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[[underlined]] Venice [[/underlined]] few people (not at the [[Coney?]] Island part) watch the sun go down ^ [[insertion]] in the Pacific [[/insertion]] - a red ball - then a red disc as it went out in clouds. [[margin]] [[underlined]] Marshes & Lagoon [[/underlined]] [[/margin]] [[underlined]] Oct. 16. [[/underlined]] Went out by the edge of the marshes & along the canals to-day after that horrible [[swimer?]] drove all my birds away from the beach (See Limosa Fedoa) and across the long bridge to the sand dunes overlooking the big stretch of marsh - muddy now with some plant - & with waterways everywhere. What delight it would be to wade through it & poke about quietly with a boat & really see what is there. There were worlds of birds out in the lagoon but I could not get near enough to see what they were but some were long legged round bodied & warm brown, [[including?]] [[indeally?]] godwits, and there were aggravating rows of which birds close together that I wanted awfully to know. One compensation. Lovely [[lumelied?]] over bitterns or some such thing - creeping along the edges of water ways! [[margin]] Beach at sunset [[/margin]] I came home ^ [[insertion]] just before sunset [[/insertion]] from down the road to Playa del Rey with long ^ [[insertion]] straight [[/insertion]] lines of white surf breaking 6 ft or more from its green wall - but out far enough not to pound. The ocean was gray & the white surf ^ [[insertion]] with its deep voice [[/insertion]] and air full of ocean life with [[end page]] [[start page]] [[underlined]] Venice [[/underlined]] just a haze of fog coming in and a deep glittering gold sun path and a sunset sky that grew and ripened to rich purples. It was glorious. [[image - footnote symbol]]. The long straight lines of white surf and then big rollers behind give such a feeling of the dignity of the simplicity & bigness of it all. It all seems a part of the orderly march of the universe - how small a dot man is! And yet he alone can try to understand the universe - and bow before what he cannot fathom. [[underlined]] Oct. 20 [[/underlined]] - The beach was like a Soldiers Home this mg. doubtless as the result of the 'open season' and the popping from early morning out on the marshes & lagoon. The first discovery was a poor cormorant dead on the beach with its bill tied up (see [[underlined]] [[Phalacioem?]] [[/underlined]]) [[margin]] [[underlined]] Birds [[/underlined]] [[/margin]] then down the beach one after another godwits with broken legs, crippled surf birds and two big noble [[underlined]] gulls [[/underlined]] - one apparently with one leg shot [[underlined]] off [[/underlined]] - it was horrible & made you thankful when any poor little sandpiper put one foot before the other and trotted off normally. [[line across page]] [[image - footnote symbol]] and there were the swirling flocks of white sandpipers un resolving ahead of you.