fish was caught, their\\nfirst concern seemed to be to shift their hold\\nupon it, till its head pointed to the front.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0054.jp2"}, "55": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 43\\nThat done, they shook themselves vigorously\\nand started landward, the shining white vic-\\ntim wriggling vainly in the clutch of the tal-\\nons. I took it for granted that they retired\\nwith their quarry to some secluded spot on\\nthe peninsula, till one day I happened to be\\nstanding upon a sand-hill as one passed\\noverhead. Then I perceived that he kept\\non straight across the peninsula and the\\nriver. More than once, however, I saw one\\nof them in no haste to go inland. On my\\nsecond visit, a hawk came circling about my\\nhead, carrying a fish. I was surprised at\\nthe action, but gave it no second thought,\\nnor once imagined that he was making me\\nhis protector, till suddenly a large bird\\ndropped rather awkwardly upon the sand,\\nnot far before me. He stood for an instant\\non his long, ungainly legs, and then, showing\\na white head and a white tail, rose with a\\nfish in his talons, and swept away landward\\nout of sight. Here was the osprey s para-\\nsite, the bald eagle, for which I had been\\non the watch. Meantime, the hawk too\\nhad disappeared. Whether it was his fish\\nwhich the eagle had picked up (having\\nmissed it in the air) I cannot say. I did", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0055.jp2"}, "56": {"fulltext": "44 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A.\\nnot see it fall, and knew nothing of the\\neagle s presence until lie fluttered to the\\nbeach.\\nSome days later, I saw the big thief\\nemblem of American liberty play his\\nsharp game to the finish. I was crossing\\nthe bridge, and by accident turned and\\nlooked upward. (By accident, I say, but I\\nwas always doing it.) High in the air were\\ntwo birds, one chasing the other, a fish-\\nhawk and a young eagle with dark head\\nand tail. The hawk meant to save his din-\\nner if he could. Round and round he went,\\nascending at every turn, his pursuer after\\nhim hotly. For aught I could see, he stood\\na good chance of escape, till all at once\\nanother pair of wings swept into the field\\nof my glass.\\nA third is in the race Who is the third,\\nSpeeding away swift as the eagle bird\\nIt teas an eagle, an adult, with head and\\ntail white. Only once more the osprey cir-\\ncled. The odds were against him, and he\\nlet go the fish. As it fell, the old eagle\\nswooped after it, missed it, swooped again,\\nand this time, long before it could reach\\nthe water, had it fast in his claws. Then", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0056.jp2"}, "57": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 45\\noff he went, the younger one in pursuit.\\nThey passed out of sight behind the trees\\nof an island, one close upon the other, and\\nI do not know how the controversy ended\\nbut I would have wagered a trifle on the\\nold white-head, the bird of Washington.\\nThe scene reminded me of one I had wit-\\nnessed in Georgia a fortnight before, on my\\nway south. The train stopped at a back-\\nwoods station some of the passengers gath-\\nered upon the steps of the car, and the\\nusual bevy of young negroes came alongside.\\nStand on my head for a nickel? said\\none. A passenger put his hand into his\\npocket the boy did as he had promised,\\nin no very professional style, be it said,\\nand with a grin stretched out his hand.\\nThe nickel glistened in the sun, and on\\nthe instant a second boy sprang forward,\\nsnatched it out of the sand, and made off\\nin triumph amid the hilarious applause of\\nhis fellows. The acrobat s countenance in-\\ndicated a sense of injustice, and I had no\\ndoubt that my younger eagle was similarly\\naffected. Where is our boasted honor\\namong thieves I imagined him asking.\\nThe bird of freedom is a great bird, and the", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0057.jp2"}, "58": {"fulltext": "46 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A.\\nland of the free is a great country. Here,\\nlet us hope, the parallel ends. Whether\\non the banks of Newfoundland or elsewhere,\\nit cannot be that the great republic would\\never snatch a fish that did not belong to it.\\nI admired the address of the fish-hawks\\nuntil I saw the gannets. Then I perceived\\nthat the hawks, with all their practice, were\\nno better than landlubbers. The gannets\\nkept farther out at sea. Sometimes a scat-\\ntered flock remained in sight for the greater\\npart of a forenoon. With their long, sharp\\nwings and their outstretched necks, like\\nloons, but with a different flight, they\\nwere rakish-looking customers. Sometimes\\nfrom a great height, sometimes from a lower,\\nsometimes at an incline, and sometimes ver-\\ntically, they plunged into the water, and\\nafter an absence of some seconds, as it\\nseemed, came up and rested upon the sur-\\nface. They were too far away to be closely\\nobserved, and for a time I did not feel cer-\\ntain what they were. The larger number\\nwere in dark plumage, and it was not till\\na white one appeared that I said with as-\\nsurance, Gannets I With the bright\\nsun on him, he was indeed a splendid bird,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0058.jp2"}, "59": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 47\\nsnowy white, with the tips of his wings jet\\nblack. If he would have come inshore like\\nthe ospreys, I think I should never have\\ntired of his evolutions.\\nThe gannets showed themselves only now\\nand then, but the brown pelicans were an\\nevery-day sight. I had found them first\\non the beach at St. Augustine. Here at\\nDaytona they never alighted on the sand,\\nand seldom in the water. They were always\\nflying up or down the beach, and, unless\\nturned from their course by the presence of\\nsome suspicious object, they kept straight on\\njust above the breakers, rising and falling\\nwith the waves now appearing above them,\\nand now out of sight in the trough of the\\nsea. Sometimes a single bird passed, but\\ncommonly they were in small flocks. Once\\nI saw seventeen together, a pretty long\\nprocession for, whatever their number, they\\nwent always in Indian file. Evidently some\\ndreadful thing would happen if two pelicans\\nshould ever travel abreast. It was partly\\nthis unusual order of march, I suspect, which\\ngave such an air of preternatural gravity\\nto their movements. It was impossible to\\nsee even two of them go by without feeling", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0059.jp2"}, "60": {"fulltext": "48 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A.\\nalmost as if I were in cliurch. First, both\\nbirds flew a rod or two with slow and stately-\\nflappings; then, as if at some preconcerted\\nsignal, both set their wings and scaled for\\nabout the same distance then they resumed\\ntheir wing strokes and so on, till they passed\\nout of sight. I never heard them utter a\\nsound, or saw them make a movement of any\\nsort (I speak of what I saw at Daytona) ex-\\ncept to fly straight on, one behind another.\\nIf church ceremonials are still open to amend-\\nment, I would suggest, in no spirit of irrev-\\nerence, that a study of pelican processionals\\nwould be certain to yield edifying results.\\nNothing done in any cathedral could be more\\nsolemn. Indeed, their solemnity was so great\\nthat I came at last to find it almost ridiculous\\nbut that, of course, was only from a want of\\nfaith on the part of the beholder. The birds,\\nas I say, were hrown pelicans. Had they\\nbeen of the other species, in churchly white\\nand black, the ecclesiastical effect would per-\\nhaps have been lieightened, though such a\\nthing is hardly conceivable.\\nSome beautiful little gulls, peculiarly dainty\\nin their appearance Bonaparte s gidls,\\nthey are called in books, but surf gulls", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0060.jp2"}, "61": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A 49\\nwould be a prettier and apter name), were\\nalso given to flying along the breakers, but\\nin a manner very different from the pelicans\\nas different, I may say, as the birds them-\\nselves. They, too, moved steadily onward,\\nnorth or south as the case might be, but fed\\nas they went, dropping into the shallow wa-\\nter between the incoming waves, and rising\\nagain to escape the next breaker. The ac-\\ntion was characteristic and graceful, though\\noften somewhat nervous and hurried. I no-\\nticed that the birds commonly went by twos,\\nbut that may have been nothing more than\\na coincidence. Beside these small surf gulls,\\nnever at all numerous, I usually saw a few\\nterns, and now and then one or two rather\\nlarge gulls, which, as well as I oould make\\nout, must have been the ring-billed. It was\\na strange beach, I thought, where fish-hawks\\ninvariably outnumbered both gulls and terns.\\nOf beach birds, properly so called, I saw\\nnone but sanderlings. They were no novelty,\\nbut I always stopped to look at them busy\\nas ants, rmming in a body down the beach\\nafter a receding wave, and the next moment\\nscampering back again with all speed before\\nan incoming one. They tolerated no near", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0061.jp2"}, "62": {"fulltext": "50 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A.\\napproach, but were at once on tlie wing for a\\nlong flight up or down the coast, looking like\\na flock of snow-white birds as they turned\\ntheir under parts to the sun in rising above\\nthe breakers. Their manner of feeding, with\\nthe head pitched forward, and a quick, eager\\nmovement, as if they had eaten nothing for\\ndays, and were fearful that their present bit\\nof good fortune would not last, is strongly\\ncharacteristic, so that they can be recognized\\na long way off. As I have said, they were\\nthe only true beach birds but I rarely failed\\nto see one or two great blue herons playing\\nthat role. The first one filled me with sur-\\nprise. I had never thought of finding him\\nin such a place but there he stood, and be-\\nfore I was done with Florida beaches I had\\ncome to look upon him as one of their most\\nconstant hahitues. In truth, this largest\\nof the herons is well-nigh omnipresent in\\nFlorida. Wherever there is water, fresh or\\nsalt, he is certain to be met with sooner or\\nlater; and even in the driest place, if you\\nstay there long enough, you wil] be likely\\nto see him passing overhead, on his way\\nto the water, which is nowhere far off. On\\nthe beach, as everywhere else, he is a model", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0062.jp2"}, "63": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 51\\nof patience. To the best of my recollection,\\nI never saw him catch a fish there and I\\nreally came to think it pathetic, the persis-\\ntency with which he would stand, with the\\nwater half way to his knees, leaning for-\\nward expectantly toward the breakers, as\\nif he felt that this great and generous ocean,\\nwhich had so many fish to spare, could not\\nfail to send him, at last, the morsel for which\\nhe was waiting.\\nBut indeed I was not long in perceiving\\nthat the Southern climate made patience a\\ncomparatively easy virtue, and fishing, by a\\nnatural consequence, a favorite avocation.\\nDay after day, as I crossed the bridges on\\nmy way to and from the beach, the same men\\nstood against the rail, holding their poles over\\nthe river. They had an air of having been\\nthere all winter. I came to recognize them,\\nthough I knew none of their names. One\\nwas peculiarly happy looking, almost radiant,\\nwith an educated face, and only one hand.\\nHis disability hindered him, no doubt. I\\nnever saw so much as a sheep-head or a drum\\nlying at his feet. But inwardly, I felt sure,\\nhis luck was good. Another was older, fifty\\nat least, sleek and well dressed. He spoke", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0063.jp2"}, "64": {"fulltext": "62 ON THE BEACH AT DAY TON A,\\npleasantly enough, if I addressed him other-\\nwise he attended strictly to business. Every\\nday he was there, morning and afternoon.\\nHe, I think, had better fortune than any of\\nthe others. Once I saw him land a large\\nand handsome speckled trout, to the un-\\nmistakable envy of his brother anglers. Still\\na third was a younger man, with a broad-\\nbrimmed straw hat and a taciturn habit;\\nno less persevering than Nvunber Two, per-\\nhaps, but far less successful. I marveled a\\nlittle at their enthusiasm (there were many\\nbeside these), and they, in their turn, did\\nnot altogether conceal their amusement at\\nthe foibles of a man, still out of Bedlam, who\\nwalked and walked and walked, always with\\na field-glass protruding from his side pocket,\\nwhich now and then he pulled out suddenly\\nand leveled at nothing. It is one of the\\nmerciful ameliorations of this present evil\\nworld that men are thus mutually entertain-\\ning.\\nThese anglers were to be congratulated.\\nOrdered South by their physicians, as most\\nof them undoubtedly were, compelled to\\nspend the winter away from friends and busi-\\nness, amid all the discomforts of Southern", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0064.jp2"}, "65": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 53\\nhotels, tliey were happy in having at least\\none thing which they loved to do. Blessed\\nis the invalid who has an outdoor hobby.\\nOne man, whom I met more than once in\\nmy beach rambles, seemed to devote himself\\nto bathing, running, and walking. He looked\\nlike an athlete I heard him tell how far\\nhe could run without getting winded and\\nas he sprinted up and down the sand in his\\nscanty bathing costmne, I always found him\\na pleasing spectacle. Another runner there\\ngave me a half -hour of amusement that turned\\nat the last to a feeling of almost painful\\nsympathy. He was not in bathing costume,\\nnor did he look particularly athletic. He\\nwas teaching his young lady to ride a bicycle,\\nand his pupil was at that most interesting\\nstage of a learner s career when the machine\\nis beginning to steady itself. With a very\\nlittle assistance she went bravely, while at the\\nsame time the young man felt it necessary\\nnot to let go his hold upon her for more than\\na few moments at once. At all events, he\\nmust be with her at the turn. She plied the\\npedals with vigor, and he ran alongside or\\nbehind, as best he coidd she excited, and\\nhe out of breath. Back and forth they went,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0065.jp2"}, "66": {"fulltext": "54 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A.\\nand it was a relief to me when finally he took\\noff his coat. I left him still panting in his\\nfair one s wake, and hoped it would not turn\\nout a case of love s labor s lost. Let us\\nhope, too, that he was not an invalid.\\nWhile speaking of these my companions\\nin idleness, I may as well mention an older\\nman, a rural philosopher, he seemed,\\nwhom I met again and again, always in search\\nof shells. He was from Indiana, he told me\\nwith agreeable garrulity. His grandchildren\\nwould like the shells. He had perhaps made\\na mistake in coming so far south. It was\\npretty warm, he thought, and he feared the\\nchange would be too great when he went\\nhome again. If a man s lungs were bad, he\\nought to go to a warm place, of course. He\\ncame for his stomach, which was now pretty\\nwell, a capital proof of the superior value\\nof fresh air over proper food in dyspeptic\\ntroubles; for if there is anywhere in the\\nworld a place in which a delicate stomach\\nwould fare worse than in a Southern hotel,\\nof the second or third class, may none\\nbut my enemies ever find it. Seashell col-\\nlecting is not a panacea. For a disease like\\nold age, for instance, it might prove to be an", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0066.jp2"}, "67": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 55\\nalleviation rather than a cure but taken\\nlong enough, and with a sufficient mixture of\\nenthusiasm, a true sine qua non, it will\\nbe found efficacious, I believe, in all ordinary\\ncases of dyspepsia.\\nMy Indiana man was far from being alone\\nin his cheerful pursuit. If strangers, men or\\nwomen, met me on the beach and wished to\\nsay something more than good-morning, they\\nwere sure to ask, Have you found any\\npretty shells One woman was a collector\\nof a more businesslike turn. She had\\nbrought a camp-stool, and when I first saw\\nher in the distance was removing her shoes,\\nand putting on rubber boots. Then she\\nmoved her stool into the surf, sat upon it\\nwith a tin pail beside her, and, leaning for-\\nward over the water, fell to doing something,\\nI could not tell what. She was so indus-\\ntrious that I did not venture to disturb her,\\nas I passed but an hour or two afterward\\nI overtook her going homeward across the\\npeninsula with her invalid husband, and she\\nshowed me her pail full of the tiny coquina\\nclams, which she said were very nice for soup,\\nas indeed I knew. Some days later, I found\\na man collecting them for the market, with", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0067.jp2"}, "68": {"fulltext": "56 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A.\\ntlie lielp of a horse and a cylindrical wire\\nroller. With his trousers rolled to his knees,\\nhe waded in the surf, and shoveled the in-\\ncoming water and sand into the wire roller\\nthrough an aperture left for that purpose.\\nThen he closed the aperture, and drove the\\nhorse back and forth through the breakers\\ntill the clams were washed clear of the sand,\\nafter which he poured them out into a shal-\\nlow tray like a long bread-pan, and trans-\\nferred them from that to a big bag. I came\\nup just in time to see them in the tray, bright\\nwith all the colors of the rainbow. Will\\nyou hold the bag open he said. I was\\nglad to help (it was perhaps the only useful\\nten minutes that I passed in Florida) and\\nso, counting quart by quart, he dished them\\ninto it. There were thirty odd quarts, but\\nhe wanted a bushel and a quarter, and again\\ntook up the shovel. The clams themselves\\nwere not canned and shipped, he said, but\\nonly the juice.\\nMany rudely built cottages stood on the\\nsand-hills just behind the beach, especially\\nat the points, a mile or so apart, where\\nthe two Daytona bridge roads come out of\\nthe scrub and one day, while walking up the", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0068.jp2"}, "69": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 57\\nbeach to Ormond, I saw before me a miicli\\nmore elaborate Queen Anne house. Fanci-\\nfully but rather neatly painted, and with a\\nstable to match, it looked like an exotic. As\\nI drew near, its venerable owner was at work\\nin front of it, shoveling a path through the\\nsand, just as, at that moment (February\\n24), thousands of Yankee householders were\\nshoveling paths through the snow, which\\nthen was reported by the newspapers to be\\nseventeen inches deep in the streets of Boston.\\nHis reverend air and his long black coat pro-\\nclaimed him a clergyman past all possibility\\nof doubt. He seemed to have got to heaven\\nbefore death, the place was so attractive but\\nbeing still in a body terrestrial, he may have\\nfomid the meat market rather distant, and\\nmosquitoes and sand-flies sometimes a plague.\\nAs I walked up the beach, he drove by me\\nin an open wagon with a hired man. They\\nkept on till they came to a log which had\\nbeen cast up by the sea, and evidently had\\nbeen sighted from the house. The hired man\\nlifted it into the wagon, and they drove\\nback, quite a stirring adventure, I im-\\nagined an event to date from, at the very\\nleast.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0069.jp2"}, "70": {"fulltext": "58 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A.\\nThe smaller cottages were nearly all empty\\nat tliat season. At different times I made\\nuse of many of tliem, when the sun was hot,\\nor I had been long afoot. Once I was rest-\\ning thus on a flight of front steps, when a\\nthree-seated carriage came down the beach\\nand pulled up opposite. The driver wished\\nto ask me a question, I thought no doubt I\\nlooked very much at home. From the day I\\nhad entered Florida, every one I met had\\nseemed to know me intuitively for a New\\nEnglander, and most of them I could not\\nimao-ine how had divined that I came from\\nBoston. It gratified me to believe that I\\nwas losing a little of my provincial manner,\\nunder the influence of more extended travel.\\nBut my pride had a sudden fall. The car-\\nriage stopped, as I said but instead of in-\\nquiring the way, the driver alighted, and all\\nthe occupants of the carriage proceeded to\\ndo the same, eight women, with baskets\\nand sundries. It was time for me to be start-\\ning. I descended the steps, and pulled off\\nmy hat to the first comer, who turned out to\\nbe the proprietor of the establishment. With\\na gracious smile, she hoped they were not\\nfrightening me away. She and her friends", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0070.jp2"}, "71": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 59\\nhad come for a day s picnic at the cottage.\\nThings being as they were (eight women),\\nshe could hardly invite me to share the fes-\\ntivities, and, with my best apology for the\\nintrusion, I withdrew.\\nOf one building on the sand-hills I have\\npeculiarly pleasant recollections. It was not\\na cottage, but had evidently been put up as\\na public resort; especially, as I inferred,\\nfor Sunday-school or parish picnics. It was\\nfurnished with a platform for speech-making\\n(is there any foolishness that men will not\\ncommit on sea beaches and mountain tops?),\\nand, what was more to my purpose, was\\nopen on three sides. I passed a good deal\\nof time there, first and last, and once it\\nsheltered me from a drenching shower of\\nan hour or two. The lightning was vivid,\\nand the rain fell in sheets. In the midst of\\nthe blackness and commotion, a single tern,\\nghostly white, flew past, and toward the\\nclose a bunch of sanderlings came down the\\nedge of the breakers, still looking for some-\\nthing to eat. The only other living things\\nin sight were two young fellows, who had\\nimproved the opportunity to try a dip in the\\nsurf. Their color indicated that they were", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0071.jp2"}, "72": {"fulltext": "60 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A.\\nnot yet hardened to open-air bathing, and\\nfrom their actions it was evident that they\\nfound the ocean cool. They were wet enough\\nbefore they were done, but it was mostly\\nwith fresh water. Probably they took no\\nharm but I am moved to remark, in pass-\\ning, that I sometimes wondered how gen-\\nerally physicians who order patients to\\nFlorida for the winter caution them against\\nimprudent exposure. To me, who am no\\ndoctor, it seemed none too safe for young\\nwomen with consumptive tendencies to be out\\nsailing in open boats on winter evenings, no\\nmatter how warm the afternoon had been,\\nwhile I saw one case where a surf bath taken\\nby such an invalid was followed by a day of\\nprostration and fever. We who live here,\\nsaid a resident, don t think the water is\\nwarm enough yet; but for these Northern\\nfolks it is a great thing to go into the surf\\nin February, and you can t keep them out.\\nThe rows of cottages of which I have\\nspoken were in one sense a detriment to the\\nbeach but on the whole, and in their pres-\\nent deserted condition, I found them an\\nadvantage. It was easy enough to walk\\naway from them, if a man wanted the feel-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0072.jp2"}, "73": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 61\\ning of utter solitude (the beach extends\\nfrom Matanzas Inlet to Mosquito Inlet,\\nthirty-five miles, more or less) while at\\nother times they not only furnished shadow\\nand a seat, but, with the paths and little\\nclearings behind them, were an attraction\\nto many birds. Here I found my first\\nFlorida jays. They sat on the chimney-\\ntops and ridgepoles, and I was rejoiced to\\ndiscover that these unique and interesting\\ncreatures, one of the special objects of my\\njourney South, were not only common, but\\nto an extraordinary degree approachable.\\nTheir extreme confidence in man is one of\\ntheir oddest characteristics. I heard from\\nmore than one person how easily and in\\nalmost no time they could be tamed, if\\nindeed they needed taming. A resident of\\nHawks Park told me that they used to come\\ninto his house and stand upon the corners\\nof the dinner table waiting for their share\\nof the meal. When he was hoeing in the\\ngarden, they would perch on his hat, and\\nstay there by the hour, unless he drove them\\noff. He never did anything to tame them\\nexcept to treat them kindly. When a brood\\nwas old enough to leave the nest, the parents", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0073.jp2"}, "74": {"fulltext": "62 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A.\\nbrought the youngsters up to the doorstep\\nas a matter of course.\\nThe Florida jay, a bird of the scrub, is\\nnot to be confounded with the Florida bhce\\njay (a smaller and less conspicuously crested\\nduplicate of our common Northern bird),\\nto which it bears little resemblance either\\nin personal appearance or in voice. Seen\\nfrom behind, its aspect is peculiarly strik-\\ning the head, wings, rump, and tail being\\ndark blue, with an almost rectangular patch\\nof gray set in the midst. Its beak is very\\nstout, and its tail very long and though it\\nwould attract attention anywhere, it is hardly\\nto be called handsome or graceful. Its\\nnotes such of them as I heard, that is\\nare mostly guttural, with little or nothing of\\nthe screaming quality which distinguishes\\nthe blue jay s voice. To my ear they were\\noften suggestive of the Northern shrike.\\nOn the 23d of February I was standing\\non the rear piazza of one of the cottages,\\nwhen a jay flew into the oak and palmetto\\nscrub close by. A second glance, and I saw\\nthat she was busy upon a nest. When she\\nhad gone, I moved nearer, and waited. She\\ndid not return, and I descended the steps", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0074.jp2"}, "75": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 63\\nand went to the edge of the thicket to in-\\nspect her work a bulky affair, nearly\\ndone, I thought, loosely constructed of\\npretty large twigs. I had barely returned\\nto the veranda before the bird appeared\\nagain. This time I was in a position to\\nlook squarely in upon her. She had some\\ndifficulty in edging her way through the\\ndense bushes with a long, branching stick\\nin her bill but she accomplished the feat,\\nfitted the new material into its place, re-\\nadjusted the other twigs a bit here and\\nthere, and then, as she rose to depart, she\\nlooked me suddenly in the face and stopped,\\nas much as to say, Well, well here s a\\npretty go A man spying upon me I\\nwondered whether she would throw up the\\nwork, but in another minute she was back\\nagain with another twig. The nest, I should\\nhave said, was about four feet from the\\nground, and perhaps twenty feet from the\\ncottage. Four days later, I found her sit-\\nting upon it. She flew off as I came up,\\nand I pushed into the scrub far enough to\\nthrust my hand into the nest, which, to my\\ndisappointment, was empty. In fact, it was\\nstill far from completed for on the 3d of", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0075.jp2"}, "76": {"fulltext": "64 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTONA.\\nMarch, when I paid it a farewell visit, its\\nowner was still at work lining it with fine\\ngrass. At that time it was a comfort-\\nable-looking and really elaborate structure.\\nBoth the birds came to look at me as I stood\\non the piazza. They perched together on\\nthe top of a stake so narrow that there was\\nscarcely room for their feet; and as they\\nstood thus, side by side, one of them struck\\nits beak several times against the beak of\\nthe other, as if in play. I wished them joy\\nof their expected progeny, and was the more\\nready to believe they would have it for this\\nlittle display of sportive sentimentality.\\nIt was a distinguished company that fre-\\nquented that row of narrow back yards on\\nthe edge of the sand-hills. As a new-comer,\\nI found the jays (^sometimes there were ten\\nunder my eye at once) the most entertain-\\ning members of it, but if I had been a\\ndweller there for the summer, I should per-\\nhaps have altered my opinion for the group\\ncontained four of the finest of Floridian\\nsongsters, the mocking-bird, the brown\\nthrasher, the cardinal grosbeak, and the\\nCarolina wren. Rare morning and evening\\nconcerts those cottagers must have. And", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0076.jp2"}, "77": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTONA. 65\\nbesides these there were catbirds, ground\\ndoves, red-eyed chewinks, white-eyed che-\\nwinks, a song sparrow (one of the few that\\nI saw in Florida), savanna sparrows, myrtle\\nbirds, redpoll warblers, a phcebe, and two\\nflickers. The last-named birds, by the way,\\nare never backward about displaying their\\ntender feelings. A treetop flirtation is their\\nspecial delight (I hope my readers have all\\nseen one few things of the sort are better\\nworth looking at), and here, in the absence\\nof trees, they had taken to the ridgepole of\\na house.\\nMore than once I remarked white-breasted\\nswallows straggling northward along the line\\nof sand-hills. They were in loose order, but\\nthe movement was plainly concerted, with\\nall the look of a vernal migration. This\\nswallow, the flrst of its family to arrive in\\nNew England, remains in Florida through-\\nout the winter, but is known also to go as\\nfar south as Central America. The purple\\nmartins which, so far as I am aware, do\\nnot winter in Florida had already begun\\nto make their appearance. While crossing\\nthe bridge, February 22, I was surprised to\\nnotice two of them sitting upon a bird-box", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0077.jp2"}, "78": {"fulltext": "66 ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A.\\nover the draw, which just then stood open\\nfor the passage of a tug-boat. The toll-\\ngatherer told me they had come from some\\nplace eight or ten days before. His atten-\\ntion had been called to them by his cat, who\\nwas trying to get up to the box to bid them\\nwelcome. He believed that she discovered\\nthem within three minutes of their arrival.\\nIt seemed not unlikely. In its own way a\\ncat is a pretty sharp ornithologist.\\nOne or two cormorants were almost al-\\nways about the river. Sometimes they sat\\nupon stakes in a patriotic, spread-eagle\\n(American eagle) attitude, as if drying\\ntheir wings, a curious sight till one be-\\ncame accustomed to it. Snakebirds and\\nbuzzards resort to the same device, but I\\ncannot recall ever seeing any Northern bird\\nthus engaged. From the south bridge I one\\nmorning saw, to my great satisfaction, a\\ncouple of white pelicans, the only ones that\\nI found in Florida, though I was assured\\nthat within twenty years they had been com-\\nmon along the Halifax and Hillsborough\\nrivers. My birds were flying up the river\\nat a good height. The brown pelicans, on\\nthe other hand, made their daily pilgrimages", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0078.jp2"}, "79": {"fulltext": "ON THE BEACH AT DAYTON A. 67\\njust above the level of the water, as has\\nbeen already described, and were never ove\u00c2\u00ab\\nthe river, but off the beach.