Occasionally we come upon masses of strange and wonderful moss; it is long, fibrous, and shining, and hangs in wavy tresses like the golden hair of a woman, as though some sweet Ophelia had been floating down the river, and the envious branches, determined that _all_ should not be lost, stooped downwards, caught and tangled her glistening tresses, while the tide bore the fair form slowly on and the soft breeze still murmurs mournfully “drowned, drowned, drowned.” Here and there the scene widens, and half-a-dozen little fussy tributary streams hurry out from their mysterious depths to join the quiet Ocklawaha in its dreamy flow, and we push our way for a while through an extensive watery plain, where reeds and grasses, and fair white lilies, twine their delicate fibres together and try to stop our progress; but we break through the pretty network as though it were a spider’s web, and puff our ruthless way out of it. Now there are a flight of small, bright-plumaged birds, with the heron in pursuit, or a volley of long-necked cranes shoot with their discordant cry across our path, and an elderly stork, judging from the length of his legs, stands at a safe distance and watches us from the shore. We glance up half-a-dozen narrow water lanes, take a sudden turn, and plunge again into the wilderness. A great ugly alligator, who has been sunning himself on a fallen tree trunk, lifts his horny eyelids stupidly, and lazily slips under the water as we come puffing along. We are constantly coming upon these revolting creatures in the most unexpected places. Sometimes their leaden eyes simply stare, or they open their spiky mouths, as though they would like to swallow us, and don’t stir. Familiarity breeds contempt. I suppose they have got so used to having their privacy invaded by our odd little steamer that they conclude it is only a friendly monster like themselves, and won’t do them any harm. Time was when the “bang, bang” of the sportsman’s gun went echoing through these solitudes; but now tourists are forbidden to shoot alligators or any other thing from the decks of the Ocklawaha boats. Sometimes we catch sight of a huge black snake wriggling its way up from the water and through the long grass till it vanishes from our sight; for it is here in these luxuriant and mysterious wilds that Nature hides the most hideous of her progeny. Creeping things and poisonous reptiles, that we shudder to think of, have their homes in these brilliant and luxuriant solitudes--the secret haunts of all-bountiful Nature, where man will not dare to penetrate. Or if he does he is seized by the foul fever-fiend, malaria, and faints and falls in the slimy swamps, with a creation of loathsome nameless things for his death companions.