The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-01-11
IN THE BAY OF PANAMA.

Pelicans in Their Diving for Fish and
 the Interesting Sight They Present.
 In the press dispatches describing
 the Presidents tour of the isthmus,
 said a Washington tourist, who re-
 turned from trip in that region, to a
 Washington Star reporter, mention
 was made of sail around the Bay of
 Panama, which the President declared
 to be one of the most enjoyable fea-
 lures of his trip.
 Residents of northern cllmes have
 little conception of the tropics, where
 life in all of it's phases is so different
 from our own, and from my point of
 view am not enamoured of it, except as something to see and pass through;
 but the Bay of Panama is strikingly
 beautiful, and the waters of the Paci- fic take on an exquisite deep cerulean
 tint which is revelation to the eye of those who have seen only the blue of
 the Atlantic.
 In the event of war with this country, the fleets of the enemy would make Panama one of the first obtec- tive points for capture and occupation. The bay affords a safe and deep an- chorage, and is dotted most pictures quely with small islands. The land Notifications could be easily shelled and bombarded 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 seems to me, though I am not a mili- tary man, that Notifications to be of actual service against sea attack would have to be of the most formid- able nature.
 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 serveral days on account of yellow fever, and then we were hurried over the Isthmus on a special train direct to the steamer at Colon. During this enforced quarantine we observed with delight one of the features of the Ray 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 ai- most measured steadiness all day, seldom kick up even so much as white cans, except in the tempestuous sea- sons. The pelicans, which grow to size in the tropics, hover over the surface of the water in search of fish. When the wonderfully keep eyes of these monster birds discern a fish, though they usually fly several hundred feet from the surface of the ocean, they drop and make dive, head foremost, with wings closed tightly to their bodies, that makes the dip of death of the diver in a cir [ eus look like 30 cents.
 They drop through the air with the | rapidity of a cannon ball, strike the water with a tremendous splash, sending spray flying as ifw 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 lir with the. fish in their huge bills. As is the case with all large seabirds, however, their rise from the water is IS awkward as their rives, and subse- luent aerial flight are graceful, and their mammoth wings beat the water nto a foam in their powerful strokes to gain the initial momentum. Some imes two and three and even more 1elcans would make the drop and live almost simultaneously, and when hey would ali land in the water few ,ards from another, probably in ;chool of fish, the sight was one of the most remarkable and interesting that 'ould be brought to a tourists eye Il trip around the world"