\\nAll in all, there are few pleasanter walks\\nin Florida, I believe, than the beach-round\\nat Dajtona, out by one bridge and back by\\nthe other. An old hotel-keeper a rural\\nYankee, if one could tell anything by his\\nlook and speech said to me in a burst of\\nconfidence, Yes, we ve got a climate, and\\nthat s about all we have got, climate and\\nsand. I could not entirely agree with him.\\nFor myself, I found not only fine days, but\\nfine prospects. But there was no denying\\nthe sand.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0079.jp2"}, "80": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nWherever a walker lives, he finds sooner\\nor later one favorite road. So it was with\\nme at New Smyrna, where I lived for three\\nweeks. I had gone there for the sake of\\nthe river, and my first impulse was to take\\nthe road that runs southerly along its bank.\\nAt the time I thought it the most beautiful\\nroad I had found in Florida, nor have I seen\\nany great cause since to alter that opinion.\\nWith many pleasant windings (beautiful\\nroads are never straight, nor unnecessarily\\nwide, which is perhaps the reason why our\\nrural authorities devote themselves so madly\\nto the work of straightening and widening),\\nwith many pleasant windings, I say,\\nThe grace of God made manifest in curves,\\nit follows the edge of the hammock, having\\nthe river on one side, and the forest on the\\nother. It was afternoon when I first saw it.\\nThen it is shaded from the sun, while the\\nriver and its opposite bank have on them a", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0080.jp2"}, "81": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 69\\nlight more beautiful than can be described\\nor imagined a light with reverence for\\nthe poet of nature be it spoken a light\\nthat never was except on sea or land. The\\npoet s dream was never equal to it.\\nIn a flat country stretches of water are\\ndoubly welcome. They take the place of\\nhills, and give the eye what it craves, dis-\\ntance which softens angles, conceals details,\\nand heightens colors, in short, trans-\\nfigures the world with its romancer s touch,\\nand blesses us with illusion. So, as I loi-\\ntered along the south road, I never tired of\\nlooking across the river to the long, wooded\\nisland, and over that to the line of sand-hills\\nthat marked the eastern rim of the East\\nPeninsula, beyond which was the Atlantic.\\nThe white crests of the hills made the\\nsharper points of the horizon line. Else-\\nwhere clumps of nearer pine-trees intervened,\\nwhile here and there a tall palmetto stood,\\nor seemed to stand, on the highest and far-\\nthest ridge looking seaward. But particu-\\nlars mattered little. The blue water, the\\npale, changeable grayish-green of the low\\nisland woods, the deeper green of the pines,\\nthe unnamable hues of the sky, the sun-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0081.jp2"}, "82": {"fulltext": "70 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nshine that flooded it all, these were beauty\\nenough beauty all the more keenly en-\\njoyed because for much of the way it was\\nseen only by glimpses, through vistas of pal-\\nmetto and live-oak. Sometimes the road\\ncame quite out of the woods, as it rounded a\\nturn of the hammock. Then I stopped to\\ngaze long at the scene. Elsewhere I pushed\\nthrough the hedge at favorable points, and\\nsat, or stood, looking up and down the river.\\nA favorite seat was the prow of an old row-\\nboat, which lay, falling to pieces, high and\\ndry upon the sand. It had made its last\\ncruise, but I found it still useful.\\nThe river is shallow. At low tide sand-\\nbars and oyster-beds occupy much of its\\nbreadth and even when it looked full, a\\ngreat blue heron would very likely be wad-\\ning in the middle of it. That was a sight\\nto which I had grown accustomed in Florida,\\nwhere this bird, familiarly known as the\\nmajor, is apparently ubiquitous. Too big\\nto be easily hidden, it is also, as a general\\nthing, too wary to be approached within\\ngunshot. I am not sure that I ever came\\nwithin sight of one, no matter how suddenly\\nor how far away, that it did not give evi-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0082.jp2"}, "83": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 71\\ndence of having seen me first. Long legs,\\nlong wings, a long bill and long sight and\\nlong patience such is the tall bird s dowry.\\nGood and useful qualities, all of them.\\nLong may they avail to put off the day of\\ntheir owner s extermination.\\nThe major is scarcely a bird of which you\\ncan make a pet in your mind, as you may\\nof the chickadee, for instance, or the blue-\\nbird, or the hermit thrush. He does not\\nlend himself naturally to such imaginary en-\\ndearments. But it is pleasant to have him\\non one s daily beat. I should count it one\\ncompensation for having to live in Florida\\ninstead of in Massachusetts (but I might\\nrequire a good many others) that I should\\nsee him a hundred times as often. In walk-\\ning down the river road I seldom saw less\\nthan half a dozen not together (the major,\\nlike fishermen in general, is of an unsocial\\nturn), but here one and there one, on a\\nsand-bar far out in the river, or in some\\nshallow bay, or on the submerged edge of\\nan oyster-flat. Wherever he was, he always\\nlooked as if he might be going to do some-\\nthing presently even now, perhaps, the\\nmatter was on his mind; but at this mo-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0083.jp2"}, "84": {"fulltext": "72 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nment well, there are times when a heron s\\nstrength is to stand still. Certainly he\\nseemed in no danger of overeating. A\\ncracker told me that the major made an\\nexcellent dish if killed on the full of the\\nmoon. I wondered at that qualification,\\nbut my informant explained himself. The\\nbird, he said, feeds mostly at night, and\\nfares best with the moon to help him. If\\nthe reader would dine off roast blue heron,\\ntherefore, as I hope I never shall, let him\\nmind the lunar phases. But think of the\\ngastronomic ups and downs of a bird that is\\nfat and lean by turns twelve times a year\\nPossibly my informant overstated the case\\nbut in any event I would trust the major to\\nbear himself like a philosopher. If there is\\nany one of God s creatures that can wait for\\nwhat he wants, it must be the great blue\\nheron.\\nI have spoken of his caution. If he was\\npatrolling a shallow on one side of an\\noyster-bar, at the rate, let us say, of two\\nsteps a minute, and took it into his head\\n(an inappropriate phrase, as conveying an\\nidea of something like suddenness) to try\\nthe water on the other side, he did not", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0084.jp2"}, "85": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 73\\nspread his wings, as a matter of course, and\\nfly over. First he put up his head an\\noperation that makes another bird of him\\nand looked in all directions. How could he\\ntell what enemy might be lying in wait\\nAnd having alighted on the other side (his\\nmanner of alighting is one of his prettiest\\ncharacteristics), he did not at once draw in\\nhis neck till his bill protruded on a level\\nwith his body, and resume his labors, but\\nfirst he looked once more all about him. It\\nwas a good habit to do that, anyhow, and\\nhe meant to run no risks. If the race\\nof birds was created out of innocent, light-\\nminded men, whose thoughts were directed\\ntoward heaven, according to the word of\\nPlato, then Ai dea liei odias must long ago\\nhave fallen from grace. I imagine his state\\nof mind to be always like that of our pil-\\ngrim fathers in times of Indian massacres.\\nWhen they went after the cows or to hoe the\\ncorn, they took their guns with them, and\\nturned no corner without a sharp lookout\\nagainst ambush. No doubt such a condi-\\ntion of affairs has this advantage, that it\\nmakes ennui impossible. There is always\\nsomething to live for, if it be only to avoid\\ngetting killed.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0085.jp2"}, "86": {"fulltext": "74 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nAfter this manner did tlie Hillsborough\\nRiver majors all behave themselves until my\\nvery last walk beside it. Then I found the\\nexception, the excej^tion that is as good\\nas inevitable in the case of any bird, if\\nthe observation be carried far enough. He\\n(or she there was no telling which it was)\\nstood on the sandy beach, a splendid crea-\\nture in full nuptial garb, two black plumes\\nnodding jauntily from its crown, and masses\\nof soft elongated feathers draping its back\\nand lower neck. Nearer and nearer I ap-\\nproached, till I must have been within a\\nhundred feet but it stood as if on dress\\nparade, exulting to be looked at. Let us\\nhope it never carried itself thus gayly when\\nthe wrong man came along.\\nNear the major not keeping him com-\\npany, but feeding in the same shallows\\nand along the same oyster-bars were con-\\nstantly to be seen two smaller relatives\\nof his, the little blue heron and the Louisi-\\nana. The former is what is called a dichro-\\nmatic species some of the birds are blue,\\nand others white. On the Hillsborough,\\nit seemed to me that white specimens pre-\\ndominated; but possibly that was because", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0086.jp2"}, "87": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 75\\nthey were so much more consjjicuous. Sun-\\nlight favors the white feather no other color\\nshows so quickly or so far. If you are on\\nthe beach and catch sight of a bird far\\nout at sea, a gull or a tern, a gannet or\\na loon, it is invariably the white parts\\nthat are seen first. And so the little white\\nheron might stand never so closely against\\nthe grass or the bushes on the further shore\\nof the river, and the eye could not miss him.\\nIf he had been a blue one, art that distance,\\nten to one he would have escaped me. Be-\\nsides, I was more on the alert for white ones,\\nbecause I was always hoping to find one of\\nthem with black legs. In other words, I\\nwas looking for the little white egret, a bird\\nconcerning which, thanks to the murderous\\nwork of plume-hunters, thanks, also, to\\nthose good women who pay for having the\\nwork done, I must confess that I went\\nto Florida and came home again without\\ncertainly seeing it.\\nThe heron with which I found myself es-\\npecially taken was the Louisiana a bird of\\nabout the same size as the little blue, but\\nwith an air of daintiness and lightness that\\nis quite its own, and quite indescribable.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0087.jp2"}, "88": {"fulltext": "76 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nWhen it rose upon the wing, indeed, it\\nseemed almost too light, almost unsteady, as\\nif it lacked ballast, like a butterfly. It was\\nthe most numerous bird of its tribe along\\nthe river, I think, and, with one exception,\\nthe most approachable. That exception was\\nthe green heron, which frequented the flats\\nalong the village front, and might well have\\nbeen mistaken for a domesticated bird let-\\nting you walk across a plank directly over\\nits head while it squatted upon the mud, and\\nwhen disturbed flying into a fig-tree before\\nthe hotel piazza, just as the dear little ground\\ndoves were in the habit of doing. To me,\\nwho had hitherto seen the green heron in\\nthe wildest of places, this tameness was an\\nastonishing sight. It would be hard to say\\nwhich surprised me more, the New Smyrna\\ngreen herons or the St. Augustine sparrow-\\nhawks, which latter treated me very much\\nas I am accustomed to being treated by vil-\\nlage-bred robins in Massachusetts.\\nThe Louisiana heron was my favorite, as\\nI say, but incomj^arably the handsomest\\nmember of the family (I speak of such as I\\nsaw) was the great white egret. In truth,\\nthe epithet handsome seems almost a", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0088.jp2"}, "89": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 77\\nvulgarism as applied to a creature so superb,\\nso utterly and transcendently splendid. I\\nsaw it in a way to be sure of it only\\nonce. Then, on an island in the Hillsbor-\\nough, two birds stood in the dead tops of\\nlow shrubby trees, fully exposed in the\\nmost favorable of lights, their long dorsal\\ntrains drooping behind them and swaying\\ngently in the wind. I had never seen any-\\nthing so magnificent. And when I returned,\\ntwo or three hours afterward, from a jaunt\\nup the beach to Mosquito Inlet, there they\\nstill were, as if they had not stirred in all\\nthat time. The reader should understand\\nthat this egret is between four and five feet\\nin length, and measures nearly five feet from\\nwing tip to wing tip, and that its plumage\\nthroughout is of spotless white. It is pitiful\\nto think how constantly a bird of that size\\nand color must be in danger of its life.\\nHappily, the lawmakers of the State have\\ndone something of recent years for the pro-\\ntection of such defenseless beauties. Hap-\\npily, too, shooting from the river boats is no\\nlonger permitted, on the regular lines,\\nthat is. I myself saw a young gentleman\\nstand on the deck of an excursion steamer,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0089.jp2"}, "90": {"fulltext": "78 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nwith a rifle, and do his worst to kill or maim\\nevery living thing that came in sight, from\\na spotted sandpiper to a turkey buzzard I\\ncall him a gentleman; he was in gentle\\ncompany, and the fact that he chewed gum\\nindustriously would, I fear, hardly invali-\\ndate his claim to that title. The narrow\\nriver wound in and out between low, densely\\nwooded banks, and the beauty of the shift-\\ning scene was enough almost to take one s\\nbreath away but the crack of the rifle\\nwas not the less frequent on that account.\\nPerhaps the sportsman was a Southerner,\\nto whom river scenery of that enchanting\\nkind was an old story. More likely he was\\na Northerner, one of the men who thank\\nHeaven they are not sentimental.\\nIn my rambles up and down the river\\nroad I saw few water birds beside the her-\\nons. Two or three solitary cormorants would\\nbe shooting back and forth at a furious rate,\\nor swimming in midstream and sometimes\\na few spotted sandpipers and killdeer plov-\\ners were feeding along the shore. Once in\\na great while a single gull or tern made its\\nappearance, just often enough to keep\\nme wondering why they were not there", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0090.jp2"}, "91": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 79\\noftener, and one day a water turkey went\\nsuddenly over my head and dropped into\\nthe river on the farther side of the island,\\nI was glad to see this interesting creature\\nfor once in salt water for the Hillsbor-\\nough, like the Halifax and the Indian rivers,\\nis a river in name only, a river by brevet,\\nbeing, in fact, a salt-water lagoon or\\nsound between the mainland and the eastern\\npeninsula.\\nFish-hawks were always in sight, and\\nbald eagles were seldom absent altogether.\\nSometimes an eagle stood perched on a dead\\ntree on an island. Oftener I heard a\\nscream, and looked up to see one sailing far\\noverhead, or chasing an osprey. On one\\nsuch occasion, when the hawk seemed to be\\nmaking a losing fight, a third bird suddenly\\nintervened, and the eagle, as I thought, was\\ndriven away. Good for the brotherhood\\nof fish-hawks I exclaimed. But at that\\nmoment I put my glass on the new-comer\\nand behold, he was not a hawk, but another\\neagle. Meanwhile the hawk had disap-\\npeared with his fish, and I was left to pon-\\nder the mystery.\\nAs for the wood, the edge of the ham-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0091.jp2"}, "92": {"fulltext": "80 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nmock, tlirougli which the road passes, there\\nwere no birds in it. It was one of those\\nplaces (I fancy every bird-gazer must have\\nhad experience of such) where it is a waste\\nof time to seek them. I could walk down\\nthe road for two miles and back again, and\\nthen sit in my room at the hotel for fifteen\\nminutes, and see more wood birds, and more\\nkinds of them, in one small live-oak before\\nthe window than I had seen in the whole\\nfour miles and that not once and by acci-\\ndent, but again and again. In affairs of this\\nkind it is useless to contend. The spot looks\\nfavorable, you say, and nobody can deny it\\nthere must be birds there, plenty of them\\nyour missing them to-day was a matter of\\nchance; you will try again. And you try\\nagain and again and yet again. But\\nin the end you have to acknowledge that,\\nfor some reason unknown to you, the birds\\nhave agreed to give that j^lace the go-by.\\nOne bird, it is true, I found in this ham-\\nmock, and not elsewhere a single oven-bird,\\nwhich, with one Northern water thrush and\\none Louisiana water thrush, completed my\\nset of Florida Seiuri. Besides him I recall\\none hermit thrush, a few cedar-birds, a", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0092.jp2"}, "93": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 81\\nhouse wren, chattering at a great rate\\namong the bootjacks (leaf -stalks) of an\\noverturned palmetto-tree, with an occasional\\nmocking-bird, cardinal grosbeak, prairie\\nwarbler, yellow redpoll, myrtle bird, ruby-\\ncrowned kinglet, plioebe, and flicker. In\\nshort, there were no birds at all, except now\\nand then an accidental straggler of a kind\\nthat could be found almost anywhere else in\\nindefinite numbers.\\nAnd as it was not the presence of birds\\nthat made the river road attractive, so nei-\\nther was it any unwonted display of blos-\\nsoms. Beside a similar road along the\\nbank of the Halifax, m Daytona, grew mul-\\ntitudes of violets, and goodly patches of pur-\\nple verbena (garden j^lants gone wild, per-\\nhaps), and a fine profusion of spiderwort,\\na pretty flower, the bluest of the blue,\\nthrice welcome to me as having been one of\\nthe treasures of the very first garden of\\nwhich I have any remembrance. Indigo\\nplant, we called it then. Here, however,\\non the way from New Smyrna to Hawks\\nPark, I recall no violets, nor any verbena\\nor spiderwort. Yellow wood-sorrel (oxalis)\\nwas here, of course, as it was everywhere.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0093.jp2"}, "94": {"fulltext": "82 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nIt dotted the grass in Florida very much as\\nfive-fingers do in Massachusetts, I sometimes\\nthought. And the creeping, round-leaved\\nhoustonia was here, with a superfluity of a\\nweedy blue sage {Salvia lyrata). Here,\\nalso, as in Daytona, I found a strikingly\\nhandsome tufted plant, a highly varnished\\nevergreen, which I persisted in taking for\\na fern the sterile fronds in spite of\\nrepeated failures to find it described by\\nDr. Chapman under that head, until at last\\nan excellent woman came to my help with\\nthe information that it was coontie (^Za-\\nmia integrifolia famous as a plant out\\nof which the Southern people made bread\\nin war time. This confession of botanical\\namateurishness and incompetency will be\\ntaken, I hope, as rather to my credit than\\notherwise but it would be morally worth-\\nless if I did not add the story of another\\nplant, which, in this same New Smyrna\\nhammock, I frequently noticed hanging in\\nloose bunches, like blades of flaccid deep\\ngreen grass, from the trunks of cabbage\\npalmettos. The tufts were always out of\\nreach, and I gave them no particular\\nthought and it was not until I got home", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0094.jp2"}, "95": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 83\\nto Massachusetts, and then almost by acci-\\ndent, that I learned what they were. They,\\nit turned out, were ferns Vittaria lineata\\ngrass fern), and my discomfiture was\\ncomplete.\\nThis comparative dearth of birds and flow-\\ners was not in all respects a disadvantage.\\nOn the contrary, to a naturalist blessed now\\nand then with a supernaturalistic mood, it\\nmade the place, on occasion, a welcome re-\\ntreat. Thus, one afternoon, as I remember,\\nI had been reading Keats, the only book I\\nhad brought with me, not counting man-\\nuals, of course, which come under another\\nhead, and by and by started once more\\nfor the pine lands by the way of the cotton-\\nshed hammock, to see what I could see.\\nBut poetry had spoiled me just then for\\nanything like scientific research, and as I\\nwaded through the ankle-deep sand I said\\nto myself all at once, No, no What do\\nI care for another new bird? I want to\\nsee the beauty of the world. With that I\\nfaced about, and, taking a side track, made\\nas directly as possible for the river road.\\nThere I should have a mind at ease, with no\\nunfamiliar, tantalizing bird note to set my", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0095.jp2"}, "96": {"fulltext": "84 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\ncuriosity on edge, nor any sand through\\nwhich to be picking my steps.\\nThe river road is paved with oyster-shells.\\nIf any reader thinks that statement prosaic\\nor unimportant, then he has never lived in\\nsouthern Florida. In that part of the world\\nall new-comers have to take walking-lessons\\nunless, indeed, they have already served an\\napprenticeship on Cape Cod, or in some other\\nplace equally arenarious. My own lesson I\\ngot at second hand, and on a Sunday. It\\nwas at New Smyrna, in the village. Two\\nwomen were behind me, on their way home\\nfrom church, and one of them was complain-\\ning of the sand, to which she was not yet\\nused. Yes, said the other, I found it\\npretty hard walking at first, but I learned\\nafter a while that the best way is to set the\\nheel down hard, as hard as you can then\\nthe sand does n t give under you so much,\\nand you get along more comfortably. I\\nwonder whether she noticed, just in front\\nof her, a man who began forthwith to bury\\nhis boot heel at every step\\nIn such a country (the soil is said to be\\ngood for orange-trees, but they do not have\\nto walk) roads of powdered shell are veri-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0096.jp2"}, "97": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 85\\ntable luxuries, and land agents are quite\\nright in laying all stress upon tliem as in-\\nducements to possible settlers. If the author\\nof the Apocalypse had been raised in Florida,\\nwe should never have had the streets of the\\nNew Jerusalem paved with gold. His idea\\nof heaven would have been different from\\nthat more personal and home-felt, we may\\nbe certain.\\nThe river road, then, as I have said, and\\nam glad to say again, was shell-paved. And\\nwell it might be for the hammock, along\\nthe edge of which it meandered, seemed, in\\nsome places at least, to be little more than a\\npile of oyster-shells, on which soil had some-\\nhow been deposited, and over which a forest\\nwas growing. Florida Indians have left an\\nevil memory. I heard a philanthropic visitor\\nlamenting that she had talked with many of\\nthe people about them, and had yet to hear\\na single word said in their favor. Somebody\\nmight have been good enough to say that,\\nwith all their faults, they had given to\\neastern Florida a few hills, such as they are,\\nand at present are supplying it, indirectly,\\nwith comfortable highways. How they must\\nhave feasted, to leave such heaps of shells", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0097.jp2"}, "98": {"fulltext": "86 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nbehind them They came to the coast on\\npurpose, we may suppose. Well, the red-\\nmen are gone, but the oyster-beds remain\\nand if winter refugees continue to pour in\\nthis direction, as doubtless they will, they\\ntoo will eat a heap of oysters (it is easy\\nto see how the vulgar Southern use of that\\nword may have originated), and in the\\ncourse of time, probably, the shores of the\\nHalifax and the Hillsborough will be a fine\\nmountainous country And then, if this\\nancient, nineteenth-century prediction is re-\\nmembered, the highest peak of the range\\nwill perhaps be named in a way which the\\ninnate modesty of the prophet restrains him\\nfrom specifying with greater particularity.\\nMeanwhile it is long to wait, and tourists\\nand residents alike must find what comfort\\nthey can in the lesser hills which, thanks to\\nthe good appetite of their predecessors, are\\nalready theirs. For my own part, there is\\none such eminence of which I cherish the\\nmost grateful recollections. It stands (or\\nstood; the road-makers had begun carting\\nit away) at a bend in the road just south of\\none of the Turnbull canals. I climbed it\\noften (it can hardly be less than fifteen or", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0098.jp2"}, "99": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 87\\ntwenty feet above the level of the sea), and\\nspent more than one pleasant hour upon its\\ngrassy summit. Northward was New Smyrna,\\na village in the woods, and farther away\\ntowered the lighthouse of Mosquito Inlet.\\nAlong the eastern sky stretched the long\\nline of the peninsula sand-hills, between the\\nwhite crests of which coidd be seen the rude\\ncottages of Coronado beach. To the south\\nand west was the forest, and in front, at my\\nfeet, lay the river with its woody islands.\\nMany times have I climbed a mountain\\nand felt myself abundantly repaid by an off-\\nlook less beautiful. This was the spot to\\nwhich I turned when I had been reading\\nKeats, and wanted to see the beauty of the\\nworld. Here were a grassy seat, the shadow\\nof orange-trees, and a wide prospect. In\\nFlorida, I found no better place in which a\\nman who wished to be both a naturalist and\\na nature-lover, who felt himself heir to a\\ndouble inheritance,\\nThe clear eye s moiety and the dear heart s part,\\ncould for the time sit stiU and be happy.\\nThe orange-trees yielded other things be-\\nside shadow, though perhaps nothing better", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0099.jp2"}, "100": {"fulltext": "88 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nthan that. They were resplendent with\\nfruit, and on my earlier visits were also in\\nbloom. One did not need to climb the hill\\nto learn the fact. For an out-of-door sweet-\\nness it would be hard, I think, to improve\\nupon the scent of orange blossoms. As for\\nthe oranges themselves, they seemed to be\\nin little demand, large and handsome as they\\nwere. Southern people in general, I fancy,\\nlook upon wild fruit of this kind as not ex-\\nactly edible. I remember asking two colored\\nmen in Tallahassee whether the oranges still\\nhanging conspicuously from a tree just over\\nthe wall (a sight not so very common in\\nthat part of the State) were sweet or sour.\\nI have forgotten just what they said, but I\\nremember how they looked. I meant the\\ninquiry as a mild bit of humor, but to them\\nit was a thousandfold better than that it\\nwas wit ineffable. What Shakespeare said\\nabout the prosperity of a jest was never more\\nstrikingly exemplified. In New Smyrna,\\nwith orange groves on every hand, the wild\\nfruit went begging with natives and tourists\\nalike so that I feel a little hesitancy about\\nconfessing my own relish for it, lest I should\\nbe accused of affectation. Not that I de-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0100.jp2"}, "101": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 89\\nvourecl wild oranges by the dozen, or in\\nplace of sweet ones one sour orange goes\\na good way, as the common saying is but I\\nate them, nevertheless, or rather drank them,\\nand found them, in a thirsty hour, decidedly\\nrefreshinof.\\nThe unusual coldness of the past season\\n(Florida winters, from what I heard about\\nthem, must have fallen of late into a queer\\nhabit of being regularly exceptional) had\\nmade it difficult to buy sweet oranges that\\nwere not dry and punky i toward the stem\\nbut the hardier wild fruit had weathered the\\nfrost, and was so juicy that, as I say, you\\ndid not so much eat one as drink it. As for\\nthe taste, it was a wholesome bitter-sour, as\\nif a lemon had been flavored with quinine\\nnot quite so sour as a lemon, perhaps, nor\\nquite so bitter as Peruvian bark, but, as\\nit were, an agreeable compromise between\\nthe two. When I drank one, I not only\\nquenched my thirst, but felt that I had\\ntaken an infallible prophylactic against the\\nmalarial fever. Better still, I had surprised\\nmyself. For one who had felt a lifelong\\n1 I have heard this useful word all my life, and now\\nam surprised to find it wanting in the dictionaries.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0101.jp2"}, "102": {"fulltext": "90 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\ndistaste, unsocial and almost unmanly, for\\nthe bitter drinks whicli humanity in general\\nesteems so essential to its health and comfort,\\nI was develo23ing new and unexpected capa-\\nbilities than which few things can be more\\nencouraging as years increase upon a man s\\nhead, and the world seems to be closing in\\nabout him.\\nLater in the season, on this same shell\\nmound, I might have regaled myself with\\nfresh figs. Here, at any rate, was a thrifty-\\nlooking fig-tree, though its crop, if it bore\\none, would perhaps not have waited my com-\\ning so patiently as the oranges had done.\\nHere, too, was a red cedar and to me, who,\\nin my ignorance, had always thought of\\nthis tough little evergreen as especially at\\nhome on my own bleak and stony hillsides,\\nit seemed an incongruous trio, fig-tree,\\norange-tree, and savin. In truth, the cedars\\nof Florida were one of my liveliest surprises.\\nAt first I refused to believe that they were\\nred cedars, so strangely exuberant were they,\\nso disdainful of the set, cone-shaped, toy-tree\\npattern on which I had been used to seeing\\nred cedars built. And when at last a study\\nof the flora compelled me to admit their", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0102.jp2"}, "103": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 91\\nidentity/ I turned about and protested that\\nI had never seen red cedars before. One,\\nin St. Augustine, near San Marco Avenue,\\nI had the curiosity to measure. The girth\\nof the trunk at the smallest place was six\\nfeet five inches, and the spread of the\\nbranches was not less than fifty feet.\\nThe stroller in this road suffered few dis-\\ntractions. The houses, two or three to the\\nmile, stood well back in the woods, with\\nlittle or no cleared land about them. Picnic\\nestablishments they seemed to a Northern\\neye, rather than permanent dwellings. At\\none point in the hammock, a rude camp was\\noccupied by a group of rough-looking men\\nand several small children, who seemed to\\nbe getting on as best they could none too\\nwell, to judge from appearances without\\nI speak as if I had accepted my own study of the\\nmanual as conclusive. I did for the time being but\\nwhile writing this paragraph I bethought myself that\\nI might be in error, after all. I referred the question,\\ntherefore, to a friend, a botanist of authority. No won-\\nder the red cedars of Florida puzzled you, he replied.\\nNo one would suppose at first that they were of the\\nsame species as our New England savins. The habit is\\nentirely different but botanists have found no characters\\nby which to separate them, and you are safe in consider-\\ning them as Juniperus Virginiana.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0103.jp2"}, "104": {"fulltext": "92 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nfeminine ministrations. What they were\\nthere for I never made out. They fished,\\nI think, but whether by way of amusement\\nor as a serious occupation I did not learn.\\nPerhaps, like the Indians of old, they had\\ncome to the river for the oyster season.