The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-12-17
IN THE BAY or PANAMA.
Pelicans Diving for Fish Present al
 Interesting Sight.

Pelicans Diving for Fish Present al Interesting Sight
 'In the press dispatches describing the Presidents tour of the Isthmus'
 said a Washington tourist, who has re, gently returned from a trip in that re.
 gion to a Star reporter, 'mention wae
 made of a sail around the Bay of Pan-
 ama which the President declared to
 be one of the most enjoyable features
 of llia trip.
 Residents of northern cimes have
 little conception of the tropics, where
 life in all of its phases is so different
 rom our own, and from my point of
 view am not enamored of it, except as something to see and pass through; but the Bay of Panama is strikingly beautiful, and the waters of the Paci- flc take on an exquisite deep cerulearl tint which is a 'reyela ton to the eye of those who have seen only the blue of the Atlantic.
 In the event of war with this coun- try the fleets of the enemy would make Panama one of the first objective points for capture and occupation. The bay affords a safe and deep an- chorage, and is dotted most plctur- esquely with small islands. The land fortifications could be easily shelled and bombared. There is considerable of an elevation back and to the south of the city of Panama, the streets of which slope up from the very edge of the waters of the bay. But it would seem to me, though I am not a militia " man. that Notifications to be of &C., tual service against sea attack would have to be of the most formidable na- ture
 As the sanitary conditions of the isthmus are better now than formerly better time is now made on the trip from San Francisco to New York than In past years. On one of my trips we had to lie outside in the bay for several days on account of yellow fever, and then we were hurried over the isthmus on special train direct to the steamer at Colon. During this enforced quar- antine we observed with delight one of the features of the Bay of Panama. and sight which is never seen in the north.
 Large fiocks of pelicans make their abodes on some of the islands in the bay. The days are clear and sunny, the sky is cloudless, the ocean calm and intensely blue and the trade winds from the Orient, which blow with al- most a measured steadiness all day, seldom kick up even so much as white caps, except in the tempestuous sea- sons. The pelieans, which grow to enormous size in the tropics, hover over the surface of the water in search of fish. When the wonderfully keen eve Of these monster birds discern a fish. though they usually fly several hun dred feet from the surface of the ocean they drop and make a dive head fore most, with wings closed tightly to their bodies, that make the dip of death of the diver in circus lok like thirty centI.
 They drop through the air with the rapidity of cannon ball, strike the water with a tremendous splash, send ing the spray flying as if a real shot from a cannon had struck the surface. and in most instances it seemed to us that they secured their prey, for we would see them rise in the air with the fish in their huge bills. As is the case with all large sea birds, however, their rise from the water is as awkward as their dives and subsequent aerial flight are fracefui, and their mammoth wings beat the water into a foam in their powerful strokes to gain the initial mo- mentum. Sometimes two and three and even more pelicans would make the drop and dive almost simultaneously, l and when they would all land in the water a few yards from another, prob- ably in school of fish, the sight was one of the most remarkable and inter- 1 esting that could be brought to a tour st's eye in trip around the world. "-I Star,