Athletics and manly sport (1890) (14796169513)

Identifier: athleticsmanlysp00orei (find matches)

Title: Athletics and manly sport

Year: 1890 (1890s)

Authors: O'Reilly, John Boyle, 1844-1890

Subjects: Boxing Games Canoes and canoeing

Publisher: Boston, Pilot publishing company

Contributing Library: The Library of Congress

Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

Text Appearing Before Image:

e banks of the Feederare thickly covered with canebrake, the bamboosof great height. On the right, going toward thelake however, the swamp is more open and haslarge timber. The condition of the Feeder was a shockingrevelation. There was no raised bank here, as inthe main canal. For miles of its length the waterflowed freely over the banks into the swamp,creating a morass of dreadful appearance. Noliving thing could there find footing. Even birdswere rarely seen, although we saw a few of beauti-ful plumage, one of which is known to the negroesof the swamp as the red bird. It resembled aflame in the brilliance of its coloring, as it passedthrough the shaded light of the swamp. In the Feeder we met several lighters, heavilypiled with juniper logs, on their way from the laketo the sawmill. These lighters had each two men,colored, who poled them from the banks. Attimes, when the sides of the Feeder will permit,they walk on a line of logs laid along the mud CANOEING IN THE PISMAL SWAMP. 389

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390 ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT. bank, pushing the lighter with their poles restingagainst the breast. Our passage up the Feeder was against a strongcurrent. It was a steady and monotonous paddlethrough dim light, the canebrake and the boughsreaching over our heads. The air had a densewarmth as though we were in a closed room.Outside on the canal, there was a strong breezewith a decided chill in it; here, we were stifled asif in an oven. And yet, up to this time we hadnot seen a mosquito in the swamp; and as forsnakes and other wild creatures, we had almostmade up our minds that they were a tradition or apopular romance. How far to the lake ? we asked a magnificentfellow who was poling a timber skiff down theFeeder. He was a giant in black bronze, large-eyed, large-browed, large-motioned — a man bornto be distinct among his fellows. He stopped hislighter by holding her against the canes, and helooked with an ample smile at the canoes. Wehad to repeat our question, when he start

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1890

Library of Congress

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