\\nThey might have done worse. The}^ never\\npaid the slightest attention to me, nor once\\ngave me any decent excuse for engaging\\nthem in talk. The best thing I remember\\nabout them was a tableau caught in passing.\\nA norther had descended upon us unex-\\npectedly (Florida is not a whit behind the\\nrest of the world in sudden changes of tem-\\nperature), and while hastening homeward,\\ntoward nightfall, hugging myself to keep\\nwarm, I saw, in the woods, this group of\\ncampers disposed about a lively blaze.\\nLet us be thankful, say I, that memory\\nis so little the servant of the will. Chance\\nimpressions of this kind, unforeseen, invol-\\nuntary, and inexplicable, make one of the\\nchief delights of traveling, or rather of hav-\\ning traveled. In the present case, indeed,\\nthe permanence of the impression is perhaps\\nnot altogether beyond the reach of a plau-\\nsible conjecture. We have not always lived", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0104.jp2"}, "105": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 93\\nin houses and if we love the sight of a fire\\nout-of-doors, a camp-fire, that is to say,\\nas we all do, so that the burning of a\\nbrush-heap in a neighbor s yard will draw\\nus to the window, the feeling is but part of\\nan ancestral inheritance. We have come\\nby it honestly, as the phrase is. And so I\\nneed not scruple to set down another remi-\\nniscence of the same kind, an early morn-\\ning street scene, of no importance in itself,\\nin the village of New Smyrna. It may\\nhave been on the morning next after the\\nnorther just mentioned. I cannot say.\\nWe had two or three such touches of winter\\nin early March none of them at all distress-\\ning, be it understood, to persons in ordinary\\nhealth. One night water froze, as thick\\nas a silver dollar, and orange growers\\nwere alarmed for the next season s crop, the\\ntrees being just ready to blossom. Some\\nmen kept fires burning in their orchards\\novernight a pretty spectacle, I should think,\\nespecially where the fruit was still ungath-\\nered. On one of these frosty mornings,\\nthen, I saw a solitary horseman, not wend-\\ning his way, but warming his hands over a\\nfire that he had built for that purpose in", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0105.jp2"}, "106": {"fulltext": "94 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nthe village street. One miglit live and die\\nin a New England village without seeing\\nsuch a sight. A Yankee would have be-\\ntaken himself to the corner grocery. But\\nhere, though that adjunct of civilization\\nwas directly across the way, most likely it\\nhad never had a stove in it. The sun would\\ngive warmth enough in an hour, by nine\\no clock one would probably be glad of a\\nsunshade but the man was chilly after his\\nride it was still a bit early to go about the\\nbusiness that had brought him into town\\nwhat more natural than to hitch his horse,\\nget together a few sticks, and kindle a blaze\\nWhat an insane idea it would have seemed\\nto him that a passing stranger might re-\\nmember him and his fire three months\\nafterward, and think them worth talking\\nabout in print But then, as was long ago\\nsaid, it is the fate of some men to have\\ngreatness thrust upon them.\\nThis main street of the village, by the\\nway, with its hotels and shops, was no other\\nthan my river road itself, in its more civil-\\nized estate, as I now remember with a sense\\nof surprise. In my mind the two had never\\nany connection. It was in this thorough-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0106.jp2"}, "107": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 95\\nfare that one saw now and tlien a group\\nof cavaliers strolling about under broad-\\nbrimmed hats, with big spurs at their heels,\\naccosting passers-by with hearty familiarity,\\nfirst names and hand-shakes, while their\\nhorses stood hitched to the branches of road-\\nside trees, a typical Southern picture.\\nHere, on a Sunday afternoon, were two\\nyoung fellows who had brought to town a\\nmother coon and three young ones, hoping\\nto find a purchaser. The guests at the\\nhotels manifested no eagerness for such\\npets, but the colored bell-boys and waiters\\ngathered about, and after a little good-hu-\\nmored dickering bought the entire lot, box\\nand all, for a dollar and a haK first having\\npulled the little ones out between the slats\\nnot without some risk to both parties\\nto look at them and pass them round. The\\nvenders walked oif with grins of ill-concealed\\ntriumph. The Fates had been kind to them,\\nand they had three silver half-dollars in their\\npockets. I heard one of them say something\\nabout giving part of the money to a third\\nman who had told them where the nest was\\nbut his companion would listen to no such\\nfolly. He wouldn t come with us, he", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0107.jp2"}, "108": {"fulltext": "96 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nsaid, and we won t tell him a damned\\nthing. I fear there was nothing distinc-\\ntively Southern about tJiat,\\nHere, too, in the heart of the town, was\\na magnificent cluster of live-oaks, worth\\ncoming to Florida to see far-spreading, full\\nof ferns and air plants, and heavy with\\nhanging moss. Day after day I went\\nout to admire them. Under them was a\\nneglected orange grove, and in one of the\\norange-trees, amid the glossy foliage, ap-\\npeared my first summer tanager. It was\\na royal setting, and the splendid vermilion-\\nred bird was worthy of it. Among the\\noaks I walked in the evening, listening to\\nthe strange low chant of the chuck-will s-\\nwidow, a name which the owner himself\\npronounces with a rest after the first syl-\\nlable. Once, for two or three days, the\\ntrees were amazingly full of blue yellow-\\nbacked warblers. Numbers of them, a\\ndozen at least, could be heard singing at\\nonce directly over one s head, running up\\nthe scale not one after another, but literally\\nin unison. Here the tufted titmouse, the\\nvery soul of monotony, piped and piped\\nand piped, as if his diapason stop were", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0108.jp2"}, "109": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 97\\npulled out and stuck, and could not be\\npushed in again. He is an odd genius.\\nWith plenty of notes, he wearies you al-\\nmost to distraction, harping on one string\\nfor half an hour together. He is the one\\nSouthern bird that I should perhaps be\\nsorry to see common in Massachusetts but\\nthat perhaps is a large word. Many\\nyellow-throated warblers, silent as yet, were\\ncommonly in the live-oaks, and innumerable\\nmyrtle birds, also silent, with prairie war-\\nblers, black-and-white creepers, solitary vir-\\neos, an occasional chickadee, and many more.\\nIt was a birdy spot and just across the\\nway, on the shrubby island, were red-winged\\nblackbirds, who piqued my curiosity by\\nadding to the familiar conharee a final syl-\\nlable, the Florida termination, I called\\nit, which made me wonder whether, as\\nhas been the case with so many other Flor-\\nida birds, they might not turn out to be a\\ndistinct race, worthy of a name (Agelaius\\nphoeniceus something -or-other^ as well as of\\na local habitation. I suggest the question\\nto those whose business it is to be learned in\\nsuch matters.^\\n1 My suggestion, I now discover, since this paper was", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0109.jp2"}, "110": {"fulltext": "98 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\nThe tall grass about the borders of the\\nisland was alive with clapper rails. Before\\nI rose in the morning I heard them crying\\nin full chorus and now and then during\\nthe day something would happen, and all\\nat once they would break out with one\\nsharp volley, and then instantly all would\\nbe silent again. Theirs is an apt name,\\nRallus crepitans. Once I watched two of\\nthem in the act of crepitating, and ever\\nafter that, when the sudden uproar burst\\nforth, I seemed to see the reeds full of\\nbirds, each with his bill pointing skyward,\\nbearing his part in the salvo. So far as\\nI could perceive, they had nothing to fear\\nfrom human enemies. They ran about the\\nmud on the edge of the grass, especially\\nin the morning, looking like half-grown\\npullets. Their specialty was crab-fishing,\\nat which they were highly expert, plunging\\ninto the water up to the depth of their\\nfirst printed, was some years too late. Mr. Ridgway,\\nin his Manual of North American Birds (1887), had already\\ndescribed a subspecies of Florida redwings under the\\nname of Agelaius phoeniceus hryanti. Whether my New\\nSmyrna birds should come under that title cannot be told,\\nof course, in the absence of specimens but on the strength\\nof the song I venture to think it highly probable.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0110.jp2"}, "111": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 99\\nlegs, and handling and swallowing pretty\\nlarge specimens with surprising dexterity.\\nI was greatly pleased with them, as well\\nas with their local name, everybody s\\nchickens.\\nOnce I feared we had heard the last of\\nthem. On a day following a sudden fall\\nof the mercury, a gale from the north set\\nin at noon, with thunder and lightning,\\nhail, and torrents of rain. The river was\\nquickly lashed into foam, and the gale\\ndrove the ocean into it tlirough the inlet,\\ntill the shrubbery of the rails island barely\\nshowed above the breakers. The street was\\ndeep under water, and fears were enter-\\ntained for the new bridge and the road to\\nthe beach. All night the gale continued,\\nand all the next day till late in the after-\\nnoon and when the river should have been\\nat low tide, the island was still flooded.\\nGravitation was overmatched for the time\\nbeing. And where were the rails, I asked\\nmyself. They could swim, no doubt, when\\nput to it, but it seemed impossible that\\nthey could survive so fierce an inundation.\\nWell, the wind ceased, the tide went out\\nat last; and behold, the rails were in full", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0111.jp2"}, "112": {"fulltext": "100 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH.\\ncry, not a voice missing! How they had\\nmanaged it was beyond my ken.\\nAnother island, farther out than that of\\nthe rails (but the rails, like the long-billed\\nmarsh wrens, appeared to be present in\\nforce all up and down the river, in suitable\\nplaces), was occupied nightly as a crow-\\nroost. Judged by the morning clamor,\\nwhich, like that of the rails, I heard from\\nmy bed, its population must have been enor-\\nmous. One evening I happened to come\\nup the street just in time to see the hinder\\npart of the procession some hundreds of\\nbirds flying across the river. They came\\nfrom the direction of the pine lands in\\nlarger and smaller squads, and with but a\\nmoderate amount of noise moved straight\\nto their destination. All but one of them\\nso moved, that is to say. The performance\\nof that one exception was a mystery. He\\nrose high in the air, over the river, and\\nremained soaring all by himself, acting\\nsometimes as if he were catching insects,\\ntill the flight had passed, even to the last\\nscattering detachments. What could be\\nthe meaning of his eccentric behavior\\nSome momentary caprice had taken him,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0112.jp2"}, "113": {"fulltext": "ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 101\\nperhaps. Or was he, as I could not help\\nasking, some duly appointed officer of the\\nday, grand marshal, if you please,\\nwith a commission to see all hands in be-\\nfore retiring himself? He waited, at any\\nrate, till the final stragglers had passed;\\nthen he came down out of the air and fol-\\nlowed them. I meant to watch the ingath-\\nering a second time, to see whether this fea-\\nture of it would be repeated, but I was\\nnever there at the right moment. One can-\\nnot do everything.\\nNow, alas, Florida seems very far oif. I\\nam never likely to walk again under those\\nNew Smyrna live-oaks, nor to see again all\\nthat beauty of the Hillsborough. And yet,\\nin a truer and better sense of the word, I\\ndo see it, and shall. What a heavenly light\\nfalls at this moment on the river and the\\nisland woods Perhaps we must come back\\nto Wordsworth, after all,\\nThe light that never was, on sea or land.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0113.jp2"}, "114": {"fulltext": "A MORNING AT THE OLD SUGAR\\nMILL.i\\nOn the third or fourth clay of my sojourn\\nat the Live Oak Inn, the lady of the house,\\nnoticing my peripatetic habits, I suppose,\\nasked whether I had been to the old sugar\\nmill. The ruin is mentioned in the guide-\\nbooks as one of the historic features of the\\n1 I have called the ruin here spoken of a sugar mill\\nfor no better reason than because that is the name com-\\nmonly applied to it by the residents of the town. When\\nthis sketch was written, I had never heard of a theory\\nsince broached in some of our Northern newspapers, I\\nknow not by whom, that the edifice in question was\\nbuilt as a chapel, perhaps by Columbus himself I should\\nbe glad to believe it, and can only add my hope that he\\nwill be shown to have built also the so-called sugar mill\\na few miles north of New Smyrna, in the Dunlawton ham-\\nmock behind Port Orange. In that, to be sure, there is\\nstill much old machinery, but perhaps its presence would\\nprove no insuperable objection to a theory so pleasing.\\nIn matters of this kind, much depends upon subjective\\nconsiderations in one sense, at least, all things are pos-\\nsible to him that believeth. For my own part, I profess\\nno opinion. I am neither an archaeologist nor an ecclesi-\\nastic, and speak simply as a chance observer.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0114.jp2"}, "115": {"fulltext": "THE OLD SUGAR MILL. 103\\nancient settlement of New Smyrna, but I\\nliad forgotten the fact, and was thankful to\\nreceive a description of the place, as well as\\nof the road thither, a rather blind road,\\nmy informant said, with no houses at which\\nto inquire the way.\\nTwo or three mornings afterward, I set\\nout in the direction indicated. If the route\\nproved to be half as vague as my good lady s\\naccount of it had sounded, I should probably\\nnever find the mill but the walk would be\\npleasant, and that, after all, was the prin-\\ncipal consideration, especially to a man who\\njust then cared more, or thought he did^for\\na new bird or a new song than for an indefi-\\nnite number of eighteenth-century relics.\\nFor the first half-mile the road follows\\none of the old TurnbuU canals dug through\\nthe coquina stone which underlies the soil\\nhereabout then, after crossing the railway,\\nit strikes to the left through a piece of truly\\nmagnificent wood, known as the cotton-shed\\nhammock, because, during the war, cotton\\nwas stored here in readiness for the block-\\nade runners of Mosquito Inlet. Better than\\nanything I had yet seen, this wood answered\\nto my idea of a semi-tropical forest: live-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0115.jp2"}, "116": {"fulltext": "104 THE OLD SUGAR MILL.\\noaks, magnolias, palmettos, sweet gmns,\\nmaples, and hickories, with here and there a\\nlong-leaved pine overtopping all the rest.\\nThe palmettos, most distinctively Southern\\nof them all, had been badly used by their\\nhardier neighbors they looked stunted, and\\nalmost without exception had been forced\\nout of their normal perpendicular attitude.\\nThe live-oaks, on the other hand, were noble\\nspecimens lofty and wide-spreading, elm-\\nlike in habit, it seemed to me, though not\\nwithout the sturdiness which belongs as by\\nright to all oaks, and seldom or never to the\\nAmerican elm.\\nWhat gave its peculiar tropical character\\nto the wood, however, was not so much the\\ntrees as the profusion of plants that covered\\nthem and depended from them air-plants\\n(^TiUandsia),\\\\sirge and small, like pine-\\napples, with which they claim a family re-\\nlationship, the exuberant hanging moss,\\nitself another air-plant, ferns, and vines.\\nThe ferns, a species of polypody resur-\\nrection ferns, I heard them called), com-\\npletely covered the upper surface of many\\nof the larger branches, while the huge vines\\ntwisted about the trunks, or, quite as often,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0116.jp2"}, "117": {"fulltext": "THE OLD SUGAR MILL. 105\\ndropped straight from the treetops to the\\nground.\\nIn the very heart of this dense, dark for-\\nest (a forest primeval, I should have said,\\nbut I was assured that the ground had been\\nunder cultivation so recently that, to a prac-\\nticed eye, the cotton-rows were still visible)\\nstood a grove of wild orange-trees, the hand-\\nsome fruit glowing like lamps amid the deep\\ngreen foliage. There was little other bright-\\nness. Here and there in the undergrowth\\nwere yellow jessamine vines, but already\\nMarch 11 they were past flowering.\\nAlmost or quite the only blossom just now\\nin sight was the faithful round-leaved hous-\\ntonia, growing in small flat patches in the\\nsand on the edge of the road, with budding\\npartridge-berry a Yankee in Florida\\nto keep it company. Warblers and titmice\\ntwittered in the leafy treetops, and butter-\\nflies of several kinds, notably one gorgeous\\ncreature in yellow and black, like a larger\\nand more resplendent Turnus, went flutter-\\ning through the underwoods. I could have\\nbelieved myself in the heart of a limitless\\nforest but Florida hammocks, so far as I\\nhave seen, are seldom of great extent, and", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0117.jp2"}, "118": {"fulltext": "106 THE OLD SUGAR MILL.\\nthe road presently crossed another railway\\ntrack, and then, in a few rods more, came\\nout into the sunny pine-woods, as one might\\nemerge from a cathedral into the open day.\\nTwo men were approaching in a wagon (ex-\\ncept on Sunday, I am not certain that I ever\\nmet a foot passenger in the flat-woods), and\\nI improved the opportunity to make sure\\nof my course. Go about fifty yards, said\\none of them, and turn to the right then\\nabout fifty yards more, and turn to the left.\\nThat road will take you to the mill. Here\\nwas a man who had traveled in the pine\\nlands, where, of all places, it is easy to\\nget lost and hard to find yourself, and\\nnot only appreciated the value of explicit\\ninstructions, but, being a Southerner, had\\nleisure enough and politeness enough to give\\nthem. I thanked him, and sauntered on.\\nThe day was before me, and the place was\\nlively with birds. Pine-wood sparrows, pine\\nwarblers, and red-winged blackbirds were\\nin song two red-shouldered hawks were\\nscreaming, a flicker was shouting, a red-\\nbellied woodpecker cried kur-r-r-r, brown-\\nheaded nuthatches were gossii3ing in the dis-\\ntance, and suddenly I heard, what I never", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0118.jp2"}, "119": {"fulltext": "THE OLD SUGAR MILL. 107\\nthought to hear in a pinery, the croak of a\\ngreen heron. I turned quickly and saw him.\\nIt was indeed he. What a friend is igno-\\nrance, mother of all those happy surprises\\nwhich brighten existence as they pass, like\\nthe butterflies of the wood. The heron was\\nat home, and I was the stranger. For there\\nwas water near, as there is everywhere in\\nFlorida and subsequently, in this very\\nplace, I met not only the green heron, but\\nthree of his relatives, the great blue, the\\nlittle blue, and the dainty Louisiana, more\\npoetically known (and worthy to wear the\\nname) as the Lady of the Waters.\\nOn this first occasion, however, the green\\nheron was speedily forgotten for just then\\nI heard another note, unlike anything I had\\never heard before, as if a great Northern\\nshrike had been struck with preternatural\\nhoarseness, and, like so many other victims\\nof the Northern winter, had betaken himself\\nto a sunnier clime. I looked up. In the\\nleafy top of a pine sat a boat-tailed grackle,\\nsplendidly iridescent, engaged in a musical\\nperformance which afterward became almost\\ntoo familiar to me, but which now, as a\\nnovelty, was as interesting as it was gro-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0119.jp2"}, "120": {"fulltext": "108 THE OLD SUGAR MILL.\\ntesque. This, as well as I can describe it,\\nis what the bird was doing. He opened his\\nbill, set it, as it were, wide apart, and\\nholding it thus, emitted four or five rather\\nlong and very loud grating, shrikish notes\\nthen instantly shook his wings with an ex-\\ntraordinary flapping noise, and followed that\\nwith several highly curious and startling\\ncries, the concluding one of which sometimes\\nsuggested the cackle of a robin. All this\\nhe repeated again and again with the utmost\\nfervor. He could not have been more en-\\nthusiastic if he had been making the sweet-\\nest music in the world. And I confess that\\nI thought he had reason to be proud of\\nhis work. The introduction of wing-made\\nsounds in the middle of a vocal performance\\nwas of itself a stroke of something like\\ngenius. It put me in mind of the firing of\\ncannons as an accompaniment to the Anvil\\nChorus. Why should a creature of such\\ngifts be named for his bodily dimensions, or\\nthe shape of his tail Why not Quiscalus\\ngihnorius^ Gilmore s grackle\\nThat the sounds ivere wing-made I had\\nno thought of questioning. I had seen the\\nthing done, seen it and heard it and", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0120.jp2"}, "121": {"fulltext": "THE OLD SUGAR MILL. 109\\nwhat shall a man trust, if not his own eyes\\nand ears, especially when each confirms the\\nother? Two days afterward, nevertheless,\\nI began to doubt. I heard a grackle sing\\nin the manner just described, wing-beats and\\nall, while flying from one tree to another;\\nand later still, in a country where boat-tailed\\ngrackles were an every-day sight near the\\nheart of the village, I more than once saw\\nthem produce the sounds in question with-\\nout any perceptible movement of the wings,\\nand furthermore, their mandibles could be\\nseen moving in time with the beats. So\\nhard is it to be sure of a thing, even when\\nyou see it and hear it.\\nOh yes, some sharp-witted reader will\\nsay, you saw the wings flapping, beat-\\ning time, and so you imagined that the\\nsounds were like wing-beats. But for once\\nthe sharp-witted reader is in the wrong.\\nThe resemblance is not imaginary. Mr. F.\\nM. Chapman, in A List of Birds Observed\\nat Gainesville, Florida,^ says of the boat-\\ntailed grackle Quiscalus major) A sin-\\ngular note of this species greatly resembles\\nthe flapping of wings, as of a coot tripping\\n1 The Auk, vol. v. p. 273.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0121.jp2"}, "122": {"fulltext": "110 THE OLD SUGAR MILL.\\nover the water this sound was very familiar\\nto me, but so excellent is the imitation that\\nfor a long time I attributed it to one of the\\nnumerous coots which abound in most places\\nfavored by Q. major,\\nIf the sounds are not produced by the\\nwings, the question returns, of course, why\\nthe wings are shaken just at the right in-\\nstant. To that I must respond with the\\ntime -honored formula, Not prepared.\\nThe reader may believe, if he will, that\\nthe bird is aware of the imitative quality\\nof the notes, and amuses itself by heighten-\\ning the delusion of the looker-on. My own\\nmore commonplace conjecture is that the\\nsounds are produced by snappings and grat-\\nings of the big mandibles He is gritting\\nhis teeth, said a shrewd unornithological\\nYankee, whose opinion I had solicited), and\\nthat the wing movements may be nothing\\nbut involuntary accompaniments of this al-\\nmost convulsive action of the beak. But\\nperhaps the sounds are wing-made, after all.\\nOn the day of which I am writing, at\\nany rate, I was troubled by no misgivings.\\nI had seen something new, and was only\\ndesirous to see more of it. Who does not", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0122.jp2"}, "123": {"fulltext": "THE OLD SUGAR MILL. Ill\\nlove an original character? For at least\\nhalf an hour the old mill was forgotten,\\nwhile I chased the grackle about, as he flew\\nhither and thither, sometimes with a logger-\\nhead shrike in furious pursuit. Once I had\\ngone a few rods into the palmetto scrub,\\npartly to be nearer the bird, but still more\\nto enjoy the shadow of a pine, and was\\nstanding under the tree, motionless, when a\\nman came along the road in a gig. Sur-\\nveying? he asked, reining in his horse.\\nNo, sir; I am looking at a bird in the\\ntree yonder. I wished him to go on, and\\nthought it best to gratify his curiosity at\\nonce. He was silent a moment then he\\nsaid, Looking at the old sugar house from\\nthere? That was too preposterous, and\\nI answered with more voice, and perhaps\\nwith a touch of impatience, No, no I\\nam trying to see a bird in that pine-tree.\\nHe was silent again. Then he gathered up\\nthe reins. I m so deaf I can t hear you,\\nhe said, and drove on. Good-by, I re-\\nmarked, in a needless undertone you re\\na good man, I ve no doubt, but deaf people\\nshould n t be inquisitive at long range.\\nThe advice was sound enough, in itself", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0123.jp2"}, "124": {"fulltext": "112 THE OLD SUGAB MILL.\\nconsidered; properly understood, it might\\nbe held to contain, or at least to suggest,\\none of the profoundest, and at the same\\ntime one of the most practical, truths of all\\ndevout philosophy but the testiness of its\\ntone was little to my credit. He was a\\ngood man, and the village doctor, and\\nmore than once afterward put me under\\nobligation. One of his best appreciated\\nfavors was unintended and indirect. I was\\ndriving with him through the hammock,\\nand we passed a bit of swamj^. There\\nare some pretty flowers, he exclaimed I\\nthink I must get them. At the word he\\njumped out of the gig, bade me do the same,\\nhitched his horse, a half -broken stallion, to\\na sapling, and plunged into the thicket. I\\nstrolled elsewhere and by and by he came\\nback, a bunch of common blue iris in one\\nhand, and his shoes and stockings in the\\nother. They are very pretty, he ex-\\nplained (he spoke of the flowers), and it\\nis early for them. After that I had no\\ndoubt of his goodness, and in case of need\\nwould certainly have called him rather than\\nhis younger rival at the opposite end of the\\nvillage.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0124.jp2"}, "125": {"fulltext": "THE OLD SUGAR MILL. 113\\nWhen I tired of chasing the grackle, or\\nthe shrike had driven him away (I do not\\nremember now how the matter ended), I\\nstarted again toward the old sugar mill.\\nPresently a lone cabin came into sight.\\nThe grass-grown road led straight to it, and\\nstopped at the gate. Two women and a\\nbrood of children stood in the door, and in an-\\nswer to my inquiry one of the women (the\\nchildren had already scampered out of sight)\\ninvited me to enter the yard. Go round\\nthe house, she said, and you will find a\\nroad that runs right down to the mill.\\nThe mill, as it stands, is not much to\\nlook at some fragments of wall built of\\ncoquina stone, with two or three arched win-\\ndows and an arched door, the whole sur-\\nrounded by a modern plantation of orange-\\ntrees, now almost as much a ruin as the mill\\nitself. But the mill was built more than a\\nhundred years ago, and serves well enough\\nthe principal use of abandoned and decay-\\ning things, to touch the imagination.\\nFor myself, I am bound to say, it was a\\nprecious two hours that I passed beside it,\\nseated on a crumbling stone in the shade of\\na dying orange-tree.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0125.jp2"}, "126": {"fulltext": "114 THE OLD SUGAR MILL.\\nBehind me a redbird was whistling (car-\\ndinal grosbeak, I have been accustomed to\\ncall him, but I like the Southern name bet-\\nter, in spite of its ambiguity), now in eager,\\nrapid tones, now slowly and with a dying\\nfall. Now his voice fell almost to a whis-\\nper, now it rang out again but always it\\nwas sweet and golden, and always the bird\\nwas out of sight in the shrubbery. The\\norange-trees were in bloom the air was\\nfull of their fragrance, full also of the mur-\\nmur of bees. All at once a deeper note\\nstruck in, and I turned to look. A hum-\\nming-bird was hovering amid the white\\nblossoms and glossy leaves. 1 saw his\\nflaming throat, and the next instant he was\\ngone, like a flash of light, the first hum-\\nmer of the year. I was far from home, and\\nexpectant of new things. That, I dare say,\\nwas the reason why I took the sound at first\\nfor the boom of a bumble-bee some strange\\nMoridian bee, with a deeper and more me-\\nlodious bass than any Northern insect is\\nmaster of.\\nIt is good to be here, I say to myself, and\\nwe need no tabernacle. All things are in\\nharmony. A crow in the distance says", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0126.jp2"}, "127": {"fulltext": "THE OLD SUGAR MILL. 115\\ncaw, caw in a meditative voice, as if he, too,\\nwere thinking of clays past and not even\\nthe scream of a hen-hawk, off in the pine-\\nwoods, breaks the spell that is upon us. A\\nquail whistles, a true Yankee Bob White,\\nto judge him by his voice, and the white-\\neyed chewink (he is 7iot a Yankee) whistles\\nand sings by turns. The bluebird s warble\\nand the pine warbler s trill could never be\\ndisturbing to the quietest mood. Only one\\nvoice seems out of tune the white-eyed\\nvireo, even to-day, cannot forget his saucy\\naccent. But he soon falls silent. Perhaps,\\nafter all, he feels himself an intruder.\\nThe morning is cloudless and warm, till\\nsuddenly, as if a door had been opened east-\\nward, the sea breeze strikes me. Hence-\\nforth the temperature is perfect as I sit in\\nthe shadow. I think neither of heat nor of\\ncold. I catch a glimpse of a beautiful leaf-\\ngreen lizard on the gray trunk of an orange-\\ntree, but it is gone (I wonder where) almost\\nbefore I can say I saw it. Presently a\\nbrown one, with light-colored stripes and a\\nbluish tail, is seen traveling over the crum-\\nbling wall, running into crannies and out\\nagain. Now it stops to look at me with its", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0127.jp2"}, "128": {"fulltext": "116 THE OLD SUGAR MILL.\\njewel of an eye. And there, on the rustic\\narbor, is a third one, matching the un-\\npainted wood in hue. Its throat is white,\\nbut when it is inflated, as happens every\\nfew seconds, it turns to the loveliest rose\\ncolor. This inflated membrane should be\\na vocal sac, I think, but I hear no sound.\\nPerhaps the chameleon s voice is too fine for\\ndull human sense.\\nOn two sides of me, beyond the orange-\\ntrees, is a thicket of small oaks and cab-\\nbage palmettos, hammock, I suppose it\\nis called. In all other directions are the\\npine-woods, with their undergrowth of saw\\npalmetto. The cardinal sings from the\\nhammock, and so does the Carolina wren.\\nThe chewinks, the blackbirds (a grackle just\\nnow flies over, and a fish-hawk, also), with\\nthe bluebirds and the pine warblers, are in\\nthe pinery. From the same place comes\\nthe song of a Maryland yellow throat.\\nThere, too, the hen-hawks are screaming.\\nAt my feet are blue violets and white\\nhoustonia. Vines, thinly covered with fresh\\nleaves, straggle over the walls, Virginia\\ncreeper, poison ivy, grapevine, and at least\\none other, the name of which I do not know.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0128.jp2"}, "129": {"fulltext": "THE OLD SUGAR MILL. 117\\nA clump of tall blackberry vines is full of\\nwhite blossoms, bramble roses faint and\\npale, and in one corner is a tuft of scarlet\\nblooms, sage, perhaps, or something akin\\nto it. For the moment I feel no curiosity.