OKEFINOKEE SWAMP 



6oi 



Having outlined the sources of our knowledge of this interesting 

 region, it may now be described from a geographical standpoint. 



Geography 



Okefinokee Swamp lies almost entirely in Ware and Charlton coun- 

 ties, Georgia, about fifty miles from the coast and 115 feet above sea- 

 level. (It will be noticed that in its elevation and distance from the 



Map of the southeastern Corner of Georgia, showing the 

 Swamp and the ridge east of it. Compiled from county maps 

 State's office in Atlanta, a map drawn for the Suwannee Cana 

 U. S. Coast Survey chart No. 157, 1901 : field notes of the 

 Rand, McNally & Co.'s map of Georgia, 1906. and the U. S. Depar 

 soil map of the Waycross area, 1907. 



The abandoned railroads are shown principally because they 

 ways for exploring the almost trackless pine-barrens on foot, 

 islands and other details within the swamp are not given here 

 known about them at present. 



ocation of Okefinokee 

 in the Secretary of 



1 Company in 1897 ; 

 author, 1902-1904; 



tment of Agriculture 



are convenient high- 

 The location of the 

 because too little is 



coast it differs considerably from the two other great swamps of east- 

 ern North America, namely. Dismal Swamp and the Everglades.) The 

 surrounding country belongs to the flat pine-barren region of the 

 coastal plain, and is notable for the lack of diversity in its topography. 

 Except in the vicinity of some of the creeks and rivers, the ground has 

 scarcely any slope, and the channels of the smaller streams are ill-de- 

 fined. At almost any point on a railroad within thirty or forty miles 

 of the swamp one can see the rails stretching away in a straight line 

 farther than the eye can reach, in one or both directions. The longest 



