598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



crossed it in pursuit of Indians during the first Seminole War, in the 

 second decade of the nineteenth century. One of the islands in the 

 swamp now bears the name of this general. 



In the winter of 1856-7, Col. E. L. Hunter, an engineer, employed 

 by the state of Georgia, ran a line of levels around the swamp to ascer- 

 tain the practicability of draining it, and found its edges to range from 

 about 110 to 126 feet above sea-level. This survey is said to have cost 

 the state $3,260. His report to the governor, accompanied by a map, 

 was filed away and almost forgotten, until unearthed in 1875 by Col. E. 

 Y. Clarke, at that time editor of the Atlanta Constitution. 



During the latter part of the Civil "War, a number of deserters from 

 the Confederate army found a safe retreat in the Okefinokee, and they 

 are said to have lived for some time on an island (or perhaps a penin- 

 sula?) in the southeastern part of the swamp, which is known to this 

 day as Soldier Camp Island. 



Paul Fountain, an English traveler, claims to have been the first 

 naturalist to visit this region. In his book, " Great Deserts and For- 

 ests of North America," published in 1901, he devotes 23 pages to it, 

 and says among other things : " The Okefinoke has not, I think, been 

 often penetrated; it certainly had not at the time I visited it in 1871 

 and 1876." Judging from the way he uses the name, he must have 

 been pretty close to the place, but the chances are that he never saw the 

 real Okefinokee Swamp at all. About half of his chapter on it con- 

 sists of general remarks on snakes and other reptiles, and the remainder 

 purports to be a description of the swamp ; but this description differs 

 considerably from those of all other explorers, and would apply much 

 better to the swamp of the Suwannee Eiver, which flows out of Okefino- 

 kee toward the southwest. Even with this interpretation, however, his 

 remarks about the insalubrity of the region seem to be considerably 

 overdrawn. 



The first expedition for the systematic exploration of the Okefino- 

 kee wilderness was organized in the fall of 1875, by the Atlanta Consti- 

 tution in cooperation with the state geological survey. The members 

 of this expedition were the State Geologist, Dr. George Little, his 

 assistants, E. H. Loughridge and C. A. Locke, Col. E. Y. Clarke and 

 Mr. E. E. Hyde, of Atlanta, Col. C. E. Pendleton, of the Valdosta 

 Times (now editor of the Macon Telegraph), two or three gentlemen 

 living near the swamp, and a cook, guide and laborers. The " Consti- 

 tution Expedition " remained in and around the swamp for six weeks, 

 in November and December, 1875. A brief account of their work 

 appeared in the report of the state geologist for that year, and a more 

 extended description in Janes's " Handbook of Georgia," published by 

 the state agricultural department in 1876. A few timber specimens 

 secured by this expedition, together with several from other parts of 

 Georgia, formed part of the state's exhibit at the Paris exposition in 