\\nBut withal the place is unkempt, as be-\\ncomes a ruin. Winter s ragged hand\\nhas been rather heavy upon it. Withered\\npalmetto leaves and leaf-stalks litter the\\nground, and of course, being in Florida,\\nthere is no lack of orange-peel lying about.\\nEver since I entered the State a new Scrip-\\nture text has been running in my head In\\nthe place where the orange peel f alleth,\\nthere shall it lie.\\nThe mill, as I said, is now the centre of\\nan orange grove. There must be hundreds\\nof trees. All of them are smaU, but the\\ngreater part are already dead, and the rest\\nare dying. Those nearest the walls are\\nfullest of leaves, as if the walls somehow\\ngave them protection. The forest is creep-\\ning into the inclosure. Here and there the\\ngraceful palm-like tassel of a young long-\\nleaved pine rises above the tall winter-killed\\ngrass. It is not the worst thing about the\\nworld that it tends to run wild.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0129.jp2"}, "130": {"fulltext": "118 THE OLD SUGAR MILL.\\nNow the quail sings again, this time in\\ntwo notes, and now the hummer is again in\\nthe orange-tree. And all the while the red-\\nbird whistles in the shrubbery. He feels\\nthe beauty of the day. If I were a bird, I\\nwould sing with him. From far away comes\\nthe chant of a pine-wood sparrow. I can\\njust hear it.\\nThis is a place for dreams and quietness.\\nNothing else seems worth the having. Let\\nus feel no more the fever of life. Surely\\nthey are the wise who seek Nirvana who\\ninsist not upon themselves, but wait absorp-\\ntion reabsorption into the infinite.\\nThe dead have the better part. I think of\\nthe stirring, adventurous man who built\\nthese walls and dug these canals. His life\\nwas full of action, full of journeyings and\\nfightings. Now he is at peace, and his\\nworks do follow him into the land of for-\\ngetfulness. Blessed are the dead. Blessed,\\ntoo, are the bees, the birds, the butterflies,\\nand the lizards. Next to the dead, perhaps,\\nthey are happy. And I also am happy, for\\nI too am under the spell. To me also the\\nsun and the air are sweet, and I too, for to-\\nday at least, am careless of the world and\\nall its doings.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0130.jp2"}, "131": {"fulltext": "THE OLD SUGAB MILL. 119\\nSo I sat dreaming, when suddenly there\\nwas a stir in the grass at my feet. A snake\\nwas coming straight toward me. Only the\\nevening before a cracker had filled my ears\\nwith stories of rattlers and moccasins.\\nHe seemed to have seen them everywhere,\\nand to have killed them as one kills mosqui-\\ntoes. I looked a second time at the moving\\nthing in the grass. It was clothed in inno-\\ncent black but, being a son of Adam, I\\nrose with involuntary politeness to let it\\npass. An instant more, and it slipped into\\nthe masonry at my side, and I sat down\\nagain. It had been out taking the sun, and\\nhad come back to its hole in the wall. How\\nlike the story of my own day, of my\\nwhole winter vacation Nay, if we choose\\nto view it so, how like the story of human\\nlife itseK\\nAs I started homeward, leaving the mill\\nand the cabin behind me, some cattle were\\nfeeding in the grassy road. At sight of my\\numbrella (there are few places where a\\nsunshade is more welcome than in a Flor-\\nida pine-wood) they scampered away into\\nthe scrub. Poor, wild-eyed, hungry-looking\\nthings I thought of Pharaoh s lean kine.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0131.jp2"}, "132": {"fulltext": "120 THE OLD SUGAR MILL.\\nThey were like tlie country itself, I was\\nready to say. But perhaps I misjudged\\nboth, seeing both, as I did, in the winter\\nseason. With the mercury at 80\u00c2\u00b0, or there-\\nabout, it is hard for the Northern tourist\\nto remember that he is looking at a winter\\nlandscape. He compares a Florida winter\\nwith a New England summer, and can\\nhardly find words to tell you how barren\\nand poverty-stricken the country looks.\\nAfter this I went more than once to the\\nsugar mill. Morning and afternoon I vis-\\nited it, but somehow I could never renew\\nthe joy of my first visit. Moods are not\\nto be had for the asking, nor earned by a\\nwalk. The place was still interesting, the\\nbirds were there, the sunshine was pleasant,\\nand the sea breeze fanned me. The orange\\nblossoms were still sweet, and the bees still\\nhummed about them but it was another\\nday, or I was another man. In memory,\\nnone the less, all my visits blend in one,\\nand the ruined mill in the dying orchard re-\\nmains one of the bright spots in that strange\\nSouthern world which, almost from the mo-\\nment I left it behind me, began to fade into\\nindistinctness, like the landscape of a dream.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0132.jp2"}, "133": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nThe city of Sanford is a beautiful and\\ninteresting place, I hope, to those who live\\nin it. To the Florida tourist it is important\\nas lying at the head of steamboat navigation\\non the St. John s River, which here expands\\ninto a lake Lake Monroe some five\\nmiles in width, with Sanford on one side,\\nand Enterprise on the other or, as a wag-\\ngish traveler once expressed it, with Enter-\\nprise on the north, and Sanford and enter-\\nprise on the south.\\nWalking naturalists and lovers of things\\nnatural have their own point of view, indi-\\nvidual, unconventional, whimsical, if you\\nplease, very different, at all events, from\\nthat of clearer-witted and more serious-\\nminded men and the inhabitants of San-\\nford will doubtless take it as a compliment,\\nand be amused rather than annoyed, when I\\nconfess that I found their city a discourage-\\nment, a widespread desolation of houses and\\nshops. If there is a pleasant country road", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0133.jp2"}, "134": {"fulltext": "122 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nleading out of it in any direction, I was\\nunlucky enough to miss it. My melancholy\\ncondition was hit off before my eyes in a\\nparable, as it were, by a crowd of young\\nfellows, black and white, whom I found one\\nafternoon in a sand-lot just outside the city,\\nengaged in what was intended for a game\\nof baseball. They were doing their best,\\ncertainly they made noise enough but cir-\\ncumstances were against them. When the\\nball came to the ground, from no matter\\nwhat height or with what impetus, it fell\\ndead in the sand if it had been made of\\nsolid rubber, it could not have rebounded.\\nBase-running was little better than base-\\nwalking. SKding was safe, but, by the\\nsame token, impossible. Worse yet, at\\nevery foul strike or wild throw the\\nball was lost, and the barefooted fielders\\nhad to pick their way painfully about in the\\noutlying saw-palmetto scrub till they found\\nit. I had never seen our national game\\nplayed under conditions so untoward. None\\nbut true patriots would have the heart to try\\nit, I thought, and I meditated writing to\\nWashington, where the quadrennial purifica-\\ntion of the civil service was just then in prog-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0134.jp2"}, "135": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 123\\nress, under a new broom, to secure, if\\npossible, a few bits of recognition plums\\nis the technical term, I believe) for men so\\ndeserving. The first baseman certainly,\\nwho had oftenest to wade into the scrub,\\nshould have received a consulate, at the very\\nleast. Yet they were a merry crew, those\\nnational gamesters. Their patriotism was of\\nthe noblest type, the unconscious. They\\nhad no thought of being heroes, nor dreamed\\nof bounties or pensions. They quarreled\\nwith the umpire, of course, but not with\\nFate and I hope I profited by their ex-\\nample. My errand in Sanford was to see\\nsomething of the river in its narrower and\\nbetter part and having done that, I did not\\nregret what otherwise might have seemed a\\nprofitless week.\\nFirst, however, I walked about the city.\\nHere, as already at St. Augustine, and after-\\nward at Tallahassee, I found the mocking-\\nbirds in free song. They are birds of the\\ntown. And the same is true of the logger-\\nhead shrikes, a pair of which had built a\\nnest in a small water-oak at the edge of the\\nsidewalk, on a street corner, just beyond the\\nreach of passers-by. In the roadside trees", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0135.jp2"}, "136": {"fulltext": "124 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nall freshly planted, like the city were\\nmyrtle warblers, prairie warblers, and blue\\nyellowbacks, the two latter in song. Once,\\nafter a shower, I watched a myrtle bird\\nbathing on a branch among the wet leaves.\\nThe street gutters were running with sulphur\\nwater, but he had waited for rain. I com-\\nmended his taste, being myself one of those to\\nwhom water and brimstone is a combination\\nas malodorous as it seems unscriptural.\\nNoisy boat-tailed grackles, or jackdaws,\\nwere plentiful about the lakeside, mon-\\nstrously long in the tail, and almost as\\nlarge as the fish crows, which were often\\nthere with them. Over the broad lake\\nswept purple martins and white-breasted\\nswallows, and nearer the shore fed peace-\\nfully a few pied-billed grebes, or dabchicks,\\nbirds that I had seen only two or three\\ntimes before, and at which I looked more\\nthan once before I made out what they\\nwere. They had every appearance of pass-\\ning a winter of content. At the tops of\\nthree or four stakes, which stood above the\\nwater at wide intervals, and at long dis-\\ntances from the shore, sat commonly as\\nmany cormorants, here, as everywhere, with", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0136.jp2"}, "137": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 125\\nplenty of idle time upon their liands. On\\nthe other side of the city were orange groves,\\nlarge, well kept, thrifty looking the fruit\\nstill on the trees (March 20, or thereabouts),\\nor lying in heaps underneath, ready for the\\nboxes. One man s house, I remember, was\\nsurrounded by a fence overrun with Chero-\\nkee rosebushes, a full quarter of a mile of\\nwhite blossoms.\\nMy best botanical stroll was along one of\\nthe railroads (Sanford is a railway cen-\\ntre, so called), through a dreary sand\\nwaste. Here I picked a goodly number of\\nnovelties, including what looked like a\\nbeautiful pink chicory, only the plant itself\\nwas much prettier (^Lygodesmia) a very\\ncurious sensitive-leaved plant QScJiranhia)^\\ndensely beset throughout with curved\\nprickles, and bearing globes of tiny pink-\\npurple flowers a calopogon, quite as pretty\\nas our Northern jpuldiQlliLS a clematis\\n{Baldwinii)^ which looked more like a\\nbluebell than a clematis till I commenced\\npulling it to pieces and a great profusion\\nof one of the smaller papaws, or custard-\\napples, a low shrub, just then full of large,\\nodd shaped, creamy white, heavy scented", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0137.jp2"}, "138": {"fulltext": "126 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nblossoms. I was carrying a sprig of it in\\nmy hand when I met a negro. What is\\nthis I asked. I dunno, sir. Is n t\\nit papaw? No, sir, that ain t papaw\\nand then, as if he had just remembered\\nsomething, he added, That s dog banana.\\nOftener than anywhere else I resorted to\\nthe shore of the lake, to the one small\\npart of it, that is to say, which was at the\\nsame time easily reached and comparatively\\nunfrequented. There going one day far-\\nther than usual I found myself in the\\nborderland of a cypress swamp. On one\\nside was the lake, but between me and it\\nwere cypress-trees and on the other side\\nwas the swamp itself, a dense wood growing\\nin stagnant black water covered here and\\nthere with duckweed or some similar growth\\na frightful place it seemed, the very abode\\nof snakes and everything evil. Stories of\\nslaves hiding in cypress swamps came into\\nmy mind. It must have been cruel treat-\\nment that drove them to it Buzzards flew\\nabout my head, and looked at me. He\\nhas come here to die, I imagined them say-\\ning among themselves. No one comes\\nhere for anything else. Wait a little, and", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0138.jp2"}, "139": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 127\\nwe will pick his bones. They perched\\nnear by, and, not to lose time, employed the\\ninterval in drying their wings, for the night\\nhad been showery. Once in a while one of\\nthem shifted his perch with an ominous\\nrustle. They were waiting for me, and\\nwere becoming impatient. He is long\\nabout it, one said to another; and I did\\nnot wonder. The place seemed one from\\nwhich none who entered it could ever go\\nout; and there was no going farther in\\nwithout plunging into that horrible mire.\\nI stood still, and looked and listened. Some\\nstrange noise, bird or devil, came from\\nthe depths of the wood. A flock of grackles\\nsettled in a tall cypress, and for a time\\nmade the place loud. How still it was after\\nthey were gone I could hardly withdraw\\nmy gaze from the green water full of slimy\\nblack roots and branches, any one of which\\nmight suddenly lift its head and open its\\ndeadly white mouth Once a fish-hawk fell\\nto screaming farther down the lake. I had\\nseen him the day before, standing on the\\nrim of his huge nest in the top of a tree,\\nand uttering the same cries. All about\\nme gigantic cypresses, every one swollen", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0139.jp2"}, "140": {"fulltext": "128 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nenormously at the base, rose straight and\\nbranchless into the air. Dead trees, one\\nmight have said, light-colored, appar-\\nently with no bark to cover them but if I\\nglanced up, I saw that each bore at the top\\na scanty head of branches just now putting\\nforth fresh green leaves, while long funereal\\nstreamers of dark Spanish moss hung thickly\\nfrom every bough.\\nI am not sure how long I could have\\nstayed in such a spot, if I had not been able\\nto look now and then through the branches\\nof the under-woods out upon the sunny lake.\\nSwallows innumerable were playing over\\nthe water, many of them soaring so high as\\nto be all but invisible. Wise and happy\\nbirds, lovers of sunlight and air. They\\nwould never be found in a cypress swamp.\\nAlong the shore, in a weedy shallow, the\\npeaceful dabchicks were feeding. Far off\\non a post toward the middle of the lake\\nstood a cormorant. But I could not keep\\nmy eyes long at once in that direction. The\\ndismal swamp had me under its spell, and\\nmeanwhile the patient buzzards looked at\\nme. It is almost time, they said the\\nfever will do its work, and I began to", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0140.jp2"}, "141": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 129\\nbelieve it. It was too bad to come away;\\nthe stupid town offered no attraction but it\\nseemed perilous to remain. Perhaps I could\\nnot come away. I would try it and see. It\\nwas amazing that I could; and no sooner\\nwas I out in the sunshine than I wished I\\nhad stayed where I was; for having once\\nleft the place, I was never likely to find it\\nagain. The way was plain enough, to be\\nsure, and my feet would no doubt serve\\nme. But the feet cannot do the mind s part,\\nand it is a sad fact, one of the saddest in\\nlife, that sensations cannot be repeated.\\nWith the fascination of the swamp still\\nupon me, I heard somewhere in the distance\\na musical voice, and soon came in sight of a\\ngarden where a middle-aged negro was hoe-\\ning, hoeing and singing: a wild, minor,\\nendless kind of tune; a hymn, as seemed\\nlikely from a word caught here and there\\na true piece of natural melody, as artless as\\nany bird s. I walked slowly to get more\\nof it, and the happy-sad singer minded me\\nnot, but kept on with his hoe and his song.\\nPotatoes or corn, whatever his crop may have\\nbeen, I did not notice, or, if I did, I have\\nforgotten, it should have prospered under\\nhis hand.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0141.jp2"}, "142": {"fulltext": "130 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nFarther along, in the highway, a sandy\\ntrack, with wastes of scrub on either side,\\na boy of eight or nine, armed with a double-\\nbarreled gun, was lingering about a patch\\nof dwarf oaks and palmettos. Have n t\\ngot that rabbit yet, eh? said I. (I had\\npassed him there on my way out, and he\\nhad told me what he was after.)\\nNo, sir, he answered.\\nI don t believe there s any rabbit there.\\nYes, there is, sir I saw one a little\\nwhile ago, but he got away before I could\\nget pretty near.\\nGood I thought. Here is a gram-\\nmarian. Not one boy in ten in this country\\nbut would have said I seen. A scholar\\nlike this was worth talking with. Are\\nthere many rabbits here I asked.\\nYes, sir, there s a good deal.\\nAnd so, by easy mental stages, I was\\nclear of the swamp and back in the town,\\nsaved from the horrible, and delivered\\nto the commonplace and the dreary.\\nMy best days in Sanford were two that I\\nspent on the river above the lake. A youth-\\nful boatman, expert alike with the oar and\\nthe gun, served me faithfidly and well,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0142.jp2"}, "143": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 131\\nimpossible as it was for him to enter fully\\ninto the spirit of a man who wanted to look\\nat birds, but not to kill them. I think he\\nhad never before seen a customer of that\\nbreed. First he rowed me up the creek,\\nunder promise to show me alligators, moc-\\ncasins, and no lack of birds, including the\\nespecially desired purple gallinule. The\\nsnakes were somehow missing (a loss not\\nirreparable), and so were the purple galli-\\nnules for them, the boy thought, it was\\nstill rather early in the season, although he\\nhad killed one a few days before, and for\\nproof had brought me a wing. But as we\\nwere skirting along the shore I suddenly\\ncalled Hist An alligator lay on the\\nbank just before us. The boy turned his\\nhead, and instantly was all excitement. It\\nwas a big fellow, he said, one of three\\nbig ones that inhabited the creek. He would\\nget him this time. Are you sure? I\\nasked. Oh yes, I 11 blow the toj) of his\\nhead ofP. He was loaded for gallinules,\\nand I, being no sportsman, and never hav-\\ning seen an alligator before, was some\\nshades less confident. But it was his game,\\nand I left him to his way. He pulled the", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0143.jp2"}, "144": {"fulltext": "132 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nboat noiselessly against the bank in the\\nshelter of tall reeds, put down the oars, with\\nwhich he could almost have touched the\\nalligator, and took uj) his gun. At that\\nmoment the creature got wind of us, and\\nslipped incontinently into the water, not a\\nlittle to my relief. One live alligator is\\nworth a dozen dead ones, to my thinking.\\nHe showed his back above the surface of the\\nstream for a moment shortly afterward, and\\nthen disappeared for good.\\nOrnithologically, the creek was a disap-\\npointment. We pushed into one bay after\\nanother, among the dense bonnets,\\nhuge leaves of the common yellow pond lily,\\nbut found nothing that I had not seen\\nbefore. Here and there a Florida gallinule\\nput up its head among the leaves, or took\\nflight as we pressed too closely upon it but\\nI saw them to no advantage, and with a\\nsingle exception they were dumb. One bird,\\nas it dashed into the rushes, uttered two\\nor three cries that sounded familiar. The\\nFlorida gallinule is in general pretty silent,\\nI think but he has a noisy season then he\\nis indeed noisy enough. A swamp contain-\\ning a single pair might be supposed to be", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0144.jp2"}, "145": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 133\\npopulous with barn-yard fowls, the fellow\\nkeeps up such a clatter now loud and terror-\\nstricken, like a hen whose head is just go-\\ning to be cut off, as a friend once expressed\\nit then soft and full of content, as if the\\naforesaid hen had laid an egg ten minutes\\nbefore, and were still felicitating herself\\nupon the achievement. It was vexatious\\nthat here, in the very home of Florida galli-\\nnules, I should see and hear less of them\\nthan I had more than once done in Massa-\\nchusetts, where they are esteemed a pretty\\nchoice rarity, and where, in spite of what\\nI suppose must be called exceptional good\\nluck, my acquaintance with them had been\\nlimited to perhaps half a dozen birds. But\\nin affairs of this kind a direct chase is\\nseldom the best rewarded. At one point\\nthe boatman pulled up to a thicket of small\\nwillows, bidding me be prepared to see birds\\nin enormous numbers but we found only a\\nsmall company of night herons evidently\\nbreeding there and a green heron. The\\nlatter my boy shot before I knew what he\\nwas doing. He took my reproof in good\\npart, protesting that he had had only a\\nglimpse of the bird, and had taken it for a", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0145.jp2"}, "146": {"fulltext": "134 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\npossible gallinule. In the course of the trip\\nwe saw, besides the species already named,\\ngreat blue and little blue herons, pied-billed\\ngrebes, coots, cormorants, a flock of small\\nsandpipers (on the wing), buzzards, vul-\\ntures, fish-hawks, and innumerable red-\\nwinged blackbirds.\\nThree days afterward we went up the\\nriver. At the upper end of the lake were\\nmany white -billed coots (^Fidica ameri-\\nccma) so many that we did our best to\\ncount them as they rose, flock after flock,\\ndragging their feet over the water behind\\nthem with a multitudinous splashing noise.\\nThere were a thousand, at least. They had\\nan air of being not so very shy, but they\\nwere nobody s fools. See there my boy\\nwould exclaim, as a hundred or two of them\\ndashed past the boat see how they keep\\njust out of range\\nWe were hardly on the river itself before\\nhe fell into a state of something like frenzy\\nat the sight of an otter swimming before us,\\nshowing its head, and then diving. He\\nmade after it in hot haste, and fired I know\\nnot how many times, but all for nothing.\\nHe had killed several before now, he said,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0146.jp2"}, "147": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 135\\nbut liad never been obliged to chase one in\\ntbis fashion. Perhaps there was a Jonah in\\nthe ship for though I symj)athized with the\\nboy, I sympathized also, and still more\\nwarmly, with the otter. It acted as if life\\nwere dear to it, and for aught I knew it had\\nas good a right to live as either the boy or I.\\nNo such qualms disturbed me a few min-\\nutes later, when, as the boat was grazing the\\nreeds, I espied just ahead a snake lying in\\nwait among them. I gave the alarm, and\\nthe boy looked round. Yes, he said, a\\nbig one, a moccasin, a cotton-mouth but\\nI 11 fix him. He pulled a stroke or two\\nnearer, then lifted his oar and brought it\\ndown splash but the reeds broke the blow,\\nand the moccasin slipped into the water,\\napparently unharmed. That was a case for\\npowder and shot. Florida people have a\\npoor opinion of a man who meets a venom-\\nous snake, no matter where, without doing\\nhis best to kill it. How strong the feeling\\nis my boatman gave me proof within ten min-\\nutes after his failure with the cotton-mouth.\\nHe had puUed out into the middle of the\\nriver, when I noticed a beautiful snake, short\\nand rather stout, lying coiled on the water.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0147.jp2"}, "148": {"fulltext": "136 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nWhether it was an optical illusion I cannot\\nsay, but it seemed to me that the creature\\nlay entirely above the surface, as if it had\\nbeen an inflated skin rather than a live\\nsnake. We passed close by it, but it made\\nno offer to move, only darting out its tongue\\nas the boat slipped past. I spoke to the\\nboy, who at once ceased rowing.\\nI think I must go back and kill that\\nfellow, he said.\\nWhy so? I asked, with surprise, for I\\nhad looked upon it simply as a curiosity.\\nOh, I don t like to see it live. It s the\\npoisonousest snake there is.\\nAs he spoke he turned the boat but the\\nsnake saved him further trouble, for just\\nthen it uncoiled and swam directly toward\\nus, as if it meant to come aboard. Oh,\\nyou re coming this way, are you said the\\nboy sarcastically. Well, come on The\\nsnake came on, and when it got well within\\nrange he took up his fishing-rod (with hooks\\nat the end for drawing game out of the\\nreeds and bonnets), and the next moment\\nthe snake lay dead upon the water. He\\nslipped the end of the pole under it and\\nslung it ashore. There how do you like", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0148.jp2"}, "149": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 137\\nthat said lie, and he headed the boat\\nupstream again. It was a copper-bellied\\nmoccasin, he declared, whatever that may\\nbe, and was worse than a rattlesnake.\\nOn the river, as in the creek, we were\\ncontinually exploring bays and inlets, each\\nwith its promising patch of bonnets. Nearly\\nevery such place contained at least one\\nFlorida gallinule but where were the pur-\\nples, about which we kept talking, the\\nroyal purples, concerning whose beauty\\nmy boy was so eloquent\\nThey are not common yet, he would\\nsay. By and by they will be as thick\\nas Floridas are now.\\nBut don t they stay here all winter\\nNo, sir not the purples.\\nAre you certain about that\\nOh yes, sir. I have hunted this river\\ntoo much. They couldn t be here in the\\nwinter without my knowing it.\\nI wondered whether he could be right, or\\npartly right, notwithstanding the book state-\\nments to the contrary. I notice that Mr.\\nChapman, writing of his experiences with\\nthis bird at Gainesville, says, None were\\nseen until May 25, when, in a part of the", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0149.jp2"}, "150": {"fulltext": "138 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nlake before unvisited, a mass of floating\\nislands and bonnets, I found them not\\nuncommon. The boy s assertions may be\\nworth recording, at any rate.\\nIn one place he fired suddenly, and as he\\nput down the gun he exclaimed, There\\nI 11 bet I ve shot a bird you never saw\\nbefore. It had a bill as long as that,\\nwith one finger laid crosswise upon another.\\nHe hauled the prize into the boat, and sure\\nenough, it was a novelty, a king rail, new\\nto both of us. We had gone a little farther,\\nand were passing a prairie, on which were\\npools of water where the boy said he had\\noften seen large flocks of white ibises feeding\\n(there were none there now, alas, though we\\ncrept up with all cautiousness to peep over\\nthe bank), when all at once I descried some\\nsharp-winged, strange-looking bird over our\\nheads. It showed sidewise at the moment,\\nbut an instant later it turned, and I saw its\\nlong forked tail, and almost in the same\\nbreath its white head. A fork-tailed kite\\nand purple gallinules were for the time for-\\ngotten. It was performing the most grace-\\nful evolutions, swooping half-way to the\\nearth from a great height, and then sweep-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0150.jp2"}, "151": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 139\\ning upward again. Another minute, and I\\nsaw a second bird, farther away. I watched\\nthe nearer one till it faded from sight, soar-\\ning and swooping by turns, its long, scis-\\nsors-shaped tail all the while fully spread,\\nbut never coming down, as its habit is said\\nto be, to skim over the surface of the water.\\nThere is nothing more beautiful on wings,\\nI believe a large hawk, with a swallow s\\ngrace of form, color, and motion. I saw it\\nonce more (four birds) over the St. Mark s\\nRiver, and counted the sight one of the chief\\nrewards of my Southern winter.\\nAt noon we rested and ate our luncheon\\nin the shade of three or four tall palmetto-\\ntrees standing by themselves on a broad\\nprairie, a place brightened by beds of blue\\niris and stretches of golden senecio, home-\\nlike as well as pretty, both of them. Then\\nwe set out again. The day was intensely\\nhot (March 24), and my oarsman was more\\nthan half sick with a sudden cold. I begged\\nhim to take things easily, but he soon ex-\\nperienced an almost miraculous renewal of\\nhis forces. In one of the first of our after-\\ndinner bonnet patches, he seized his gun,\\nfired, and began to shout, A purple a pur-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0151.jp2"}, "152": {"fulltext": "140 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\npie He drew the bird in, as proud as\\na prince. There, sir he said did n t\\nI tell you it was handsome? It has every\\ncolor there is. And indeed it was hand-\\nsome, worthy to be called the Sultana\\nwith the most exquisite iridescent bluish-\\npurple plumage, the legs yellow, or greenish-\\nyellow (a point by which it may be distin-\\nguished from the Florida gallinule, as the\\nbird flies from you), the bill red tipped with\\npale green, and the shield (on the forehead,\\nlike a continuation of the upper mandible)\\nlight blue, of a peculiar shade, just as if it\\nhad been painted. From that moment the\\nboy was a new creature. Again and again\\nhe spoke of his altered feelings. He could\\npull the boat now anywhere I wanted to go.\\nHe was perfectly fresh, he declared, al-\\nthough I thought he had already done a\\npretty good day s work under that scorching-\\nsun. I had not imagined how deeply his\\nheart was set upon showing me the bird\\nI was after. It made me twice as glad to\\nsee it, dead though it was.\\nWithin an hour, on our way homeward,\\nwe came upon another. It sprang out of\\nthe lily pads, and sped toward the tall grass", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0152.jp2"}, "153": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 141\\nof the shore. Look! look! a purple!\\nthe boy cried. See his yeUow legs\\nInstinctively he raised his gun, but I said\\nNo. It would be inexcusable to shoot a\\nsecond one and besides, we were at that\\nmoment approaching a bird about which I\\nfelt a stronger curiosity, a snake-bird, or\\nwater-turkey, sitting in a willow shrub at\\nthe further end of the bay. Pull me as\\nnear it as it will let us come, I said. I\\nwant to see as much of it as possible. At\\nevery rod or two I stopped the boat and put\\nup my glasses, till we were within perhaps\\nsixty feet of the bird. Then it took wing,\\nbut instead of flying away went sweeping\\nabout us. On getting round to the willows\\nagain it made as if it would alight, uttering\\nat the same time some faint ejaculations,\\nlike ah ah ah but it kept on for a\\nsecond sweep of the circle. Then it j)erched\\nin its old place, but faced us a little less\\ndirectly, so that I could see the beautiful\\nsilver tracery of its wings, like the finest\\nof embroidery, as I thought. After we had\\neyed it for some minutes we suddenly per-\\nceived a second bird, ten feet or so from it,\\nin full sight. Where it came from, or how", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0153.jp2"}, "154": {"fulltext": "142 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nit got there, I have no idea. Our first bird\\nkept his bill parted, as if in distress a\\npeculiar action, which probably had some\\nconnection with the other bird s presence,\\nalthough the two paid no attention to each\\nother so far as we could make out. When\\nwe had watched them as long as we pleased,\\nI told the boy to pull the boat forward till\\nthey rose. We got within thirty feet, I\\nthink. At that point they took flight, and,\\nside by side, went soaring into the air, now\\nflapping their wings, now scaling in unison.