Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/290

Rh and no ordination but that of production and decay. Beneath these verdant, leafy arches which overshadow the water lie the peaceful tortoise and the cruel alligator also, waiting for its prey. Elks inhabit these natural temples, also panthers, tigers and black bears. Around these columns of leaves and flowers wind the rattlesnake and the poisonous mocassin, and that beautiful, romantic forest is full of small, poisonous, noxious creatures. But more dangerous than all is the pleasant air which comes laden, during the summer, with the miasmas of the primeval forests and the river, bringing to the colonist, fever, and slowly consuming diseases; and causing these wondrously beautiful shores still to lack human inhabitants. Small settlements have been commenced here and there on the river, but have, after a few years, been deserted and left to decay.

It is, however, precisely this primeval life in the wilderness, this wild luxuriant beauty defying the power of man, and vigorous in its own affluence, which is so unspeakably interesting to me, and which supplies me with an incessant festival. And the air is so pleasant, and the magnolias so full of flower, the river so full of life, alligators and fishes splashing about, large and beautiful water-fowl on all hands; everything is so luxuriant—so wonderfully rich, wild, and lovely—it is a never-ending fairy scene; especially in the evenings when the moon rises and throws her mystic half light and half shadow into the arches and pillared aisles of these marvellous natural temples. I sit in silence on the piazza, and gaze upon it with devotion and rapture, as, at every bend of the river, new and striking scenes present themselves; happy when I can thus sit alone, or with my good Mrs. W. H. at my side, in company with whom I am always right.

But we are not without our little disturbing occurrences. On our first morning on the Welaka, St. Matthew, through carelessness, ran upon a snag, and this gave the dominant