Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/507

442 very many old and new "gum roads" running into the swamp. We followed these until we saw the nature of each. Some had been deserted apparently scores of years ago, and it was a sorry sight to see the effect of the ruthless timber-cutting which is going on to-day as it was 50 or 100 years ago. No intelligent forestry has ever been applied to the swamp; the selection of the trees has been wholly left to ignorant men. Where whole groves of juniper or cypress were cut down, the cleared land was left to grow up in jungle, and the jungle that follows this cutting is an impenetrable canebrake, through which an elephant could not force his way for a mile. During these wanderings Mr. Moseley never lost an opportunity of capturing a characteristic sketch or photograph, and his pictures faithfully preserve many of the striking features of the swamp.

The beauty and profusion of the vegetation seen from these "gum roads" is indescribable. The greens of the underwood are the intensest hues of nature; the ferns dripping with moisture, the yellow jessamine climbing the great trees, the familiar Virginia creeper rioting in its leaps and lovely hangings. Again and again, not knowing, we were tempted to gather the attractive trumpets of the poisonous oakvine, that is so virulent that