\\nIt was beautiful to see. As they sat in the\\nwillows and gazed about, their long necks\\nwere sometimes twisted like corkscrews,\\nor so they looked, at all events.\\nThe water-turkey is one of the very odd-\\nest of birds. I am not likely to forget the\\nimpression made upon me by the first one\\nI saw. It was standing on a prostrate log,\\nbut rose, as I drew near, and, to my surprise,\\nmounted to a prodigious elevation, where\\nfor a long time it remained, sailing round\\nand round with all the grace of a hen-hawk\\nor an eagle. Its neck and head were tenu-\\nous almost beyond belief, like a knitting-\\nneedle, I kept repeating to myself. Its tail.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0154.jp2"}, "155": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 143\\ntoo, shaped like a narrow wedge, was uncon-\\nscionably long; and as tlie bird showed\\nagainst the sky, I could think of nothing\\nbut an animated sign of addition. A bet-\\nter man the Emperor Constantine, shall\\nwe say? might have seen in it a nobler\\nsymbol.\\nWhile we were loitering down the river,\\nlater in the afternoon, an eagle made its ap-\\npearance far overhead, the first one of the\\nday. The boy, for some reason, refused to\\nbelieve that it was an eagle. Nothing but a\\nsight of its white head and tail through the\\nglass could convince him. (The perfectly\\nsquare set of the wings as the bird sails is a\\npretty strong mark, at no matter what dis-\\ntance.) Presently an osprey, not far from\\nus, with a fish in his claws, set up a violent\\nscreaming. It is because he has caught a\\nfish, said the boy he is calling his mate.\\nNo, said I, it is because the eagle is\\nafter him. Wait a bit. In fact, the eagle\\nwas already in pursuit, and the hawk, as he\\nalways does, had begun struggling upward\\nwith all his might. That is the fish-hawk s\\nway of appealing to Heaven against his op.\\npressor. He was safe for that time. Three", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0155.jp2"}, "156": {"fulltext": "144 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nnegroes, sliad-fishers, were just beyond us\\n(we had seen them there in the morning,\\nwading about the river setting their nets),\\nand at the sight of them and of us, I have\\nno doubt, the eagle turned away. The boy\\nwas not peculiar in his notion about the os-\\nprey s scream. Some one else had told me\\nthat the bird always screamed after catch-\\ning a fish. But I knew better, having seen\\nhim catch a hundred, more or less, without\\nuttering a sound. The safe rule, in such\\ncases, is to listen to all you hear, and be-\\nlieve it after you have verified it for\\nyourself.\\nIt was while we were discussing this ques-\\ntion, I think, that the boy opened his heart\\nto me about my methods of study. He had\\nlooked through the glass now and then, and\\nof course had been astonished at its power.\\nWhy, he said finally, I never had any\\nidea it could be so much fun just to look at\\nbirds in the way you do I liked the turn\\nof his phrase. It seemed to say, Yes, I be-\\ngin to see through it. We are in the same\\nboat. This that you call study is only an-\\nother kind of sport. I could have shaken\\nhands with him but that he had the oars.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0156.jp2"}, "157": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 145\\nWho does not love to be flattered by an\\ningenuous boy\\nAll in all, the day had been one to be re-\\nmembered. In addition to the birds already\\nnamed three of them new to me we had\\nseen great blue herons, little blue herons,\\nLouisiana herons, night herons, cormorants,\\npied-billed grebes, kingfishers, red-winged\\nblackbirds, boat-tailed grackles, redpoll and\\nmyrtle warblers, savanna sparrows, tree\\nswallows, purple martins, a few meadow\\nlarks, and the ubiquitous turkey buzzard.\\nThe boat-tails abounded along the river\\nbanks, and, with their tameness and their\\nridiculous outcries, kept us amused whenever\\nthere was nothing else to absorb our atten-\\ntion. The prairie lands through which the\\nriver meanders proved to be surprisingly\\ndry and passable (the water being unusually\\nlow, the boy said), with many cattle pas-\\ntured upon them. Here we found the sa-\\nvanna sparrows here, too, the meadow larks\\nwere singing.\\nIt was a hard pull across the rough lake\\nagainst the wind (a dangerous sheet of\\nwater for flat-bottomed rowboats, I was told\\nafterward), but the boy was equal to it, pro-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0157.jp2"}, "158": {"fulltext": "146 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\ntesting that lie did n t feel tired a bit, now\\nwe liad got the purples and if he did not\\ncatch the fever from drinking some quarts\\nof river water (a big bottle of coffee having\\nproved to be only a drop in the bucket),\\nagainst my urgent remonstrances and his\\nown judgment, I am sure he looks back\\nupon the labor as on the whole well spent.\\nHe was going North in the spring, he told\\nme. May joy be with him wherever he is\\nThe next morning I took the steamer\\ndown the river to Blue Spring, a distance of\\nsome thirty miles, on my way back to New\\nSmyrna, to a place where there were accessi-\\nble woods, a beach, and, not least, a daily sea\\nbreeze. The river in that part of its course\\nis comfortably narrow, a great advantage,\\nwinding through cypress swamps, ham-\\nmock woods, stretches of prairie, and in one\\nplace a pine barren an interesting and\\nin many ways beautiful country, but so\\nunwholesome looking as to lose much of\\nits attractiveness. Three or four large al-\\nligators lay sunning themselves in the most\\nobliging manner upon the banks, here one\\nand there one, to the vociferovis delight of\\nthe passengers, who ran from one side of the", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0158.jp2"}, "159": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 147\\ndeck to the other, as the captain shouted\\nand pointed. One, he told us, was thirteen\\nfeet long, the largest in the river. Each\\nappeared to have its own well-worn sunning-\\nspot, and all, I believe, kept their places, as\\nif the passing of the big steamer almost\\ntoo big for the river at some of the sharper\\nturns had come to seem a commonplace\\nevent. Herons in the usual variety were\\npresent, with ospreys, an eagle, kingfishers,\\nground doves, Carolina doves, blackbirds\\n(red-wings and boat-tails), tree swallows,\\npurple martins, and a single wild turkey, the\\nfirst one I had ever seen. It was near the\\nbank of the river, on a bushy prairie, fully\\nexposed, and crouched as the steamer passed.\\nFor a Massachusetts ornithologist the mere\\nsight of such a bird was enough to make a\\npretty good Thanksgiving Day. Blue yel-\\nlow-backed warblers were singing here and\\nthere, and I retain a particular remembrance\\nof one bluebird that warbled to us from the\\npine-woods. The captain told me, some-\\nwhat to my surprise, that he had seen two\\nflocks of paroquets during the winter (they\\nhad been very abundant along the river\\nwithin his time, he said), but for me there", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0159.jp2"}, "160": {"fulltext": "148 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nwas no such fortune. One bird, soaring in\\ncompany with a buzzard at a most extraordi-\\nnary height straight over the river, gTeatly\\nexcited my curiosity. The captain declared\\nthat it must be a great blue heron but he\\nhad never seen one thus engaged, nor, so far\\nas I can learn, has any one else ever done so.\\nIts upper parts seemed to be mostly white,\\nand I can only surmise that it may have\\nbeen a sandhill crane, a bird which is said\\nto have such a habit.\\nAs I left the boat I had a little experience\\nof the seamy side of Southern travel no-\\nthing to be angry about, perhaps, but annoy-\\ning, nevertheless, on a hot day. I surren-\\ndered my check to the purser of the boat,\\nand the deck hands put my trunk upon the\\nlanding at Blue Spring. But there was no\\none there to receive it, and the station was\\nlocked. We had missed the noon train, with\\nwhich we were advertised to connect, by so\\nmany hours that I had ceased to think about\\nit. Finally, a negro, one of several who\\nwere fishing thereabouts, advised me to go\\nup to the house, which he pointed out be-\\nhind some woods, and see the agent. This\\nI did, and the agent, in turn, advised me to", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0160.jp2"}, "161": {"fulltext": "ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S. 149\\nwalk up the track to the Junction, and\\nbe sure to tell the conductor, when the even-\\ning train arrived, as it probably would do\\nsome hours later, that I had a trunk at the\\nlanding. Otherwise the train woiUd not run\\ndown to the river, and my baggage would lie\\nthere till Monday. He would go down pres-\\nently and put it under cover. Happily, he\\nfulfilled his promise, for it was already be-\\nginning to thunder, and soon it rained in\\ntorrents, with a cold wind that made the hot\\nweather all at once a thing of the past.\\nIt was a long wait in the dreary little\\nstation or rather it would have been, had\\nnot the tedium of it been relieved by the\\npresence of a newly married couple, whose\\nhoneymoon was just then at the full. Their\\ndelight in each other was exuberant, effer-\\nvescent, beatific, what shall I say quite\\nbeyond veiling or restraint. At first I be-\\nstowed upon them sidewise and cornerwise\\nglances only, hiding bashfully behind my\\nspectacles, as it were, and pretending to see\\nnothing but I soon perceived that I was to\\nthem of no more consequence than a fly on\\nthe wall. If they saw me, which sometimes\\nseemed doubtful, for love is blind, they", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0161.jp2"}, "162": {"fulltext": "150 ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN S.\\nevidently thonglit me too sensible, or too old,\\nto mind a little billing and cooing. And\\nthey were right in their opinion. What was\\nI in Florida for, if not for the study of nat-\\nural history? And truly, I have seldom\\nseen, even among birds, a pair less sophisti-\\ncated, less cabined and confined by that dis-\\nastrous knowledge of good and evil which is\\ncommonly understood to have resulted from\\nthe eating of forbidden fruit, and which\\namong prudish people goes by the name of\\nmodesty. It was refreshing. Charles\\nLamb himself would have enjoyed it, and, I\\nshould hope, wovdd have added some quali-\\nfying footnotes to a certain unamiable essay\\nof his concerning the behavior of married\\npeople.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0162.jp2"}, "163": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD.\\nOne of my first inquiries at Tallahassee\\nwas for the easiest way to the woods. The\\ncity is built on a hill, with other hills about\\nit. These are mostly under cultivation, and\\nsuch woods as lay within sight seemed to\\nbe pretty far off and with the mercury at\\nninety in the shade, long tramps were almost\\nout of the question. Take the St. Augus-\\ntine road, said the man to whom I had\\nspoken and he pointed out its beginning\\nnearly opposite the state capitol. After\\nbreakfast I followed his advice, with results\\nso pleasing that I found myself turning\\nthat corner again and again as long as I\\nremained in Tallahassee.\\nThe road goes abruptly downhill to the\\nrailway track, first between deep red gulches,\\nand then between rows of negro cabins, each\\nwith its garden of rosebushes, now (early\\nApril) in full bloom. The deep sides of\\nthe gulches were draped with pendent Ian-\\ntana branches full of purple flowers, or,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0163.jp2"}, "164": {"fulltext": "152 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD.\\nmore beautiful still, with a profusion of\\nfragrant white honeysuckle. On the road-\\nside, between the wheel-track and the gulch,\\ngrew brilliant Mexican poppies, with Ye-\\nnus s looking-glass, yellow oxalis, and beds\\nof blackberry vines. The woods of which\\nmy informant had spoken lay a little beyond\\nthe railway, on the right hand of the road,\\njust as it began another ascent. I entered\\nthem at once, and after a semicircular tm^n\\nthrough the pleasant paths, amid live-oaks,\\nwater-oaks, red oaks, chestnut oaks, mag-\\nnolias, beeches, hickories, hornbeams, sweet\\ngums, sweet bays, and long-leaved and\\nshort-leaved pines, came out into the road\\nagain a quarter of a mile farther up\\nthe hill. They were the fairest of woods\\nto stroll in, it seemed to me, with paths\\nenough, and not too many, and good\\nenough, but not too good; that is to say,\\nthey were footpaths, not roads, though\\nafterwards, on a Sunday afternoon, I met\\ntwo young fellows riding through them on\\nbicycles. The wood was delightful, also,\\nafter my two months in eastern Florida, for\\nlying on a slope, and for having an under-\\ngrowth of loose shrubbery instead of a", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0164.jp2"}, "165": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD. 153\\njungle of scrub oak and saw palmetto. Blue\\njays and crested flycatchers were doing-\\ntheir best to outscream one another, with\\nthe odds in favor of the flycatchers, and\\na few smaller birds were singing, especially\\ntwo or three smnmer tanagers, as many\\nyellow-throated warblers, and a ruby-crowned\\nkinglet. In one part of the wood, near\\nwhat I took to be an old city reservoir, I\\ncame upon a single white-throated sparrow\\nand a humming-bird, the latter a strangely\\nuncommon sight in Tallahassee, where, of\\nall the places I have ever seen, it ought to\\nfind itself in clover. Here, too, were a pair\\nof Carolina wrens, just now in search of\\na building-site, and conducting themselves\\nexactly in the manner of bluebirds intent\\non such business peeping into every hole\\nthat ofPered itself, and then, after the brief-\\nest interchange of opinion, mifavorable\\non the female s part, if we may guess,\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\nconcluding to look a little farther.\\nAs I struck the road again, a man came\\nalong on horseback, and we fell into conver-\\nsation about the country. A lovely comi-\\ntry, he called it, and I agreed with him.\\nHe inquired where I was from, and 1 men-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0165.jp2"}, "166": {"fulltext": "154 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE BOAT).\\ntioned that I liad lately been in southern\\nFlorida, and found this region a strong\\ncontrast. Yes, he returned and, point-\\ning to the grass, he remarked upon the\\nrichness of the soil. This yere land would\\nfertilize that, he said, speaking of southern\\nFlorida. I should n t wonder, said I. I\\nmeant to be understood as concurring in his\\nopinion, but such a qualified, Yankeefied\\nassent seemed to him no assent at all. Oh,\\nit will, it will he responded, as if the\\npoint were one about which I must on no\\naccount be left unconvinced. He told me\\nthat the fine house at which I had looked, a\\nlittle distance back, through a long vista of\\ntrees, was the residence of Captain H., who\\nowned all the land along the road for a\\ngood distance. I inquired how far the road\\nwas pretty, like this. For forty miles, he\\nsaid. That was farther than I was ready to\\nwalk, and coming soon to the top of the hill,\\nor, more exactly, of the jjlateau, I stopped\\nin the shade of a china-tree, and looked at\\nthe pleasing prospect. Behind me was a\\nplantation of young pear-trees, and before\\nme, among the hills northward, lay broad,\\ncultivated slopes, dotted here and there with", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0166.jp2"}, "167": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD. 155\\ncabins and tall, solitary trees. On the\\nnearer slope, perhaps a sixteenth of a mile\\naway, a negro was ploughing, with a single\\nox harnessed in some primitive manner,\\nwith pieces of wood, for the most part, as\\nwell as I could make out through an operar\\nglass. The soil offered the least possible\\nhindrance, and both he and the ox seemed\\nto be having a literal walk-over. Beyond\\nhim a full half-mile away, perhaps an-\\nother man was ploughing with a mule and\\nin another direction a third was doing like-\\nwise, with a woman following in his wake.\\nA colored boy of seventeen I guessed his\\nage at twenty-three came up the road in a\\ncart, and I stopped him to inquire about the\\ncrops and other matters. The land in front\\nof me was planted with cotton, he said and\\nthe men ploughing in the distance were get-\\nting ready to plant the same. They hired\\nthe land and the cabins of Captain H., pay-\\ning him so much cotton (not so much an\\nacre, but so much a mule, if I understood\\nhim rightly) by way of rent. We talked a\\nlong time about one thing and another. He\\nhad been south as far as the Indian River\\ncountry, but was glad to be back again in", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0167.jp2"}, "168": {"fulltext": "156 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE BO AD.\\nTallaliassee, where he was born. I asked\\nhim about the road, how far it went. They\\ntell me it goes smack to St. Augustine,\\nhe replied I ain t tried it. It was an\\nunlikely story, it seemed to me, but I was\\nassured afterward that he was right that\\nthe road actually runs across the country\\nfrom Tallahassee to St. Augustine, a dis-\\ntance of about two hundred miles. With\\ncompany of my own choosing, and in cooler\\nweather, I thought I should like to walk its\\nwhole length.^ My young man was in no\\nhaste. With the reins (made of rope, after\\na fashion much followed in Florida) lying\\non the forward axle of his cart, he seemed to\\nhave put himself entirely at my service.\\nHe had to the full that peculiar urbanity\\nwhich I began after a while to look upon as\\ncharacteristic of Tallahassee negroes, a\\ngentleness of speech, and a kindly, deferen-\\ntial air, neither forward nor servile, such as\\n1 But let no enthusiast set out to walk from one city to\\nthe other on the strength of what is here written. After\\nthis sketch was first printed in The Atlantic Monthly\\na gentleman who ought to know whereof he speaks sent\\nme word that my informants were all of them wrong\\nthat the road does not run to St. Augustine. For myself,\\nI assert nothing. As my colored hoy said, I ain t tried it.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0168.jp2"}, "169": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE BO AD. 157\\nsits well on any man, whatever the color of\\nhis skin.\\nIn that respect he was like another boy of\\nabout his own age, who lived in the cabin\\ndirectly before us, but whom I did not see\\ntill I had been several times over the road.\\nThen he happened to be at work near the\\nedge of the field, and I beckoned him to me.\\nHe, too, was serious and manly in his bear-\\ning, and showed no disposition to go back to\\nhis hoe till I broke off the interview, as if\\nit were a point of good manners with him to\\nawait my pleasure. Yes, the plantation was\\na good one and easily cultivated, he said, in\\nresponse to some remark of my own. There\\nwere five in the family, and they all worked.\\nWe are all big enough to eat, he added,\\nquite simply. He had never been North,\\nbut had lately declined the offer of a gen-\\ntleman who wished to take him there,\\nhim and another fellow. He once went\\nto Jacksonville, but could n t stay. You\\ncan get along without your father pretty\\nwell, but it s another thing to do without\\nyour mother. He never meant to leave\\nhome again as long as his mother lived;\\nwhich was likely to be for some years, I", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0169.jp2"}, "170": {"fulltext": "158 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD.\\nthought, if she were still able to do her part\\nin the cotton-field. As a general thing, the\\ncolored tenants of the cabins made out\\npretty well, he believed, unless something\\nhappened to the crops. As for the old ser-\\nvants of the H. family, they did n t have to\\nwork, they were provided for Captain\\nH. s father left it so in his testimonial.\\nI spoke of the purple martins which were\\nflying back and forth over the field with\\nmany cheerful noises, and of the calabashes\\nthat hung from a tall pole in one corner of\\nthe cabin yard, for their accommodation.\\nOn my way South, I told him, I had noticed\\nthese dangling long-necked squashes every-\\nwhere, and had wondered what they were\\nfor. I had found out since that they were\\nthe colored man s martin-boxes, and was\\nglad to see the people so fond of the birds.\\nYes, he said, there s no danger of\\nhawks carrying off the chickens as long as\\nthe martins are round.\\nTwice afterward, as I went up the road, I\\nfound him ploughing between the cotton\\nrows but he was too far away to be ac-\\ncosted without shouting, and I did not feel\\njustified in interrupting him at his work.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0170.jp2"}, "171": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD. 159\\nBack and forth he went through the long\\nfurrow after the patient ox, the hens and\\nchickens following. No doubt they thought\\nthe work was all for their benefit. Farther\\naway, a man and two women were hoeing.\\nThe family deserved to prosper, I said to\\nmyself, as I lay under a big magnolia-tree\\n(just beginning to open its large white\\nflowers) and idly enjoyed the scene. And\\nit was just here, by the bye, that I solved\\nan interesting etymological puzzle, to wit,\\nthe origin and precise meaning of the word\\nbaygall, a word which the visitor often\\nhears upon the lips of Florida people. An\\nold hunter in Smyrna, when I questioned\\nhim about it, told me that it meant a swampy\\npiece of wood, and took its origin, he had\\nalways supposed, from the fact that bay-\\ntrees and gall-bushes commonly grew in\\nsuch places. A Tallahassee gentleman\\nagreed with this explanation, and promised\\nto bring home some gall-berries the next\\ntime he came across any, that I might see\\nwhat they were but the berries were never\\nforthcoming, and I was none the wiser, till,\\non one of my last trips up the St. Augustine\\nroad, as I stood under the large magnolia", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0171.jp2"}, "172": {"fulltext": "160 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE BO AD.\\njust mentioned, a colored man came along,\\nhat in hand, and a bag of grain balanced on\\nhis head.\\nThat s a large magnolia, said I.\\nHe assented.\\nThat s about as large as magnolias ever\\ngrow, is n t it\\nNo, sir down in the gall there s mag-\\nnolias a heap bigger n that.\\nA gall? What s that?\\nA bay gall, sir.\\nAnd what s a baygall\\nA big wood.\\nAnd why do you call it a baygall?\\nHe was stumped, it was plain to see. No\\ndoubt he would have scratched his head, if\\nthat useful organ had been accessible. He\\nhesitated but it is n t like an uneducated\\nman to confess ignorance. Cause it s a\\ndesert, he said, a thick Zace.\\nYes, yes, I answered, and he resumed\\nhis march.\\nThe road was traveled mostly by negroes.\\nOn Sunday afternoons it looked quite like\\na flower garden, it was so full of bright\\ndresses coming home from church. Now\\ndays folks git religion so easy one young", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0172.jp2"}, "173": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD, 161\\nwoman said to another, as they passed me.\\nShe was a conservative. I did not join the\\nprocession, but on other days I talked, first\\nand last, with a good many of the people\\nfrom the preacher, who carried a handsome\\ncane and made me a still handsomer bow,\\ndown to a serious little fellow of six or seven\\nyears, whom I found standing at the foot of\\nthe hill, beside a bundle of dead wood. He\\nwas carrying it home for the family stove,\\nand had set it down for a minute s rest. I\\nsaid something about his burden, and as I\\nwent on he called after me What kind of\\nbirds are you hunting for? Ricebirds? I\\nanswered that I was looking for birds of all\\nsorts. Had he seen any ricebirds lately?\\nYes, he said he started a flock the other day\\nup on the hill. How did they look said\\nI. They is red blackbirds, he returned.\\nThis was not the first time I had heard the\\nredwing called the ricebird. But how did\\nthe boy know me for a bird-gazer? That\\nwas a mystery. It came over me all at once\\nthat possibly I had become better known in\\nthe community than I had in the least sus-\\nHe did not say upon any more than Northern\\nwhite boys do.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0173.jp2"}, "174": {"fulltext": "162 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD.\\npected; and then I remembered my field-\\nglass. That, as I could not help being-\\naware, was an object of continual attention.\\nEvery day I saw people, old and young,\\nblack and white, looking at it with undis-\\nguised curiosity. Often they passed audible\\ncomments upon it among themselves. How\\nfar can you see through the spyglass a\\nbolder spirit would now and then venture to\\nask and once, on the railway track out in\\nthe pine lands, a barefooted, happy-faced\\nurchin made a guess that was really admira-\\nble for its ingenuity. Looks like you re\\ngoin over inspectin the wire, he remarked.\\nOn rare occasions, as an act of special grace,\\nI offered such an inquirer a peep through the\\nmagic lenses, an experiment that never\\nfailed to elicit exclamations of wonder.\\nThing^s were so near And the observer\\nlooked comically incredulous, on putting\\ndown the glass, to find how suddenly the\\nlandscape had slipped away again. More\\nthan one colored man wanted to know its\\nprice, and expressed a fervent desire to\\npossess one like it and probably, if I had\\never been assaulted and robbed in all my\\nsolitary wanderings through the flat-woods", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0174.jp2"}, "175": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD. 163\\nand other lonesome places, my spyglass\\nrather than my purse the lust of the\\neye rather than the pride of life\\nwould have been to thank.\\nHere, however, there could be no thought\\nof such a contingency. Here were no vaga-\\nbonds (one inoffensive Yankee sj)ecimen\\nexcepted), but hard-working people going\\ninto the city or out again, each on his own\\nlawful business. Scarcely one of them, man\\nor woman, but greeted me kindly. One, a\\nwhite man on horseback, invited, and even\\nurged me, to mount his horse, and let him\\nwalk a piece. I must be fatigued, he was\\nsure, how could I help it and he\\nwould as soon walk as not. Finding me\\nobstinate, he walked his horse at my side,\\nchatting about the country, the trees, and\\nthe crops. He it was who called my partic-\\nular attention to the abundance of black-\\nberry vines. Are the berries sweet I\\nasked. He smacked his lij)s. Sweet as\\nhoney, and big as that, measuring off a\\nliberal portion of his thumb. I spoke of\\nthem half an hour later to a middle-aged\\ncolored man. Yes, he said, the blackberries\\nwere plenty enough and sweet enough but.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0175.jp2"}, "176": {"fulltext": "164 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD.\\nfor his part, he did n t trouble them a great\\ndeal. The vines (and he pointed at them,\\nfringing the roadside indefinitely) were\\ngreat places for rattlesnakes. He liked the\\nberries, but he liked somebody else to pick\\nthem. He was awfully afraid of snakes;\\nthey were so dangerous. Yes, sir (this\\nin answer to an inquiry), there are plenty\\nof rattlesnakes here clean up to Christmas.\\nI liked him for his frank avowal of coward-\\nice, and still more for his quiet bearing.\\nHe remembered the days of slavery, be-\\nfore the surrender, as the current Southern\\nphrase is, and his face beamed when I\\nspoke of my joy in thinking that his peo-\\nple were free, no matter what might befall\\nthem. He, too, raised cotton on hired land,\\nand was bringing up his children there\\nwere eight of them, he said to habits of\\nindustry.\\nMy second stroll toward St. Augustine\\ncarried me perhaps three miles, say one\\nsixty-sixth of the entire distance, and\\nnone of my subsequent excursions took me\\nany farther; and having just now com-\\nmended a negro for his candor, I am moved\\nto acknowledge that, between the sand un-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0176.jp2"}, "177": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD. 165\\nderfoot and the sun overhead, I found the\\nsix miles, which I spent at least four hours\\nin accomplishing, more fatiguing than twice\\nthat distance would have been over New\\nHampshire hills. If I were to settle in that\\ncountry, I should probably fall into the\\nway of riding more, and walking less. I\\nremember thinking how comfortable a cer-\\ntain ponderous black mammy looked, whom\\nI met on one of these same sunny and sandy\\ntramps. She sat in the very middle of a\\ntipcart, with an old and truly picturesque\\nman s hat on her head (quite in the fashion,\\nfeminine readers will notice), driving a one-\\nhorned ox with a pair of clothes-line reins.\\nShe was traveling slowly, just as I like to\\ntravel; and, as I say, I was impressed by\\nher comfortable appearance. Why would\\nnot an equipage like that be just the thing\\nfor a naturalistic idler?\\nNot far beyond my halting-place of two\\ndays before I came to a Cherokee rosebush,\\none of the most beautiful of plants, white,\\nfragrant, single roses (^real roses) set in the\\nmidst of the handsomest of glossy green\\nleaves. I was delighted to find it still in\\nflower. A hundred miles farther south I", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0177.jp2"}, "178": {"fulltext": "166 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD.\\nhad seen it finishing its season a full month\\nearlier. I stopped, of course, to pluck a\\nblossom. At that moment a female redbird\\nflew out of the bush. Her mate was beside\\nher instantly, and a nameless something in\\ntheir manner told me they were trying to\\nkeep a secret. The nest, built mainly of\\npine needles and other leaves, was in the\\nmiddle of the bush, a foot or two from the\\ngrass, and contained two bluish or greenish\\neggs thickly spattered with dark brown. I\\nmeant to look into it again (the owners\\nseemed to have no great objection), but\\nsomehow missed it every time I passed.\\nFrom that point, as far as I went, the road\\nwas lined with Cherokee roses, not con-\\ntinuously, but with short intermissions and\\nfrom the number of redbirds seen, almost\\ninvariably in pairs, I feel safe in saying that\\nthe nest I had found was probably one of\\nfifteen or twenty scattered along the way-\\nside. How gloriously the birds sang It\\nwas their day for singing. I was ready to\\nchristen the road anew, Redbird Road.\\nBut the redbirds, many and conspicuous\\nas they were, had no monopoly of the road\\nor of the day. House wrens were equally", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0178.jp2"}, "179": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD. 167\\nnumerous and equally at liome, tliougli they\\nsang more out of sight. Red-eyed chewinks,\\nstill far from their native berry pastures,\\nhopped into a bush to cry, Who s he\\nat the passing of a stranger, in whom, for\\naught I know, they may have half recognized\\nan old acquaintance. A bunch of quails ran\\nacross the road a little in front of me, and\\nin another place fifteen or twenty red-winged\\nblackbirds (not a red wing among them) sat\\ngossiping in a treetop. Elsewhere, even\\nlater than this (it was now April 7), I saw\\nflocks, every bird of which wore shoulder-\\nstraps, like the traditional militia com-\\npany, all officers. Thei/ did not gossip, of\\ncourse (it is the male that sports the red),\\nbut they made a lively noise.\\nAs for the mocking-birds, they were at\\nthe front here, as they were everywhere.\\nDuring my fortnight in Tallahassee there\\nwere never many consecutive five minutes of\\ndaylight in which, if I stopped to listen,\\nI could not hear at least one mocker.\\nOftener two or three were singing at once\\nin as many different directions. And,\\nspeaking of them, I must speak also of their\\nmore northern cousin. From the day I", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0179.jp2"}, "180": {"fulltext": "168 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE BOAT).\\nentered Florida I had been saying that the\\nmocking-bird, save for his occasional mim-\\nicry of other birds, sang so exactly like the\\nthrasher that I did not believe I could tell\\none from the other. Now, however, on this\\nSt. Augustine road, I suddenly became\\naware of a bird singing somewhere in ad-\\nvance, and as I listened again I said aloud,\\nwith full persuasion, There that s a\\nthrasher There was a something of dif-\\nference a shade of coarseness in the voice,\\nperhaps a tendency to force the tone, as\\nwe say of human singers, a something, at\\nall events, and the longer I hearkened, the\\nmore confident I felt that the bird was a\\nthrasher. And so it was, the first one I\\nhad heard in Florida, although I had seen\\nmany. Probably the two birds have pecu-\\nliarities of voice and method that, with\\nlonger familiarity on the listener s part,\\nwould render them easily distinguishable.\\nOn general principles, I must believe that\\nto be true of all birds. But the experience\\njust described is not to be taken as prov-\\ning that have any such familiarity.\\nWithin a week afterward, while walking\\nalong the railway, I came upon a thrasher", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0180.jp2"}, "181": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD. 169\\nand a mocking-bird singing side by side;\\nthe mocker upon a telegraph pole, and the\\nthrasher on the wire, halfway between the\\nmocker and the next pole. They sang and\\nsang, while I stood between them in the cut\\nbelow and listened and if my life had de-\\npended on my seeing how one song differed\\nfrom the other, I could not have done it.\\nWith my eyes shut, the birds might have\\nchanged places, if they could have done\\nit quickly enough, and I should have\\nbeen none the wiser.\\nAs I have said, I followed the road over\\nthe nearly level plateau for what I guessed\\nto be about three miles. Then I found my-\\nself in a bit of hollow that seemed made\\nfor a stopping-place, with a plantation road\\nrunning off to the right, and a hillside corn-\\nfield of many acres on the left. In the field\\nwere a few tall dead trees. At the tip of\\none sat a sparrow-hawk, and to the trunk\\nof another clung a red-bellied woodpecker,\\nwho, with characteristic foolishness, sat be-\\nside his hole calling persistently, and then,\\nas if determined to publish what other birds\\nso carefully conceal, went inside, thrust out\\nhis head, and resumed his clatter. Here,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0181.jp2"}, "182": {"fulltext": "170 ON THE ST, AUGUSTINE ROAD.\\ntoo, were a pair of bluebirds, noticeable for\\ntbeir rarity, and for tlie wonderful color\\na shade deeper than is ever seen at the\\nNorth, I think of the male s blue coat.\\nIn a small thicket in the hollow beside the\\nroad were noisy white-eyed vireos, a ruby-\\ncrowned kinglet, a tiny thing that within\\na month would be singing in Canada, or\\nbeyond, an unseen wood pewee, and (also\\nunseen) a hermit thrush, one of perhaps\\ntwenty solitary individuals that I found\\nscattered about the woods in the course of\\nmy journeyings. Not one of them sang a\\nnote. Probably they did not know that\\nthere was a Yankee in Florida who in\\nsome moods, at least would have given\\nmore for a dozen bars of hermit thrush mu-\\nsic than for a day and a night of the mock-\\ning-bird s medley. Not that I mean to dis-\\nparage the great Southern performer as a\\nvocalist he is so far beyond the hermit thrush\\nas to render a com23arison absurd but what\\nI love is a singer, a voice to reach the soul.\\nAn old Tallahassee negro, near the white\\nNorman school, so he called it, hit off\\nthe mocking-bird pretty well. I had called\\nhis attention to one singing in an adjacent", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0182.jp2"}, "183": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD, 171\\ndooryard. Yes, he said, I love to hear\\nem. They s very amusin very amusin\\nMy own feeling can hardly be a prejudice,\\nconscious or unconscious, in favor of what\\nhas grown dear to me through early and\\nlong-continued association. The difference\\nbetween the music of birds like the mocker,\\nthe thrasher, and the catbird and that of\\nbirds like the hermit, the veery, and the\\nwood thrush is one of kind, not of degree\\nand I have heard music of the mocking-\\nbird s kind (the thrasher s, that is to say)\\nas long as I have heard music at all. The\\nquestion is one of taste, it is true but it is\\nnot a question of familiarity or favoritism.\\nAll praise to the mocker and the thrasher\\nMay their tribe increase But if we are to\\nindulge in comparisons, give me the wood\\nthrush, the hermit, and the veery; with\\ntones that the mocking-bird can never imi-\\ntate, and a simplicity which the Fates the\\nwise Fates, who will have variety have\\nput forever beyond his appreciation and his\\nreach.\\nFlorida as I saw it (let the qnalification\\nbe noted) is no more a land of flowers than\\nNew England. In some respects, indeed, it", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0183.jp2"}, "184": {"fulltext": "172 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD.\\nis less so. Flowering shrubs and climbers\\nthere are in abundance. I rode in the cars\\nthrough miles on miles of flowering dog-\\nwood and pink azalea. Here, on this Talla-\\nhassee road, were miles of Cherokee roses,\\nwith plenty of the climbing scarlet honey-\\nsuckle (beloved of humming-birds, although\\nI saw none here), and nearer the city, as\\nalready described, masses of lantana and\\nwhite honeysuckle. In more than one place\\npink double roses (vagrants from cultivated\\ngrounds, no doubt) offered buds and blooms\\nto all who would have them. The cross-vine\\n(^Bigno7iici)^\\\\ess freehanded, hung its showy\\nbells out of reach in the treetops. Thorn-\\nbushes of several kinds were in flower (a\\npuzzling lot), and the treelike blueberry\\n(^Vaccinium arhoreum)^ loaded with its\\nlarge, flaring white corollas, was a real spec-\\ntacle of beauty. Here, likewise, I found\\none tiny crab-apple shrub, with a few blos-\\nsoms, exquisitely tinted with rose-color, and\\nmost exquisitely fragrant. But the New\\nEnglander, when he talks of wild flowers,\\nhas in his eye something different from\\nthese. He is not thinking of any bush,\\nno matter how beautiful, but of trailing", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0184.jp2"}, "185": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE BOAD. 173\\narbutus, hepaticas, bloodroot, anemones,\\nsaxifrage, violets, dogtooth violets, spring-\\nbeauties, cowslips, buttercups, corydalis,\\ncolumbine, Dutchman s breeches, clintonia,\\nfive-finger, and all the rest of that bright\\nand fragrant host which, ever since he can\\nremember, he has seen covering his native\\nhills and valleys with the return of May.\\nIt is not meant, of course, that plants\\nlike these are wholly wanting in Florida. I\\nremember an abundance of violets, blue and\\nwhite, especially in the flat-woods, where\\nalso I often found pretty butterworts of two\\nor three sorts. The smaller blue ones took\\nvery acceptably the place of hepaticas, and\\nindeed I heard them called by that name.\\nBut, as compared with what one sees in New\\nEngland, such ground flowers, flowers\\nwhich it seems perfectly natural to pluck\\nfor a nosegay, were very little in evidence.\\nI heard Northern visitors remark the fact\\nagain and again. On this pretty road out\\nof Tallahassee itseK a city of flower gar-\\ndens I can recall nothing of the kind\\nexcept half a dozen strawberry blossoms,\\nand the oxalis and specularia before men-\\ntioned. Probably the round-leaved hous-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0185.jp2"}, "186": {"fulltext": "174 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD.\\ntonia grew here, as it did everywhere, in\\nsmall scattered patches. If there were vio-\\nlets as well, I can only say I have forgotten\\nthem.\\nBe it added, however, that at the time I\\ndid not miss them. In a garden of roses\\none does not begin by sighing for mignonette\\nand lilies of the valley. Violets or no violets,\\nthere was no lack of beauty. The Southern\\nhighway surveyor, if such a personage exists,\\nis evidently not consumed by that distressing\\npuritanical passion for slicking up things\\nwhich too often makes of his Northern\\nbrother something scarcely better than a pub-\\nlic nuisance. At the South you will not find\\na woman cultivating with pain a few exotics\\nbeside the front door, while her husband is\\nmowing and burning the far more attractive\\nwild garden that nature has planted just out-\\nside the fence. The St. Augustine road, at\\nany rate, after climbing the hiU and getting\\nbeyond the wood, runs between natural\\nhedges, trees, vines, and shrubs carelessly\\nintermingled, not dense enough to con-\\nceal the prospect or shut out the breeze\\nstraight from the Gulf, as the Tallahas-\\nsean is careful to inform you), but sufficient", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0186.jp2"}, "187": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD. 175\\nto afford much welcome protection from the\\nsun. Here it was good to find the sassafras\\ngrowing side by side with the persimmon, al-\\nthough when, for old acquaintance sake, I\\nput a leaf into my mouth I was half glad to\\nfancy it a thought less savory than some I\\nhad tasted in Yankeeland. 1 took a kind of\\nfoolish satisfaction, too, in the obvious fact\\nthat certain plants the sumach and the\\nVirginia creeper, to mention no others\\nwere less at home here than a thousand miles\\nfarther north. AYith the wild-cherry trees, I\\nwas obliged to confess, the case was reversed.\\nI had seen larger ones in Massachusetts, per-\\nhaps, but none that looked half so clean and\\nthrifty. In truth, their appearance was a\\npuzzle, rum-cherry trees as by all tokens they\\nundoubtedly were, till of a sudden it flashed\\nupon me that there were no caterpillars nests\\nin them Then I ceased to wonder at their\\nodd look. It spoke well for my botanical\\nacumen that I had recognized them at all.\\nBefore I had been a week- in Tallahassee\\nI found that, without forethought or plan, I\\nhad dropped into the habit (and how pleas-\\nant it is to think that some good habits ca?i\\nbe dropped into of making the St. Angus-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0187.jp2"}, "188": {"fulltext": "176 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE EOAD.\\ntine road my after-dinner saunter ing-place.\\nThe morning was for a walk to Lake Brad-\\nford, perhaps, in search of a mythical ivory-\\nbilled woodpecker, or westward on the rail-\\nway for a few miles, with a view to rare\\nmigratory warblers. But in the afternoon I\\ndid not walk, I loitered and though I still\\nminded the birds and flowers, I for the most\\npart forgot my botany and ornithology. In\\nthe cool of the day, then (the phrase is an\\ninnocent euphemism), I climbed the hill,\\nand after an hour or two on the plateau\\nstrolled back again, facing the sunset through\\na vista of moss-covered live-oaks and sweet\\ngums. Those quiet, incurious hours are\\namong the pleasantest of all my Florida\\nmemories. A cuckoo would be cooing, per-\\nhaps or a quail, with cheerful ambiguity,\\nsuch as belongs to weather predictions in\\ngeneral, would be prophesying more\\nwet and no more wet in alternate\\nbreaths or two or three night-hawks would\\nbe sweeping back and forth high above the\\nvalley or a marsh hawk would be quartering\\nover the big oatfield. The martins would be\\ncackling, in any event, and the kingbirds\\npracticing their aerial mock somersaults and", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0188.jp2"}, "189": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE BOAD. 177\\nthe mocking-bird would be singing, and the\\nredbird whistling. On the western slope,\\njust below the oatfield, the Northern woman\\nwho owned the pretty cottage there (the\\nonly one on the road) was sure to be at work\\namong her flowers. A laughing colored boy\\nwho did chores for her (without injury to his\\nhealth, I could warrant) told me that she was\\na Northerner. But I knew it already; I\\nneeded no witness but her beds of petunias.\\nIn the valley, as I crossed the railroad track,\\na loggerhead shrike sat, almost of course, on\\nthe telegraph wire in dignified silence and\\njust beyond, among the cabins, I had my\\nchoice of mocking-birds and orchard orioles.\\nAnd so, admiring the roses and the pome-\\ngranates, the lantanas and the honeysuckles,\\nor chatting with some dusky fellow-pilgrim,\\nI mounted the hill to the city, and likely as\\nnot saw before me a red-headed woodpecker\\nsitting on the roof of the State House, calling\\nattention to his patriotic self in his tri-\\ncolored dress by occasional vigorous tat-\\ntoos on the tinned ridgepole. I never saw\\nhim there without gladness. The legislature\\nhad begun its session in an economical\\nmood, as is more or less the habit of legis-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0189.jp2"}, "190": {"fulltext": "178 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD.\\nlatures, I believe, and was even consider-\\ning a proposition to reduce the salary and\\nmileage of its members. Under such cir-\\ncumstances, it ought not to have been a mat-\\nter of surprise, perhaps, that no flag floated\\nfrom the cupola of the capitol. The people s\\nmoney should not be wasted. And possibly\\nI should never have remarked the omission\\nbut for a certain curiosity, natural, if not in-\\nevitable, on the part of a Northern visitor, as\\nto the real feeling of the South toward the\\nnational government. Day after day I had\\nseen a portly gentleman with an air, or\\nwith airs, as the spectator might choose to\\nexpress it going in and out of the State\\nHouse gate, dressed ostentatiously in a suit\\nof Confederate gray. He had worn nothing\\nelse since the war, I was told. But of course\\nthe State of Florida was not to be judged by\\nthe freak of one man, and he only a member\\nof the third house. And even when I\\nwent into the governor s office, and saw the\\noriginal ordinance of secession hanging\\nin a conspicuous place on the wall, as if it\\nwere an heirloom to be proud of, I felt no\\nstirring of sectional animosity, thorough-bred\\nMassachusetts Yankee and old-fashioned", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0190.jp2"}, "191": {"fulltext": "ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD. 179\\nabolitionist as I am. A brave people can\\nhardly be expected or desired to forget its\\nhistory, especially when that history has to\\ndo with sacrifices and heroic deeds. But\\nthese things, taken together, did no doubt\\nprepare me to look upon it as a happy coin-\\ncidence when, one morning, I heard the fa-\\nmiliar cry of the red-headed woodpecker, for\\nthe first time in Florida, and looked up to\\nsee him flying the national colors from the\\nridgepole of the State House. I did not\\nbreak out with Three cheers for the red,\\nwhite, and blue I am naturally undemon-\\nstrative but I said to myself that Melaner-\\npes erythroce plialus was a very handsome\\nbird.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0191.jp2"}, "192": {"fulltext": "ORNITHOLOGY ON A COTTON PLAN-\\nTATION.\\nOn one of my first jaunts into the sub-\\nurbs of Tallahassee I noticed not far from\\nthe road a bit of swamp, shallow pools\\nwith muddy borders and flats. It was a\\nlikely spot for waders, and would be\\nworth a visit. To reach it, indeed, I must\\ncross a planted field surrounded by a lofty\\nbarbed-wire fence and placarded against\\ntrespassers but there was no one in sight,\\nor no one who looked at all like a land-\\nowner and, besides, it could hardly be ac-\\ncounted a trespass defined by Blackstone\\nas an unwarranted entry on another s\\nsoil to step carefully over the cotton\\nrows on so legitimate an errand. Ordinarily\\nI call myself a simple bird-gazer, an ama-\\nteur, a field naturalist, if you will; but on\\noccasions like the present I assume with\\nmyself, that is all the rights and titles of\\nan ornithologist proper, a man of science\\nstrictly so called. In the interest of science,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0192.jp2"}, "193": {"fulltext": "A COTTON PLANTATION. 181\\nthen, I climbed the fence and picked my\\nway across the field. True enough, about\\nthe edges of the water were two or three\\nsolitary sandpipers, and at least half a\\ndozen of the smaller yellowlegs, two ad-\\nditions to my Florida list, not to speak of\\na little blue heron and a green heron, the\\nlatter in most uncommonly green plumage.\\nIt was well I had interpreted the placard\\na little generously. The letter killeth\\nis a pretty good text in emergencies of this\\nkind. So I said to myself. The herons,\\nmeanwhile, had taken French leave, but\\nthe smaller birds were less suspicious I\\nwatched them at my leisure, and left them\\nstill feeding.\\nTwo days later I was there again, but it\\nmust be acknowledged that this time I tar-\\nried in the road till a man on horseback had\\ndisappeared round the next turn. It would\\nhave been manlier, without doubt, to pay\\nno attention to him but something told me\\nthat he was the cotton-planter himself, and,\\nfor better or worse, prudence carried the day\\nwith me. Finding nothing new, though the\\nsandpipers and yellowlegs were still present,\\nwith a very handsome little blue heron and", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0193.jp2"}, "194": {"fulltext": "182 A COTTON PLANTATION.\\nplenty of blackbirds, I took the road again\\nand went further, and an hour or two after-\\nward, on getting back to the same place, was\\novertaken again by the horseman. He\\npulled up his horse and bade me good-after-\\nnoon. Would I lend him my opera-glass,,\\nwhich happened to be in my hand at the\\nmoment I should like to see how my\\nhouse looks from here, he said and he\\npointed across the field to a house on the\\nhill some distance beyond. Ah, said I,\\nglad to set myself right by a piece of frank-\\nness that under the circumstances could\\nhardly work to my disadvantage then it\\nis your land on which I have been tres-\\npassing. How so he asked, with a\\nsmile and I explained that I had been\\nacross his cotton-field a little while before.\\nThat is no trespass, he answered (so the\\nreader will perceive that I had been quite\\ncorrect in my understanding of the law)\\nand when I went on to explain my object in\\nvisiting his cane-swamp (for such it was, he\\nsaid, but an unexpected freshet had ruined\\nthe crop when it was barely out of the\\nground), he assured me that I was welcome\\nto visit it as often as I wished. He himself", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0194.jp2"}, "195": {"fulltext": "A COTTON PLANTATION. 183\\nwas very fond of natural history, and often\\nregretted that he had not given thne to it\\nin his youth. As it was, he protected the\\nbirds on his plantation, and the place was\\nfull of them. I should find his woods inter-\\nesting, he felt sure. Florida was extremely\\nrich in birds he believed there were some\\nthat had never been classified. We have\\norioles here, he added and so far, at any\\nrate, he was right I had seen perhaps\\ntwenty that day (orchard orioles, that is),\\nand one sat in a tree before us at the mo-\\nment. His whole manner was most kindly\\nand hospitable, as was that of every Talla-\\nhassean with whom I had occasion to speak,\\nand I told him with sincere gratitude that\\nI should certainly avail myself of his cour-\\ntesy and stroll through his woods.\\nI approached them, two mornings after-\\nward, from the opposite side, where, find-\\ning no other place of entrance, I climbed a\\nsix-barred, tightly locked gate feeling all\\nthe while like a thief and a robber in\\nfront of a deserted cabin. Then I had only\\nto cross a grassy field, in which meadow larks\\nwere singing, and I was in the woods. I\\nwandered through them without finding any-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0195.jp2"}, "196": {"fulltext": "184 A COTTON PLANTATION.\\nthing more unusual or interesting than sum-\\nmer tanagers and yellow-throated warblers,\\nwhich were in song there, as they were in\\nevery such place, and after a while came out\\ninto a pleasant glade, from which different\\nparts of the plantation could be seen, and\\nthrough which ran a plantation road. Here\\nwas a wooden fence, a most unusual thing,\\nr- and I lost no time in mounting it, to rest\\nand look about me. It is one of the marks\\nof a true Yankee, I suspect, to like such a\\nperch. My own weakness in that direction\\nis a frequent subject of mirth with chance\\nfellow travelers. The attitude is comforta-\\nble and conducive to meditation and now\\nthat I was seated and at my ease, I felt that\\nthis was one of the New England luxuries\\nwhich, almost without knowing it, I had\\nmissed ever since I left home.\\nOf my meditations on this particular oc-\\ncasion I remember nothing but that is no\\nsign they were valueless; as it is no sign\\nthat yesterday s dinner did me no good be-\\ncause I have forgotten what it was. In the\\nlatter case, indeed, and perhaps in the for-\\nmer as well, it would seem more reasonable\\nto draw an exactly opposite inference. But,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0196.jp2"}, "197": {"fulltext": "A COTTON PLANTATION. 185\\nquibbles apart, one thing I do remember I\\nsat for some time on tlie fence, in the shade\\nof a tree, with an eye upon the cane-swamp\\nand an ear open for bird-voices. Yes, and\\nit comes to me at this moment that here I\\nheard the first and only bull-frog that I heard\\nanywhere in Florida. It was like a voice\\nfrom home, and belonged with the fence.\\nOther frogs I had heard in other places.\\nOne chorus brought me out of bed in Day-\\ntona in the evening after a succession\\nof February dog-day showers. What is\\nthat noise outside I inquired of the land-\\nlady as I hastened downstairs. That?\\nsaid she, with a look of amusement that s\\nfrogs. It may be, I thought, but I\\nfollowed the sounds till they led me in the\\ndarkness to the edge of a swamp. No doubt\\nthe creatures were frogs, but of some kind\\nnew to me, with voices more lugubrious\\nand homesick than I should have supposed\\ncould possibly belong to any batrachian. A\\nweek or two later, in the New Smyrna flat-\\nwoods, I heard in the distance a sound which\\nI took for the grunting of pigs. I made\\na note of it, mentally, as a cheerful token,\\nindicative of a probable scarcity of rattle-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0197.jp2"}, "198": {"fulltext": "186 A COTTON PLANTATION.\\nsnakes but by and by, as I drew nearer,\\nthe truth of the matter began to break upon\\nme. A man was approaching, and when\\nwe met I asked him what was making that\\nnoise yonder. Frogs, he said. At an-\\nother time, in the flat-woods of Port Orange\\n(I hope I am not taxing my reader s credu-\\nlity too far, or making myself out a man of\\ntoo imaginative an ear), I heard the bleating\\nof sheep. Busy with other things, I did not\\nstop to reflect that it was impossible there\\nshould be sheep in that quarter, and the\\noccurrence had quite passed out of my\\nmind when, one day, a cracker, talking about\\nfrogs, happened to say, Yes, and we have\\none kind that makes a noise exactly like the\\nbleating of sheep. That, without question,\\nwas what I had heard in the flat-woods. But\\nthis frog in the sugar-cane swamp was the\\nsame fellow that on summer evenings, ever\\nand ever so many years ago, in sonorous bass\\nthat could be heard a quarter of a mile away,\\nused to call from Reuben Loud s pond,\\nPull him in I Pull him in or some-\\ntimes (the inconsistent amphibian), Jug o\\nrum Jug o rum\\nI dismounted from my perch at last, and", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0198.jp2"}, "199": {"fulltext": "A. COTTON PLANTATION. 187\\nwas sauDtering idly along tlie patli (idleness\\nlike this is often the best of ornithological\\nindustry), when suddenly I had a vision\\nBefore me, in the leafy top of an oak sap-\\nling, sat a blue grosbeak. I knew him on\\nthe instant. But I could see only his head\\nand neck, the rest of his body being hidden\\nby the leaves. It was a moment of feverish\\nexcitement. Here was a new bird, a bird\\nabout which I had felt fifteen years of curi-\\nosity and, more than that, a bird which here\\nand now was quite unexpected, since it was\\nnot included in either of the two Florida\\nlists that I had brought with me from home.\\nFor perhaps five seconds I had my opera-\\nglass on the blue head and the thick-set,\\ndark bill, with its lighter-colored under\\nmandible. Then I heard the clatter of a\\nhorse s hoofs, and lifted my eyes. My friend\\nthe owner of the plantation was coming\\ndown the road at a gallop, straight upon me.\\nIf I was to see the grosbeak and make sure\\nof him, it must be done at once. I moved\\nto bring him fully into view, and he flew\\ninto the thick of a pine-tree out of sight.\\nBut the tree was not far off, and if Mr.\\nwould pass me with a nod, the case was still", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0199.jp2"}, "200": {"fulltext": "188 A COTTON PLANTATION.\\nfar from hopeless. A bright thought came\\nto me. I ran from the path with a great\\nshow of eager absorption, leveled my glass\\nnpon the pine-tree, and stood fixed. Per-\\nhaps Mr. would take the hint. Alas\\nhe had too much courtesy to pass his own\\nguest without speaking. Still after the\\nbirds he said, as he checked his horse. I\\nresponded, as I hope, without any symptom\\nof annoyance. Then, of course, he wished to\\nknow what I was looking at, and I told him\\nthat a blue grosbeak had just flown into that\\npine-tree, and that I was most distressingly\\nanxious to see more of him. He looked at\\nthe pine-tree. I can t see him, he said.\\nNo more could I. It was n t a blue jay,\\nwas it he asked. And then we talked of\\none thing and another, I have no idea what,\\ntill he rode away to another part of the plan-\\ntation where a gang of women were at work.\\nBy this time the grosbeak had disappeared\\nutterly. Possibly he had gone to a bit of\\nwood on the opposite side of the cane-swamp.\\nI scaled a barbed-wire fence and made in\\nthat direction, but to no purpose. The gros-\\nbeak was gone for good. Probably I should\\nnever see another. Could the planter have", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0200.jp2"}, "201": {"fulltext": "A COTTON PLANTATION. 189\\nread my thoiiglits just then he would perhaps\\nhave been angry with himself, and pretty\\ncertainly he would have been angry with me.\\nThat a Yankee should accept his hospitality,\\nand then load him with curses and call him\\nall manner of names How should he know\\nthat I was so insane a hobbyist as to care\\nmore for the sight of a new bird than for all\\nthe laws and customs of ordinary politeness\\nAs my feelings cooled, I saw that I was step-\\nping over hills or rows of some strange-look-\\ning plants just out of the ground. Peanuts,\\nI guessed but to make sure I called to a\\ncolored woman who was hoeing not far off.\\nWhat are these? Finders, she an-\\nswered. I knew she meant peanuts, other-\\nwise ground-peas and goobers, and\\nnow that I once more have a dictionary at my\\nelbow I learn that the word, like goober,\\nis, or is supposed to be, of African origin.\\nI was preparing to surmount the barbed-\\nwire fence again, when the planter returned\\nand halted for another chat. It was evident\\nthat he took a genuine and amiable interest\\nin my researches. There were a great many\\nkinds of sparrows in that country, he said,\\nand also of woodpeckers. He knew the", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0201.jp2"}, "202": {"fulltext": "190 A COTTON PLANTATION.\\nivory-bill, but, like other Tallahasseans, he\\nthought I should have to go into Lafayette\\nCounty (all Florida people say La/(2?/ette)\\nto find it. That bird calling now is a bee-\\nbird, he said, referring to a kingbird and\\nwe have a bird that is called the French\\nmocking-bird he catches other birds. The\\nlast remark was of interest for its bearing\\nupon a point about which I had felt some\\ncuriosity, and, I may say, some skepticism,\\nas I had seen many loggerhead shrikes, but\\nhad observed no indication that other birds\\nfeared them or held any grudge against them.\\nAs he rode off he called my attention to a\\ngreat blue heron just then flying over the\\nswamp. They are very shy, he said.\\nThen, from further away, he shouted once\\nmore to ask if I heard the mocking-bird\\nsinging yonder, pointing with his whip in\\nthe direction of the singer.\\nFor some time longer I hung about the\\nglade, vainly hoping that the grosbeak would\\nagain favor my eyes. Then I crossed more\\nplanted fields, climbing more barbed-wire\\nfences, and stopping on the way to enjoy the\\nsweetly quaint music of a little chorus of\\nwhite-crowned sparrows, and skirted once", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0202.jp2"}, "203": {"fulltext": "A COTTON PLANTATION. 191\\nmore the muddy shore of the cane-swamp,\\nwhere the yellowlegs and sandpipers were\\nstill feeding. That brought me to the road\\nfrom which I had made my entry to the\\nplace some days before; but, being still\\nunable to forego a splendid possibility, I\\nrecrossed the plantation, tarried again in\\nthe glade, sat again on the wooden fence (if\\nthat grosbeak only would show himself!),\\nand thence went on, picking a few heads of\\nhandsome buffalo clover, the first I had ever\\nseen, and some sprays of penstemon, till I\\ncame again to the six-barred gate and the\\nQuincy road. At that point, as I now re-\\nmember, the air was full of vultures (carrion\\ncrows), a hundred or more, soaring over the\\nfields in some fit of gregariousness. Along\\nthe road were white crowned and white-\\nthroated sparrows (it was the 12th of April),\\norchard orioles, thrashers, summer tanagers,\\nmyrtle and paim warblers, cardinal gros-\\nbeaks, mocking-birds, kingbirds, logger-\\nheads, yellow throated vireos, and sundry\\nothers, but not the blue grosbeak, which\\nwould have been worth them all.\\nOnce back at the hotel, I opened my\\nCoues s Key to refresh my memory as to", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0203.jp2"}, "204": {"fulltext": "192 A COTTON PLANTATION.\\nthe exact appearance of that bird. Feath-\\ners around base of bill black, said the book.\\nI had not noticed that. But no matter the\\nbird was a blue grosbeak, for the sufficient\\nreason that it could not be anything else.\\nA black line between the almost black beak\\nand the dark-blue head would be inconspic-\\nuous at the best, and quite naturally would\\nescape a glimpse so hasty as mine had been.\\nAnd yet, while I reasoned in this way, I\\nforesaw plainly enough that, as time passed,\\ndoubt would get the better of assurance,\\nas it always does, and I should never be cer-\\ntain that I had not been the victim of some\\nillusion. At best, the evidence was worth\\nnothing for others. If only that excellent\\nMr. for whose kindness I was unfeign-\\nedly thankful (and whose pardon I most\\nsincerely beg if I seem to have been a bit too\\nfree in this rehearsal of the story), if only\\nMr. could have left me alone for ten\\nminutes longer\\nThe worry and the imprecations were\\nwasted, after all, as. Heaven be thanked,\\nthey so often are for within two or three\\ndays I saw other blue grosbeaks and heard\\nthem sing. But that was not on a cotton\\nplantation, and is part of another story.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0204.jp2"}, "205": {"fulltext": "A FLORIDA SHRINE.\\nAll pilgrims to Tallahassee visit the Mu-\\nrat place. It is one of the most conveniently\\naccessible of those points of interest with\\nwhich gnide-books so anxiously, and with so\\nmuch propriety, concern themselves. What\\na tourist prays for is something to see. If\\nI had ever been a tourist in Boston, no\\ndoubt I should before now have surveyed\\nthe world from the top of the Bunker Hill\\nmonument. In Tallahassee, at aU events, I\\nwent to the Murat estate. In fact, I went\\nmore than once but I remember especially\\nmy first visit, which had a livelier senti-\\nmental interest than the others because I\\nwas then under the agreeable delusion that\\nthe Prince himself had lived there. The\\nguide-book told me so, vouchsafing also the\\ninformation that after building the house he\\ninterested himself actively in local affairs,\\nbecame a naturalized citizen, and served\\nsuccessively as postmaster, alderman, and\\nmayor a model immigrant, surely,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0205.jp2"}, "206": {"fulltext": "194 A FLORIDA SHRINE.\\nthougli it is rather the way of immigrants,\\nperhaps, not to refuse political responsibili-\\nties.\\nNaturally, I remembered these things as\\nI stood in front of the big house a\\nstory-and-a-half cottage amid the flower-\\nins: shrubs. Here lived once the son of the\\nKing of Naples himself a Prince, and\\nworthy son of a worthy sire alderman and\\nthen mayor of the city of Tallahassee. Thus\\ndid an uncompromising democrat pay court\\nto the shades of Koyalty, while a mocking-\\nbird sang from a fringe-bush by the gate,\\nand an oriole flew madly from tree to tree\\nin pursuit of a fair creature of the reluctant\\nsex.\\nThe inconsistency, if such it was, was\\nquickly punished. For, alas when I spoke\\nof my morning s pilgrimage to an old resi-\\ndent of the town, he told me that Murat\\nnever lived in the house, nor anywhere else\\nin Tallahassee, and of course was never its\\npostmaster, alderman, or mayor. The Prin-\\ncess, he said, built the house after her hus-\\nband s death, and lived there, a widow. I\\nappealed to the guide-book. My informant\\nsneered, politely, and brought me a", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0206.jp2"}, "207": {"fulltext": "A FLORIDA SHRINE. 195\\nstill older Tallahassean, Judge whose\\nvenerable name I am sorry to have forgot-\\nten, and that indisputable citizen confirmed\\nall that his neighbor had said. For once,\\nthe guide-book compiler must have been\\nmisinformed.\\nThe question, happily, was one of no great\\nconsequence. If the Prince had never lived\\nin the house, the Princess had and she, by\\nall accounts (and I make certain her hus-\\nband would have said the same), was the\\nworthier person of the two. And even if\\nneither of them had lived there, if my sen-\\ntiment had been all wasted (but there was\\nno question of tears), the place itself was\\nsightly, the house was old, and the way\\nthither a pleasant one first down the hill\\nin a zigzag course to the vicinity of the rail-\\nway station, then by a winding country road\\nthrough the valley past a few negro cabins,\\nand up the slope on the farther side. Prince\\nMurat, or no Prince Murat, I should love to\\ntravel that road to-day, instead of sitting\\nbefore a Massachusetts fire, with the ground\\ndeep under snow, and the air full of thirty\\nor forty degrees of frost.\\nIn the front yard of one of the cabins op-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0207.jp2"}, "208": {"fulltext": "196 A FLORIDA SHRINE.\\nposite the car-wheel foundry, and near the\\nstation, as I now remember, a middle-aged\\nnegress was cutting up an oak log. She\\nswung the axe with vigor and precision, and\\nthe chips flew but I could not help saying,\\nYou ouo:ht to make the man do that.\\nShe answered on the instant. I would,\\nshe said, if I had a man to makeJ^\\nI m sure you would, I thought. Her\\ntongue was as sharp as her axe.\\nOught I to have ventured a word in her\\nbehalf, I wonder, when a man of her own\\ncolor, and a pretty near neighbor, told me\\nwith admirable ndivete the story of his be-\\nreavement and his hopes? His wife had\\ndied a year before, he said, and so far,\\nthough he had not let the grass grow under\\nhis feet, he had found no one to take her\\nplace. He still meant to do so, if he could.\\nHe was only seventy-four years old, and it\\nwas not good for a man to be alone. He\\nseemed a gentle spirit, and I withheld all\\nmention of the stalwart and manless wood-\\ncutter. I hope he went farther, and fared\\nbetter. So youthful as he was, surely there\\nwas no occasion for haste.\\nWhen I had skirted a cotton-field the", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0208.jp2"}, "209": {"fulltext": "A FLORIDA SHBINE. 197\\ncrop just out of the ground and a bit of\\nwood on the right, and a swamp with a splen-\\ndid display of white water-lilies on the left,\\nand had begun to ascend the gentle slope,\\nI met a man of considerably more than\\nseventy-four years.\\nCan you tell me just where the Murat\\nplace is I inquired.\\nHe grinned broadly, and thought he could.\\nHe was one of the old Murat servants, as\\nhis father had been before him. I was\\nborned on to him, he said, speaking of the\\nPrince. Murat was a gentleman, sah.\\nThat was a statement which it seemed im-\\npossible for him to repeat often enough.\\nHe spoke from a slave s point of view. Mu-\\nrat was a good master. The old man had\\nheard him say that he kept servants for\\nthe like of the thing. He didn t abuse\\nthem. He never was for barbarizing a\\npoor colored person at all. Whipping?\\nOh, yes. He did n t miss your fault. No,\\nsah, he didn t miss your fault. But his\\nservants never were ironed. He did n t\\nbelieve in barbarousment.\\nThe old man was thankfid to be free but\\nto his mind emancipation had not made", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0209.jp2"}, "210": {"fulltext": "198 A FLORIDA SHRINE.\\neverything heavenly. The younger set of\\nnegroes my people was his word) were\\non the wrong road. They had sold their\\nbirthright, though exactly what he meant\\nby that remark I did not gather. They\\nain t got no sense, he declared, and what\\nsense they has got don t do em no good.\\nI told him finally that I was from the\\nNorth. Oh, I knows it, he exclaimed, I\\nknows it and he beamed with delight.\\nHow did he know, I inquired. Oh, I\\nknows it. I can see it in you. Anybody\\nwould know it that had any jedgment at all.\\nYou s a perfect gentleman, sah. He was\\ntoo old to be quarreled with, and I swal-\\nlowed the compliment.\\nI tore myself away, or he might have run\\non till night about his old master and mis-\\ntress, the division of the estate, an abusive\\noverseer he was a perfect dog, sah and\\nsundry other things. He had lived a long\\ntime, and had nothing to do now but to re-\\ncall the past and tell it over. So it will be\\nwith us, if we live so long. May we find\\nonce in a while a patient listener.\\nThis patriarch s unfavorable opinion as to\\nthe prospects of the colored people was", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0210.jp2"}, "211": {"fulltext": "A FLORIDA SHRINE. 199\\nshared by my hopeful young widower before\\nmentioned, who expressed himself quite as\\nemphatically. He was brought up among\\nwhite people I s been taughted a heap,\\nhe said), and believed that the salvation of\\nthe blacks lay in their recognition of white\\nsupremacy. But he was less perspicacious\\nthan the older man. He was one of the\\nvery few persons whom I met at the South\\nwho did not recognize me at sight as a Yan-\\nkee. Are you a legislator-man he\\nasked, at the end of our talk. The legisla-\\nture was in session on the hill. But per-\\nhaps, after all, he only meant to flatter me.\\nIf I am long on the way, it is because, as\\nI love always to have it, the going and com-\\ning were the better part of the pilgrimage.\\nThe estate itself is beautifully situated, with\\nfar-away horizons but it has fallen into\\ngreat neglect, while the house, almost in\\nruins, and occupied by colored people, is to\\nNorthern eyes hardly more than a larger\\ncabin. It put me in mind of the question\\nof a Western gentleman whom I met at St.\\nAugustine. He had come to Florida against\\nhis will, the weather and the doctor having\\ncombined against him, and was looking at", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0211.jp2"}, "212": {"fulltext": "200 A FLORIDA SHEINE.\\neverything tlirougli very blue spectacles.\\nHave you seen any of those fine old coun-\\ntry mansions, he asked, about which we\\nread so often in descriptions of Southern\\nlife He had been on the lookout for\\nthem, he averred, ever since he left home, and\\nhad yet to find the first one and from his\\ntone it was evident that he thought the\\nSouthern idea of a fine old mansion\\nmust be different from his.\\nThe Murat house, certainly, was never a\\npalace, except as love may have made it so.\\nBut it was old people had lived in it, and\\ndied in it those who once owned it, whose\\nname and memory still clung to it, were\\nnow in narrower houses and it was easy\\nfor the visitor for one visitor, at least\\nto fall into pensive meditation. I\\nstrolled about the grounds; stood be-\\ntween the last year s cotton-rows, while\\na Carolina wren poured out his soul from\\nan oleander bush near by admired the\\nconfidence of a pair of shrikes, who had\\nmade a nest in a honeysuckle vine in\\nthe front yard listened to the sweet mu-\\nsic of mocking-birds, cardinals, and orchard\\norioles watched the martins circling above", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0212.jp2"}, "213": {"fulltext": "A FLORIDA SHRINE. 201\\nthe trees thought of the Princess, and\\nsmiled at the black children who thrust\\ntheir heads out of the windows of her big\\nhouse and then, with a sprig of honey-\\nsuckle for a keepsake, I started slowly\\nhomeward.\\nThe sun by this time was straight over-\\nhead, but my umbrella saved me from abso-\\nlute discomfort, while birds furnished here\\nand there an agreeable diversion. I recall\\nin particular some white-crowned sparrows,\\nthe first ones I had seen in Florida. At a\\nbend in the road opposite the water-lily\\nswamp, while I was cooling myself in the\\nshade of a friendly pine-tree, enjoying at\\nthe same time a fence overrun with Chero-\\nkee roses, a man and his little boy came\\nalong in a wagon. The man seemed really\\ndisappointed when I told him that I was go-\\ning into town, instead of coming from it.\\nIt was pretty warm weather for walking, and\\nhe had meant to offer me a lift. He was a\\nScandinavian, who had been for some years\\nin Florida. He owned a good farm not far\\nfrom the Murat estate, which latter he had\\nbeen urged to buy but he thought a man\\nwas n t any better off for owning too much", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0213.jp2"}, "214": {"fulltext": "202 A FLORIDA SHRINE,\\nland. He talked of his crops, his children,\\nthe climate, and so on, all in a cheerful\\nstrain, pleasant to hear. If the pessimists\\nare right, which may I be kept from be-\\nlieving, the optimists are certainly more\\ncomfortable to live with, though it be only\\nfor ten minutes under a roadside shade-tree.\\nWhen I reached the street-car track at\\nthe foot of the hill, the one car which plies\\nback and forth through the city was in its\\nplace, with the driver beside it, but no\\nmules.\\nAre you going to start directly? I\\nasked.\\nYes, sah, he answered and then, look-\\ning toward the stable, he shouted in a per-\\nemptory voice, Do about, there Do\\nabout\\nWhat does that mean? said I. Hurry\\nup?\\nYes, sah, that s it. T ain t everybody\\nthat wants to be hurried up so we tells em,\\nDo about\\nHalf a minute afterwards two very neatly\\ndressed little colored boys stepped upon the\\nrear platform.\\nWhere you goin said the driver.\\nUptown?", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0214.jp2"}, "215": {"fulltext": "A FLORIDA SHBINE. 203\\nThey said they were.\\nWell, come inside. Stay out there, and\\nyou 11 git hurt and cost this dried-up com-\\npany more money than you s wuth.\\nThey dropped into seats by the rear door.\\nHe motioned them to the front corner.\\nSit down there, he said, right there.\\nThey obeyed, and as he turned away he\\nadded, what I found more and more to be\\ntrue, as I saw more of him, I ain t de boss,\\nbut I s got right smart to say.\\nThen he whistled to the mules, flourished\\nhis whip, and to a persistent accompaniment\\nof whacks and whistles we went crawling up\\nthe hill.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0215.jp2"}, "216": {"fulltext": "WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nI ARKIVED at Tallahassee, from Jackson-\\nville, late in the afternoon, after a hot and\\ndusty ride of more than eight hours. The\\ndistance is only a hundred and sixty odd\\nmiles, I believe but with some bright ex-\\nceptions. Southern railroads, like Southern\\nmen, seem to be under the climate, and\\nschedule time is more or less a formality.\\nFor the first two thirds of the way the\\ncountry is flat and barren. Happily, I sat\\nwithin earshot of an amateur political econo-\\nmist, who, like myself, was journeying to\\nthe State capital. By birth and education\\nhe was a New York State man, I heard\\nhim say an old abolitionist, who had voted\\nfor Birney, Fremont, and all their successors\\ndown to Hayes the only vote he was ever\\nashamed of. Now he was a greenbacker.\\nThe country was going to the dogs, and all\\nbecause the government did not furnish\\nmoney enough. The people would find it\\nout some time, he guessed. He talked as a", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0216.jp2"}, "217": {"fulltext": "WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 205\\nbird sings for his own pleasure. But I\\nwas pleased, too. His was an amiable en-\\nthusiasm, quite exempt, as it seemed, from\\nall that bitterness, which an exclusive pos-\\nsession of the truth so commonly engenders.\\nHe was greatly in earnest he knew he was\\nright but he could still see the comical side\\nof things he still had a sense of the ludi-\\ncrous and in that lay Iiis salvation. For a\\nsense of the ludicrous is the best of mental\\nantiseptics it, if anything, will keep our\\nperishable human nature sweet, and save\\nit from the madhouse. His discourse was\\npunctuated throughout with quiet laughter.\\nThus, when he said, call it the late Re-\\npublican party, it was with a chuckle so\\ngood-natured, so free from acidity and self-\\nconceit, that only a pretty stiff partisan\\ncould have taken offense. Even his predic-\\ntions of impending national ruin were deliv-\\nered with numberless merry quips and\\ntwinkles. Many good Republicans and\\ngood Democrats (the adjective is used in its\\npolitical sense) might have envied him his\\nsunny temper, joined, as it was, to a good\\nstock of native shrewdness. For something\\nin his eye made it plain that, with all his", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0217.jp2"}, "218": {"fulltext": "206 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nother qualities, our merry greenbacker was\\na reasonably competent band at a bargain\\nso that I was not in the least surprised\\nwhen his seat-mate told me afterward, in a\\ntone of much respect, that the Colonel\\nowned a very comfortable property at St.\\nAugustine. But his best possession, I still\\nthought, was his humor and his own gener-\\nous appreciation of it. To enjoy one s own\\njokes is to have a pretty safe insurance\\nagainst inward adversity.\\nHappily, I say, this good-humored talker\\nsat within hearing. Happily, too, it was\\nnow April 4 the height of the season\\nfor flowering dogwood, pink azalea, fringe-\\nbushes, Cherokee roses, and water lilies.\\nAll these had blossomed abundantly, and\\nmile after mile the wilderness and the soli-\\ntary place were glad for them. Here and\\nthere, also, I caught flying glimpses of\\nsome unknown plant bearing a long upright\\nraceme of creamy-white flowers. It might\\nbe a white lupine, I thought, till at one of\\nour stops between stations it happened to be\\ngrowing within reach. Then I guessed it to\\nbe a Baptisia^ which guess was afterward\\nconfirmed to my regret for the flowers", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0218.jp2"}, "219": {"fulltext": "WALES ABOUT TALLAHASSEE, 207\\nlost at once all their attractiveness. So\\nineffaceable (oftenest for good, but this time\\nfor ill) is an early impression upon the least\\nhonorably esteemed of the five senses As\\na boy, it was one of my tasks to keep down\\nwith a scythe the weeds and bushes in a\\nrocky, thin-soiled cattle pasture. In that\\ntask, which, at the best, was a little too\\nmuch like work my most troublesome\\nenemy was the common wild indigo (Bcqjti-\\nsia tinctoria), partly from the wicked perti-\\nnacity with which it sprang up again after\\nevery mowing, but especially from the fact\\nthat the cut or bruised stalk exhaled what\\nin my nostrils was a most abominable odor.\\nOther people do not find it so offensive, I\\nsuspect, but to me it was, and is, ten times\\nworse than the more pungent but compara-\\ntively salubrious perfume which a certain\\nhandsome little black-and-white quadruped\\nhandsome, but impolite is given to\\nscattering upon the nocturnal breeze in mo-\\nments of extreme perturbation.\\nSomewhere beyond the Suwanee River\\n(at which I looked as long as it remained in\\nsight and thought of Christine Nilsson)\\nthere came a sudden change in the aspect of", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0219.jp2"}, "220": {"fulltext": "208 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\ntlie country, coincident with a change in the\\nnature of the soil, from white sand to red\\nclay a change indescribably exhilarating to\\na New Englander who had been living, if only\\nfor two months, in a country without hills.\\nHow good it was to see the land rising,\\nthough never so gently, as it stretched away\\ntoward the horizon My spirits rose with\\nit. By and by we passed extensive hillside\\nplantations, on which little groups of ne-\\ngroes, men and women, were at work. I\\nseemed to see the old South of which I had\\nread and dreamed, a South not in the least\\nlike anything to be found in the wilds of\\nsouthern and eastern Florida a land of cot-\\nton, and, better still, a land of Southern\\npeople, instead of Northern tourists and set-\\ntlers. And when we stopped at a thrifty-\\nlooking village, with neat, homelike houses,\\nopen grounds, and lordly shade-trees, I\\nfound myself saying under my breath, Now,\\nthen, we are getting back into God s coun-\\ntry.\\nAs for Tallahassee itself, it was exactly\\nwhat I had hoped to find it a typical South-\\nern town not a camp in the woods, nor an\\nold city metamorphosed into a fashionable", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0220.jp2"}, "221": {"fulltext": "WALES ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 209\\nwinter resort a place untainted by North-\\nern enterprise, whose inhabitants were un-\\nmistakably at home, and whose houses, many\\nof them, at least, had no appearance of being\\nfor sale. It is compactly built on a hill,\\nthe state capitol crowning the top, down\\nthe pretty steep sides of which run roads\\ninto the open country all about. The roads,\\ntoo, are not so sandy but that it is compar-\\natively comfortable to walk in them a\\nblessing which the pedestrian sorely misses\\nin the towns of lower Florida at St. Au-\\ngustine, for example, where, as soon as one\\nleaves the streets of the city itself, walking\\nand carriage-riding alike become burden-\\nsome and, for any considerable distance, all\\nbut impossible. Here at Tallahassee, it was\\nplain, I shoidd not be kept indoors for want\\nof invitations from without.\\nI arrived, as I have said, rather late in\\nthe afternoon so late that I did nothing\\nmore than ramble a little about the city,\\nnoting by the way the advent of the chim-\\nney swifts, which I had not found elsewhere,\\nand returning to my lodgings with a hand-\\nful of banana-shrub blossoms, smelling\\nwonderfully like their name, which a good", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0221.jp2"}, "222": {"fulltext": "210 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nwoman had insisted upon giving me when I\\nstopped beside the fence to ask her the\\nname of the bush. It was my first, but by\\nno means my last, experience of the floral\\ngenerosity of Tallahassee people.\\nThe next morning I woke betimes, and to\\nmy astonishment found the city enveloped\\nin a dense fog. The hotel clerk, an old\\nresident, to whom I went in my perplexity,\\nwas as much surprised as his questioner.\\nHe did not know what it could mean, he was\\nsiu e it was very unusual but he thought\\nit did not indicate foul weather. For a man\\nso slightly acquainted with such phenomena,\\nhe proved to be a remarkably good prophet\\nfor though, during my fortnight s stay,\\nthere must have been at least eight foggy\\nmornings, every day was sunny, and not a\\ndrop of rain fell.\\nThat first bright forenoon is still a bright\\nmemory. For one thing, the mocking-birds\\noutsang themselves till I felt, and wrote,\\nthat I had never heard mocking-birds be-\\nfore. That they really did surpass their\\nbrethren of St. Augustine and Sanford\\nwould perhaps be too much to assert, but so\\nit seemed and I was pleased, some months", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0222.jp2"}, "223": {"fulltext": "WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 211\\nafterward, to come upon a confirmatory\\njudgment by Mr. Maurice Thompson, who,\\nif any one, must be competent to speak.\\nIf I were going to risk the reputation\\nof our country on the singing of a mock-\\ning-bird against a European nightingale,\\nsays Mr. Thompson,^ I should choose my\\nchampion from the hill-country in the neigh-\\nborhood of Tallahassee, or from the environs\\nof Mobile. I have found no birds else-\\nwhere to compare with those in that belt of\\ncountry about thirty miles wide, stretching\\nfrom Live Oak in Florida, by way of Talla-\\nhassee, to some miles west of Mobile.\\nI had gone down the hill past some ne-\\ngro cabins, into a small, straggling wood,\\nand through the wood to a gate which let\\nme into a plantation lane. It was the fair-\\nest of summer forenoons (to me, I mean\\nby the almanac it was only the 5th of\\nApril), and one of the fairest of quiet land-\\nscapes broad fields rising gently to the\\nhorizon, and before me, winding upward, a\\ngrassy lane open on one side, and bordered\\non the other by a deep red gulch and a zig-\\nzag fence, along which grew vines, shrubs,\\nBy- Ways and Bird-Notes, p. 20.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0223.jp2"}, "224": {"fulltext": "212 WALES ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nand tall trees. The tender and varied tints\\nof tlie new leaves, the lively green of the\\nyoung grain, the dark ploughed fields, the\\nred earth of the wayside I can see them\\nyet, with all that Florida sunshine on them.\\nIn the bushes by the fence-row were a pair\\nof cardinal grosbeaks, the male whistling\\ndivinely, quite unabashed by the volubility\\nof a mocking-bird who balanced himself on\\nthe treetop overhead,\\nSuperb and sole, upon a plumed spray,\\nand seemed determined to show a Yankee\\nstranger what mocking-birds could really do\\nwhen they set out. He did his work well the\\nlove notes of the flicker could not have been\\nimproved by the flicker himself but, right or\\nwrong, I could not help feeling that the car-\\ndinal struck a truer and deeper note while\\nboth toerether did not hinder me from hear-\\ning the faint songs of grasshopper sparrows\\nrising from the ground on either side of the\\nlane. It was a fine contrast: the mocker\\nflooding the air from the topmost bough,\\nand the sparrows whispering their few al-\\nmost inaudible notes out of the grass. Yes,\\nand at the self-same moment the eye also", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0224.jp2"}, "225": {"fulltext": "WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 213\\nhad its contrast; for a marsh hawk was\\nskimming over the field, while up in the\\nsky soared a pair of hen-hawks.\\nIn the wood, composed of large trees, both\\nhard wood and pine, I had found a group of\\nthree summer tanagers, two males and one\\nfemale, the usual proportion with birds\\ngenerally, one may almost say, in the pair-\\ning season. The female was the first of her\\nsex that I had seen, and I remarked with\\npleasure the comparative brightness of her\\ndress. Among tanagers, as among negroes,\\nred and yellow are esteemed a pretty good\\nmatch. At this point, too, in a cluster of\\npines, I caught a new song faint and list-\\nless, like the indigo-bird s, I thought and\\nat the word I started forward eagerly.\\nHere, doubtless, was the indigo-bird s south-\\nern congener, the nonpareil, or painted bunt-\\ning, a beauty wdiich I had begun to fear I\\nwas to miss. I had recognized my first\\ntanager from afar, ten days before, his voice\\nand theme were so like his Northern rela-\\ntive s but this time I was too hasty. My\\nlistless singer was not the nonpareil, nor\\neven a finch of any kind, but a yellow-\\nthroated warbler. For a month I had seen", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0225.jp2"}, "226": {"fulltext": "214 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nbirds of his species almost daily, but always\\nin hard wood trees, and silent. Henceforth,\\nas long as I remained in Florida, they were\\ninvariably in pines, their summer quar-\\nters, and in free song. Their plumage is\\nof the neatest and most exquisite few, even\\namong warblers, surpass them in that re-\\ngard: black and white (reminding one of\\nthe black-and-white creeper, which they\\nresemble also in their feeding habits), with\\na splendid yellow gorget. Myrtle warblers\\n(yellow-rumps) were still here (the penin-\\nsula is alive with them in the winter), and a\\nruby-crowned kinglet mingled its lovely\\nvoice with the simple trills of pine warblers,\\nwhile out of a dense low treetop some invis-\\nible singer was pouring a stream of fine-spun\\nmelody. It should have been a house wren,\\nI thought (another was singing close by),\\nonly its tune was several times too long.\\nAt least four of my longer excursions into\\nthe surrounding country (long, not intrinsi-\\ncally, but by reason of the heat) were made\\nwith a view to possible ivory-billed wood-\\npeckers. Just out of the town northw^ard,\\nbeyond what appeared to be the court end of\\nMarion Street, the principal business street", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0226.jp2"}, "227": {"fulltext": "WALES ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 215\\nof the city, I had accosted a gentleman in a\\ndooryard in front of a long, low, vine-cov-\\nered, romantic-looking house. He was evi-\\ndently at home, and not so busy as to make\\nan interruption probably intrusive. I in-\\nquired the name of a tree, I believe. At all\\nevents, I engaged him in conversation, and\\nfound him most agreeable an Ohio gentle-\\nman, a man of science, who had been in the\\nSouth long enough to have acquired large\\nmeasures of Southern insouciance (there\\nare times when a French word has a politer\\nsound than any English equivalent), which\\ntakes life as made for something better than\\nworry and pleasanter than hard work. He\\nhad seen ivory-bills, he said, and thought I\\nmight be equally fortunate if I would visit a\\ncertain swamp, about which he would tell\\nme, or, better still, if I would go out to Lake\\nBradford.\\nFirst, because it was nearer, I went to the\\nswamp, taking an early breakfast and set-\\nting forth in a fog that was almost a mist, to\\nmake as much of the distance as possible be-\\nfore the sun came out. My course lay west-\\nward, some four miles, along the railwaj^\\ntrack, which, thanks to somebody, is provided", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0227.jp2"}, "228": {"fulltext": "216 W\\\\iLES ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nwitli a comfortable footpath of hard clay cov-\\nering the sleepers midway between the rails.\\nIf all railroads were thus furnished they\\nmight be recommended as among the best\\nof routes for walking naturalists, since they\\ngo straight through the wild country. This\\none carried me by turns through woodland\\nand cultivated field, upland and swamp, pine\\nland and hammock; and, happily, my ex-\\npectations of the ivory-bill were not lively\\nenough to quicken my steps or render me\\nheedless of things along the way.\\nHere I was equally surprised and de-\\nlighted by the sight of yellow jessamine still\\nin flower more than a month after I had\\nseen the end of its brief season, only a hun-\\ndred miles further south. So great, appar-\\nently, is the difference between the penin-\\nsula and this Tallahassee hill-country, which\\nby its physical geography seems rather to\\nbe a part of Georgia than of Florida.\\nHere, too, the pink azalea was at its pretti-\\nest, and the flowering dogwood, also, true\\nqueen of the woods in Florida as in Massa-\\nchusetts. The fringe-bush, likewise, stood\\nhere and there in solitary state, and thorn-\\nbushes flourished in bewildering variety.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0228.jp2"}, "229": {"fulltext": "WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 217\\nNearer the track were the omnipresent black-\\nberry vines, some patches of which are es-\\npecially remembered for their bright rosy\\nflowers.\\nOut of the dense vegetation of a swamp\\ncame the cries of Florida gallinules, and\\nthen, of a sudden, I caught, or seemed to\\ncatch, the sweet kurwee whistle of a Caro-\\nlina rail. Instinctively I turned my ear for\\nits repetition, and by so doing admitted to\\nmyself that I was not certain of what I had\\nheard, although the sora s call is familiar,\\nand the bird was reasonably near. I had\\nbeen taken unawares, and every ornitholo-\\ngist knows how hard it is to be sure of one s\\nself in such a case. He knows, too, how\\nuncertain he feels of any brother observer\\nwho in a similar case seems troubled by no\\ndistrust of his own senses. The whistle,\\nwhatever it had been, was not repeated, and\\nI lost my only opportunity of adding the\\nsora s name to my Florida catalogue a\\nloss, fortunately, of no consequence to any\\nbut myself, since the bird is well known as\\na winter visitor to the State.\\nFurther along, a great blue heron was\\nstalking about the edge of a marshy pool,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0229.jp2"}, "230": {"fulltext": "218 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nand further still, in a woody swamp, stood\\nthree little blue herons, one of them in white\\nplumage. In the drier and more open parts\\nof the way cardinals, mocking-birds, and\\nthrashers were singing, ground doves were\\ncooing, quails were prophesying, and logger-\\nhead shrikes sat, trim and silent, on the\\ntelegraph wire. In the pine lands were\\nplenty of brown-headed nuthatches, full, as\\nalways, of friendly gossip two red-shoid-\\ndered hawks, for whom life seemed to wear\\na more serious aspect three Maryland yel-\\nlow throats a pair of bluebirds, rare enough\\nnow to be twice welcome a black-and-white\\ncreeper, and a yellow redpoll warbler. In\\nthe same pine woods, too, there was much\\ngood music house wrens, Carolina wrens,\\nred-eyed and white-eyed vireos, pine war-\\nblers, yellow-throated warblers, blue yellow-\\nbacks, red-eyed chewinks, and, twice wel-\\ncome, like the bluebirds, a Carolina chicka-\\ndee.\\nA little beyond this point, in a cut through\\na low sand bank, I found two pairs of rough-\\nwinged swallows, and stopped for some time\\nto stare at them, being myself, meanwhile,\\na gazing-stock for two or three negroes", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0230.jp2"}, "231": {"fulltext": "WALES ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 219\\nlounging about tlie door of a cabin not far\\naway. It is a bappy cbance wbeu a man s\\ntime is double/ improved. Two of tbe birds\\nthe first ones I bad ever seen, to be sure\\nof them percbed directly before me on\\ntbe wire, one facing me, tbe otber witb bis\\nback turned. It was kindly done; and\\ntben, as if still furtber to gratify my curi-\\nosity, tbey visited a bole in tbe bank. A\\nsecond bole was doubtless tbe property of\\ntbe otber pair. Living alternately in\\nbeaven and in a bole in tbe ground, tbey\\nwore tbe livery of tbe eartb.\\nThey are not fair to outward view\\nAs many swallows be,\\nI said to myself. But I was not tbe less\\nglad to see tbem.\\nI sbould bave been gladder for a sigbt of\\ntbe big woodpecker, wbose reputed dwell-\\ning-place lay not far abead. But, tbougb I\\nwaited and listened, and went tbrougb tbe\\nswamp, and beyond it, I beard no strange\\nsbout, nor saw any strange bird and toward\\nnoon, just as tbe sun brusbed away tbe fog,\\nI left tbe railway track for a carriage by-\\nway wbicb, I felt sure, must somebow bring\\nme back to tbe city. And so it did, past", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0231.jp2"}, "232": {"fulltext": "220 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nhere and there a house, till I came to the\\nmain road, and then to the Murat estate,\\nand was again on familiar ground.\\nTwo mornings afterward I made another\\nearly and foggy start, this time for Lake\\nBradford. My instructions were to follow\\nthe railway for a mile or so beyond the\\nstation, and then take a road bearing away\\nsharply to the left. This I did, making\\nsure I was on the right road by inquiring of\\nthe first man I saw a negro at work be-\\nfore his cabin. I had gone perhaps half a\\nmile further when a white man, on his way\\nafter a load of wood, as I judged, drove up\\nbehind me. Won t you ride he asked.\\nYou are going to Lake Bradford, 1 believe,\\nand I am going a j^iece in the same direc-\\ntion. I jumped up behind (the wagon\\nconsisting of two long planks fastened to the\\ntwo axles), thankful, but not without a little\\nbewilderment. The good-hearted negro, it\\nappeared, had asked the man to look out for\\nme and he, on his part, seemed glad to do\\na kindness as well as to find company. We\\njolted along, chatting at arm s length, as it\\nwere, about this and that. He knew nothing\\nof the ivory-bill but wild turkeys oh, yes,", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0232.jp2"}, "233": {"fulltext": "WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 221\\nhe had seen a flock of eight, as well as he\\ncould count, not long before, crossing the\\nroad in the very woods through which I was\\ngoing. As for snakes, they were plenty\\nenough, he guessed. One of his horses was\\nbitten while ploughing, and died in half\\nan hour. (A Florida man who cannot tell\\nat least one snake story may be set down\\nas having land to sell.) He thought it a\\npretty good jaunt to the lake, and the road\\nwas n t any too plain, though no doubt I\\nshould get there but I began to perceive\\nthat a white man who traveled such dis-\\ntances on foot in that country was more of\\na rara avis than any woodpecker.\\nOur roads diverged after a while, and my\\nown soon ran into a wood with an under-\\ngrowth of saw palmetto. This was the place\\nfor the ivory-bill, and as at the swamp two\\ndays before, so now I stopped and listened,\\nand then stopped and listened again. The\\nFates were still against me. There was nei-\\nther woodpecker nor turkey, and I pushed on,\\nmostly through pine woods full of birds,\\nbut nothing new till I came out at the lake.\\nHere, beside an idle sawmill and heaps of\\nsawdust, I was greeted by a solitary negro.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0233.jp2"}, "234": {"fulltext": "222 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nwell along in years, who demanded, in a tone\\nof almost comical astonishment, where in the\\nworld I had come from. I told him from\\nTallahassee, and he seemed so taken aback\\nthat I began to think I must look uncom-\\nmonly like an invalid, a Northern consump-\\ntive, perhaps. Otherwise, why should a\\nwalk of six miles, or something less, be\\ntreated as such a marvel? However, the\\nnegro and I were soon on the friendliest of\\nterms, talking of the old times, the war, the\\nprospects of the colored people (the younger\\nones were fast going to the bad, he thought),\\nwhile I stood looking out over the lake, a\\npretty sheet of water, surrounded mostly by\\ncypress woods, but disfigured for the present\\nby the doings of lumbermen. What inter-\\nested me most (such is the fate of the de-\\nvotee) was a single barn swallow, the first\\nand only one that I saw on my Southern\\ntrijD.\\nOn my way back to the city, after much\\nfatherly advice about the road on the part\\nof the negro, who seemed to feel that I ran\\nthe greatest risk of getting lost, I made\\ntwo more additions to my Florida catalogue\\nthe wood duck and the j^ellow-billed", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0234.jp2"}, "235": {"fulltext": "TVALES ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 223\\ncuckoo, the latter unexpectedly early (April\\n11), since Mr. Chapman had recorded it as\\narriving at Gainesville at a date sixteen days\\nlater than this.\\nI did not repeat my visit to Lake Brad-\\nford but, not to give up the ivory-bill too\\neasily, and because I must walk some-\\nwhere, I went again as far as the palmetto\\nscrub. This time, though I still missed the\\nwoodpecker, I was fortunate enough to come\\nupon a turkey. In the thickest part of the\\nwood, as I turned a corner, there she stood\\nbefore me in the middle of the road. She\\nran along the horse-track for perhaps a rod,\\nand then disappeared among the palmetto\\nleaves.\\nMeanwhile, two or three days before,\\nwhile returning from St. Mark s, whither I\\nhad gone for a day on the river, I had\\nnoticed from the car window a swamp, or\\nbaygall, which looked so promising that I\\nwent the very next morning to see what it\\nwould yield. I had taken it for a cypress\\nswamp, but it proved to be composed mainly\\nof oaks very tall but rather slender trees,\\nheavily draped with hanging moss and\\nstanding in black water. Among them were", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0235.jp2"}, "236": {"fulltext": "224 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nthe swollen stumps, three or four feet high,\\nof larger trees which had been felled. I\\npushed in through the surrounding shrub-\\nbery and bay-trees, and waited for some\\ntime, leaning against one of the larger\\ntrunks and listening to the noises, of which\\nthe air of the swamp was full. Great-\\ncrested flycatchers, two Acadian flycatchers,\\na multitude of blue yellow-backed warblers,\\nand what I supposed to be some loud-voiced\\nfrogs were especially conspicuous in the con-\\ncert but a Carolina wren, a cardinal, a red-\\neyed vireo, and a blue-gray gnatcatcher, the\\nlast with the merest thread of a voice, con-\\ntributed their share to the medley, and once\\na chickadee struck up his sweet and gentle\\nstrain in the very depths of the swamp\\nlike an angel singing in hell.\\nMy walk on the railway, that wonderful\\nSt. Mark s branch (I could never have im-\\nagined the possibility of running trains over\\nso crazy a track), took me through the\\nchoicest of bird country. The bushes were\\nalive, and the air rang with music. In the\\nmidst of the chorus I suddenly caught some-\\nwhere before me what I had no doubt was\\nthe song of a purple finch, a bird that I had", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0236.jp2"}, "237": {"fulltext": "WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 225\\nnot yet seen in Florida. I quickened my\\nsteps, and to my delight the singer proved\\nto be a blue grosbeak. I had caught a\\nglimpse of one two days before, as I have\\ndescribed in another chapter, but with no\\nopportunity for a final identification. Here,\\nas it soon turned out, there were at least\\nfour birds, all males, and all singing chas-\\ning each other about after the most per-\\nsistent fashion, in a piece of close shrub-\\nbery with tall trees interspersed, and act-\\ning the four of them just as two birds\\nare often seen to do when contending for\\nthe possession of a building site. At a first\\nhearing the song seems not so long sustained\\nas the purple finch s commonly is, but ex-\\nceedingly like it in voice and manner, though\\nnot equal to it, I should be inclined to say,\\nin either respect. The birds made fre-\\nquent use of a monosyllabic call, correspond-\\ning to the calls of the purple finch and the\\nrose-breasted grosbeak, but readily distin-\\nguishable from both. I was greatly pleased\\nto see them, and thought them extremely\\nhandsome, with their dark blue plumage set\\noif by wing patches of rich chestnut.\\nA little farther, and I was saluted by the", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0237.jp2"}, "238": {"fulltext": "226 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nsaucy cry of my first Florida chat. The\\nfellow had chosen just such a tangled\\nthicket as he favors in Massachusetts, and\\nwhistled and kept out of sight after the\\nmost approved manner of his kind. On the\\nother side of the track a white-eyed vireo\\nwas asserting himself, as he had been doing\\nsince the day I reached St. Augustine but\\nthough he seems a pretty clever substitute\\nfor the chat in the chat s absence, his light\\nis quickly put out when the clown himself\\nsteps into the ring. Ground doves cooed,\\ncardinals whistled, and mocking-birds sang\\nand mocked by turns. Orchard orioles, no\\nunworthy companions of mocking-birds and\\ncardinals, sang here and there from a low\\ntreetop, especially in the vicinity of houses.\\nTo judge from what I saw, they are among\\nthe most characteristic of Tallahassee birds,\\nas numerous as Baltimore orioles are in\\nMassachusetts towns, and frequenting much\\nthe same kind of places. In one day s walk\\nI counted twonty-five. Elegantly dressed as\\nthey are, and elegance is better than\\nbrilliancy, perhaps, even in a bird, they\\nseem to be thoroughly democratic. It was\\na pleasure to see them so fond of cabin door-\\nyards.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0238.jp2"}, "239": {"fulltext": "WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 227\\nOf tlie other birds along the St. Mark s\\nrailway, let it be enough to mention white-\\nthroated and white-crowned sparrows, red-\\neyed che winks (the white-eye was not found\\nin the Tallahassee region), a red-bellied\\nwoodpecker, two red shouldered hawks,\\nshrikes, kingbirds, yellow-throated warblers,\\nMaryland yellow-throats, pine warblers,\\npalm warblers, which in spite of their\\nname seek their summer homes north of\\nthe United States, myrtle warblers, now\\ngrown scarce, house wrens, summer tan-\\nagers, and quails. The last-named birds,\\nby the way, I had expected to find known\\nas partridges at the South, but as a\\nmatter of fact I heard that name applied\\nto them only once. On the St. Augustine\\nroad, before breakfast, I met an old negro\\nsetting out for his day s work behind a\\npair of oxen. Taking some good exer-\\ncise he asked, by way of a neighborly\\ngreeting and, not to be less neighborly\\nthan he, I responded with some remark\\nabout a big shot-gun which occupied a con-\\nspicuous place in his cart. Oh, he said,\\ngame is plenty out where we are going,\\nabout eight miles, and I take the gun", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0239.jp2"}, "240": {"fulltext": "228 WALES ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nalong. What kind of game Well,\\nsir, we may sometimes find a partridge. I\\nsmiled at the anti-climax, but was glad to\\nhear Bob White honored for once with his\\nSouthern title.\\nA good many of my jaunts took me past\\nthe gallinule swamp before mentioned, and\\nalmost always I stopped and went near. It\\nwas worth while to hear the poultry cries of\\nthe gallinules if nothing more and often\\nseveral of the birds would be seen swimming\\nabout among the big white lilies and the\\ngreen tussocks. Once I discovered one of\\nthem sitting upright on a stake, a preca-\\nrious seat, off which he soon tumbled\\nawkwardly into the water. At another\\ntime, on the same stake, sat some dark,\\nstrange-looking object. The opera-glass\\nshowed it at once to be a large bird sit-\\nting with its back toward me, and holding\\nits wings uplifted in the familiar heraldic,\\ne-2jluribus-U7ium attitude of our American\\nspread-eagle but even then it was some\\nseconds before I recognized it as an anhinga,\\nwater turkey, though it was a male\\nin full nuptial garb. I drew nearer and\\nnearer, and meanwhile it turned squarely", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0240.jp2"}, "241": {"fulltext": "WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 229\\nabout, a slow and ticklish operation,\\nso tliat its back was presented to the sun\\nas if it had dried one side of its wings and\\ntail, for the latter, too, was fully spread,\\nand now would dry the other. There for\\nsome time it sat preening its feathers, with\\nmonstrous twistings and untwistings of its\\nsnaky neck. If the chat is a clown, the wa-\\nter turkey would make its fortune as a con-\\ntortionist. Finally it rose, circled about till\\nit got well aloft, and then, setting its wings,\\nsailed away southward and vanished, leav-\\ning me in a state of wonder as to where it\\nhad come from, and whether it was often to\\nbe seen in such a place perfectly open,\\nclose beside the highway, and not far from\\nhouses. I did not expect ever to see an-\\nother, but the next morning, on my way up\\nthe railroad to pay a second visit to the\\nivory-bill s swamp, I looked up by chance,\\na brown thrush was singing on the tele-\\ngraph wire, and saw two anhingas soaring-\\noverhead, their silvery wings glistening in\\nthe sun as they wheeled. I kept my glass\\non them till the distance swallowed them up.\\nOf one long forenoon s ramble I retain\\nparticular remembrance, not on account of", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0241.jp2"}, "242": {"fulltext": "230 WALES ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nany birds, but for a half hour of pleasant\\nhuman intercourse. I went out of the city\\nby an untried road, hoping to find some\\ntrace of migrating birds, especially of cer-\\ntain warblers, the prospect of whose ac-\\nquaintance was one of the lesser considera-\\ntions which had brought me so far from\\nhome. No such trace appeared, however,\\nnor, in my fortnight s stay in Tallahassee, in\\nalmost the height of the migratory season,\\ndid I, so far as I could tell, see a single\\npassenger bird of any sort. Some species\\narrived from the South cuckoos and ori-\\noles, for example; others, no doubt, took\\ntheir departure for the North but to the\\nbest of my knowledge not one passed\\nthrough. It was a strange contrast to what\\nis witnessed everywhere in New England.\\nBy some other route swarms of birds must\\nat that moment have been entering the\\nUnited States from Mexico and beyond;\\nbut unless my observation was at fault,\\nand I am assured that sharper eyes than\\nmine have had a similar experience, their\\nline of march did not bring them into the\\nFlorida hill-country. My morning s road\\nnot only showed me no birds, but led me", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0242.jp2"}, "243": {"fulltext": "WALES ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 231\\nnowhere, and, growing discouraged, I turned\\nback till I came to a lane leading off to the\\nleft at right angles. This I followed so far\\nthat it seemed wise, if possible, to make my\\nway back to the city without retracing my\\nsteps. Not to spend my strength for naught,\\nhowever (the noonday sun having always to\\nbe treated with respect), I made for a soli-\\ntary house in the distance. Another lane\\nran past it. That, perhaps, would answer\\nmy purpose. I entered the yard, all ablaze\\nwith roses, and in response to my knock a\\ngentleman appeared upon the doorstep.\\nYes, he said, the lane would carry me\\nstraight to the Meridian road (so I think he\\ncalled it), and thence into the city. Past\\nDr. H. s I asked, Yes. And then I\\nknew where I was.\\nFirst, however, I must let my new ac-\\nquaintance show me his garden. His name\\nwas G., he said. Most likely I had heard\\nof him, for the legislature was just then hav-\\ning a good deal to say about his sheep, in\\nconnection with some proposed dog-law.\\nDid I like roses As he talked he cut one\\nafter another, naming each as he put it into\\nmy hand. Then I must look at his Japan-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0243.jp2"}, "244": {"fulltext": "232 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\nese persimmon trees, and many other things.\\nHere was a pretty shrub. Perhaps I could\\ntell what it was by crushing and smelling a\\nleaf No it was something familiar I\\nsniffed, and looked foolish, and after all he\\nhad to tell me its name camphor. So we\\nwent the rounds of the garden, frighten-\\ning a mocking-bird off her nest in an orange-\\ntree, till my hands were full. It is too\\nbad I have forgotten how many pecan-trees\\nhe had planted, and how many sheep he\\nkept. A well-regulated memory would have\\nheld fast to such figures mine is certain\\nonly that there were four eggs in the mock-\\ning-bird s nest. Mr. G. was a man of en-\\nterprise, at any rate a match for any Yan-\\nkee, although he had come to Florida not\\nfrom Yankeeland, but from northern Geor-\\ngia. I hope all his crops are still thriving,\\nespecially his white roses and his Marshal\\nNiels.\\nIn the lane, after skirting some pleasant\\nwoods, which I meant to visit again, but\\nfound no opportunity, I was suddenly as-\\nsaulted by a pair of brown thrashers, half\\nbeside themselves after their manner because\\nof my approach to their nest. How close", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0244.jp2"}, "245": {"fulltext": "WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 233\\nmy approach was I cannot say but it must\\nbe confessed that I played upon their fears\\nto the utmost of my ability, wishing to see\\nas many of their neighbors as the disturb-\\nance would bring together. Several other\\nthrashers, a catbird, and two house wrens\\nappeared (all these, since blood is thicker\\nthan water, may have felt some special\\ncousinly solicitude, for aught I know), with\\na ruby-crowned kinglet and a field sparrow.\\nIn the valley, near a little pond, as I came\\nout into the Meridian road, a solitary vireo\\nwas singing, in the very spot where one had\\nbeen heard six days before. Was it the\\nsame bird I asked myself. And was it\\nsettled for the summer Such an explana-\\ntion seemed the more likely because I had\\nfound no solitary vireo anywhere else about\\nthe cit}^ though the species had been com-\\nmon earlier in the season in eastern and\\nsouthern Florida, where I had seen my last\\none at New Smyrna March 26.\\nAt this same dip in the Meridian road,\\non a previous visit, I had experienced one of\\nthe pleasantest of my Tallahassee sensations.\\nThe morning was one of those when every\\nbird is in tune. By the road side I had just", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0245.jp2"}, "246": {"fulltext": "234 WALES ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\npassed Carolina wrens, house wrens, a chip-\\nper, a field sparrow, two thrashers, an abun-\\ndance of chewinks, two orchard orioles,\\nseveral tanagers, a flock of quail, and mock-\\ning-birds and cardinals uncounted. In a\\npine wood near by, a wood pewee, a pine\\nwarbler, a yellow-throated warbler, and a\\npine-wood s23arrow were singing a most\\npeculiarly select and modest chorus. Just\\nat the lowest point in the valley I stopped\\nto listen to a song which I did not recognize,\\nbut which, by and by, I settled upon as\\nprobably the work of a freakish prairie war-\\nbler. At that moment, as if to confirm my\\nconjecture, which in the retrospect be-\\ncomes almost ridiculous, a prairie warbler\\nhopped into sight on an outer twig of the\\nwater-oak out of which the music had pro-\\nceeded. Still something said, Are you\\nsure? and I stepped inside the fence.\\nThere on the ground were two or three\\nwdiite-crowned sparrows, and in an instant\\nthe truth of the case flashed upon me. I\\nremembered the saying of a friend, that the\\nsong of the white-crown had reminded him\\nof the vesper sparrow and the black-throated\\ngreen warbler. That was my bird and I", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0246.jp2"}, "247": {"fulltext": "WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 235\\nlistened again, thougli I could no longer be\\nsaid to feel in doubt. A long time I waited.\\nAgain and again the birds sang, and at last\\nI discovered one of them perched at the top\\nof the oak, tossing back his head and war-\\nbling a white-crowned sparrow: the one\\nregular Massachusetts migrant which I had\\noften seen, but had never heard utter a\\nsound.\\nThe strain opens with smooth, sweet notes\\nalmost exactly like the introductory syllables\\nof the vesper sparrow. Then the tone\\nchanges, and the remainder of the song is in\\nsomething like the pleasingly hoarse voice of\\na prairie warbler, or a black-throated green.\\nIt is soft and very pretty not so perfect a\\npiece of art as the vesper sparrow s tune,\\nfew bird-songs are, but taking for its very\\noddity, and at the same time tender and\\nsweet. More than one writer has described\\nit as resembling the song of the white-throat.\\nEven Minot, who in general was the most\\npainstaking and accurate of observers, as he\\nis one of the most interesting of our syste-\\nmatic writers, says that the two songs are\\nalmost exactly alike. There could be no\\nbetter example of the fallibility which at-", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0247.jp2"}, "248": {"fulltext": "236 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE.\\ntaches, and in tlie nature of tlie case must\\nattach, to all writing upon such subjects.\\nThe two songs have about as much in com-\\nmon as those of the hermit thrush and\\nthe brown thrasher, or those of the song\\nsparrow and the chipper. In other words,\\nthey have nothing in common. Prob-\\nably in Minot s case, as in so many others\\nof a similar nature, the simple explana-\\ntion is that when he thought he was lis-\\ntening to one bird he was really listening to\\nanother.\\nThe Tallahassee road to which I had of ten-\\nest resorted, to which, now, from far Massa-\\nchusetts, I oftenest look back, the St. Au-\\ngustine road, so called, I have spoken of\\nelsewhere. Thither, after packing my trunk\\non the morning of the 18th, I betook my-\\nself for a farewell stroll. My holiday was\\ndone. For the last time, perhaps, I listened\\nto the mocking-bird and the cardinal, as by\\nand by, when the grand holiday is over, I\\nshall listen to my last wood thrush and my\\nlast bluebird. But what then? Florida\\nfields are still bright, and neither mocking-\\nbird nor cardinal knows aught of my ab-\\nsence. And so it will be.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0248.jp2"}, "249": {"fulltext": "WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 237\\nWhen you and I behind the Veil are past,\\nOh, but the long-, long while the World shall last.\\nNone the less, it is good to have lived\\nour day and taken our peep at the mighty\\nshow. Ten thousand things we may have\\nfretted ourselves about, uselessly or worse.\\nBut to have lived in the sun, to have loved\\nnatural beauty, to have felt the majesty of\\ntrees, to have enjoyed the sweetness of\\nflowers and the music of birds, so much,\\nat least, is not vanity nor vexation of spirit.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0249.jp2"}, "250": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0250.jp2"}, "251": {"fulltext": "INDEX.\\nAm-PLANTS, 104.\\nAlligator, 131, 146.\\nAzalea, 172, 206, 216.\\nBaptisia, 206.\\nBeggar s-ticks, 27.\\nBlackberry, 27, 29, 117, 152,\\n163, 217.\\nBlackbird, red wing, 97,\\n106, 134, 145, 147, 161, 167.\\nBladderwort, 29.\\nBluebird, 4, 115, 147, 170,\\n218.\\nBlue-eyed Grass, 30.\\nButterworts, 27, 28, 29, 173.\\nBuzzard, turkey, 20, 36, 38,\\n66, 126, 128, 145.\\nCalopogon, 125.\\nCarrion Crow (Black Vul-\\nture), 40, 134, 191.\\nCatbird, 65, 233.\\nCedar-bird, 80.\\nCedar, red, 90.\\nChat, yeUow-breasted, 226.\\nCherokee Rose, 125, 165, 172,\\n201, 206.\\nCherry, wild, 175.\\nChewink (Towhee)\\nred -eyed, 65, 167, 218,\\n227, 234.\\nwhite -eyed, 5, 65, 115,\\n227.\\nChickadee, Carolina, 21, 97,\\n218, 224.\\nChimney Swift, 209.\\nChuck-will s-widow, 96.\\nClematis Baldwinii, 125.\\nClover, buffalo, 191.\\nCloudberry, 29.\\nCoot (Fulica americana),\\n134.\\nCoquina Clam, 55.\\nCoreopsis, 30.\\nCormorant, 66, 78, 124, 134,\\n145.\\nCrab-apple, 172.\\nCreeper, black and white,\\n97, 218.\\nCross- vine, 172.\\nCrow, 5, 35, 37, 100, 114, 124.\\nCuckoo, yellow billed, 176,\\n222.\\nCypress-tree, 127.\\nDabchiek, 124, 128, 134, 145.\\nDove\\nCarolina, 147.\\nground, 65, 147, 218,\\n226.\\nDuck, wood, 222.\\nEagle, bald, 43, 79, 143, 145.\\nEgret\\ngreat white, 76.\\nlittle white, 75.\\nFish-hawk, 42, 44, 79, 116,\\n127, 143, 147.\\nFlicker (Golden winged\\nWoodpecker), 4, 65, 81,\\n106.\\nFlowering Dogwood, 172,\\n206, 216.\\nFlycatchers\\nAcadian, 224.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0251.jp2"}, "252": {"fulltext": "240\\nINDEX.\\nFlycatchers\\ncrested, 153, 224.\\nkingbird, 176, 190, 191,\\n227.\\nphoebe, 8, 65, 81.\\nwood pewee, 170, 234.\\nFringe-bush, 206, 216.\\nFrogs, 185.\\nGallinule\\nFlorida, 132, 217, 228.\\npurple, 137, 139.\\nGannet, 46.\\nGnateatcher, blue-gray, 224.\\nGolden club, 27.\\nGoldenrod, 26.\\nGrackle, boat tailed, 107,\\n124, 145.\\nGrebe, pied-billed, 124, 128,\\n134, 145.\\nGrosbeak\\ncardinal, 64, 81, 114,\\n118, 166, 176, 191, 212,\\n218, 226, 234.\\nblue, 187, 191, 224.\\nGull:-\\nBonaparte s, 48.\\nring-billed, 49.\\nHawk\\nfish, 42, 44, 79, 116, 127,\\n143, 147.\\nmarsh, 36, 38, 176, 213.\\nred-shouldered, 106, 115,\\n218, 227.\\nsparrow, 76, 169.\\nswallow-tailed, 138.\\nHeron\\ngreat blue, 35, 36, 39, 50,\\n70, 107, 134, 145, 190,\\n217.\\ngreat white {or Egret),\\n76.\\ngreen, 76, 107, 133, 181.\\nlittle blue, 74, 107, 134,\\n145, 181, 218.\\nLouisiana, 74, 75, 107,\\n145.\\nHeron\\nnight (black crowned),\\n133, 145.\\nHoneysuckle\\nscarlet, 172.\\nwhite, 151, 172.\\nHoustonia, round-leaved, 26,\\n82, 105, 116.\\nHumming-bird, ruby-throat-\\ned, 114, 118, 153.\\nHypoxis, 27.\\nIris versicolor, 29, 112, 139.\\nJay:\\nFlorida, 61.\\nFlorida blue, 62, 153.\\nJudas-tree, 27.\\nKilldeer Plover, 39, 78.\\nKingbird, 176, 190, 191, 227.\\nKingfisher, 6, 36, 39, 145,\\n147.\\nKinglet, ruby crowned, 81,\\n153, 170, 214, 233.\\nKite, fork-tailed, 138.\\nKrigia, 27.\\nLantana, 151, 172.\\nLark, meadow, 6, 145, 183.\\nLeptopoda, 30.\\nLive-oak, 96, 104.\\nLizards, 115.\\nLobelia Feayana, 30.\\nLoggerhead Shrike, 5, 111,\\n123, 177, 190, 191, 200,\\n218.\\nLygodesmia, 125.\\nMartin, purple, 65, 124, 145,\\n147, 158, 176.\\nMaryland Yellow throat,\\n116, 218, 227.\\nMocking-bird, 4, 64, 81, 123,\\n167, 170, 176, 191, 210, 212,\\n218, 232, 234.\\nMullein, 27.\\nMyrtle Bird. See Warbler.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0252.jp2"}, "253": {"fulltext": "INDEX.\\n241\\nNight-hawk, 176.\\nNuthatch, brown-headed, 6,\\n106, 218.\\nOrange, wild, 87, 105.\\nOriole, orchard, 177, 183,\\n191, 194, 200, 226, 234.\\nOsprey. See Fish-Hawk.\\nOven-bird, 80.\\nOxalis, yellow, 26, 37, 81,\\n152.\\nPapaw, 125.\\nParoquet, 147.\\nPartridge-berry, 105.\\nPelican\\nbrown, 47.\\nwhite, 66.\\nPersimmon, 175.\\nPhcfibe, 8, 65, 81.\\nPipewort, 30.\\nPoison Ivy, 116.\\nPoppy, Mexican, 152.\\nQuaU, 115, 118, 167, 176, 218,\\n227, 234.\\nRail:\\nCarolina, 217.\\nclapper, 98.\\nking, 138.\\nRedbird (Cardinal Gros-\\nbeak), 64, 81, 114, 118, 166,\\n176,191,212,218,224,226,\\n234.\\nRicebird, 161.\\nRobin, 4.\\nSalvia lyrata, 82.\\nSanderling, 49, 59.\\nSandpiper\\nsolitary, 181, 191.\\nspotted, 35, 78.\\nSassafras, 175.\\nSchrankia, 125.\\nSenecio, 139.\\nShrike, loggerhead, 5, 111,\\n177, 190, 191, 200, 218, 227.\\nSow Thistle, 26.\\nSnakebird (Water Turkey),\\n66, 79, 141, 228.\\nSparrow\\nchipping, 234.\\nfield, 15, 233, 234.\\ngrasshopper yellow\\nwinged), 212.\\npine-wood, 6, 13, 106,\\n118, 234.\\nsavanna, 65, 145.\\nsong, 65.\\nwhite-crowned, 190, 191,\\n201, 227, 234.\\nwhite-throated, 153, 191,\\n227.\\nSpiderwort, 81.\\nSt. Peter s-wort, 27, 28.\\nStrawberry, 173.\\nSwallow\\nbarn, 222.\\nrough-winged, 218.\\ntree (white -bellied), 8,\\n65, 124, 145, 147.\\nSwift, chimney, 209.\\nTanager, summer, 96, 153,\\n184, 191, 213, 227, 234.\\nTern, 49, 59, 78.\\nThorns, 172, 216.\\nThrasher (Brown Thrush),\\n17, 64, 168, 191, 218, 229,\\n232.\\nThrush\\nhermit, 80, 170.\\nNorthern water, 80.\\nLouisiana water, 80.\\nTitlark, 38.\\nTitmouse\\nCaroHna, 21, 97.\\ntufted, 96.\\nTowhee. See Chewink.\\nTurkey, 147, 220, 223.\\nVaccinium, arboreum, 172.\\nVenus s Looking-glass (Spee-\\nularia), 152.\\nVerbena, 81.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0253.jp2"}, "254": {"fulltext": "242\\nINDEX.\\nViolets, 27, 81, 116, 173.\\nVireo\\nred-eyed, 218, 224.\\nsolitary, 97, 233.\\nwhite-eyed, 36, 115, 170,\\n218, 226.\\nyellow-throated, 191.\\nVirginia creeper, 116.\\nVulture (Carrion Crow), 40,\\n134, 191.\\nWarbler\\nblack throated green,\\n21.\\nblue yellow-backed, 96,\\n124, 147, 218, 224.\\nmyrtle (yellow-rumped),\\n36, 65, 97, 124, 145,\\n191, 214.\\npalm (yellow redpoll),\\n65, 81, 145, 191, 218,\\n227.\\npine, 4, 106, 115, 214, 218,\\n227, 234.\\nprairie, 81, 97, 124, 234.\\nyellow throated (Den-\\ndroica dominica), 21,\\n97, 153, 184, 213, 218,\\n227, 234.\\nWater Lily, 206, 228.\\nWater Tlirush\\nLouisiana, 80,\\nNorthern, 80.\\nWater Turkey (Snakebird),\\nQQ, 79, 141, 228.\\nWood Pewee, 170, 234.\\nWoodpecker\\ndowny. 4.\\ngolden-winged (flicker),\\n4, 65, 81, 106.\\nivory-billed, 190, 214.\\npileated, 25.\\nred-bellied, 106, 169, 227.\\nred-cockaded, 6, 24.\\nred-headed, 177.\\nWren\\nCarolina (mocking), 64,\\n116, 153, 200, 218, 224,\\n234.\\nhouse, 81, 166, 214, 218,\\n227, 233, 234.\\nlong -billed marsh, 38,\\n100.\\nwinter, 17.\\nYellow Jessamine, 105, 216.\\nYellow-legs (Totanus fla-\\nvipes), 181, 191.", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0254.jp2"}, "255": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0255.jp2"}, "256": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0256.jp2"}, "257": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0257.jp2"}, "258": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0258.jp2"}, "259": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3041", "width": "1814", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0259.jp2"}, "260": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3337", "width": "2105", "jp2-path": "floridasketchboo00torr_0260.jp2"}}