OKEFINOKEE SWAMP 605 



Assuming the foregoing theories to be true^, we can now trace the 

 pruliahle development of Okefinokee Swamp. When the ridge was 

 thrown up across the shallow trough which had been Suwannee Strait 

 it naturally created a basin behind it, which must have quickly filled 

 with water, forming a large shallow lake. This lake then began to fill 

 with vegetation, as many other shallow lakes and ponds in temperate 

 regions are doing, and gradually took on the aspect it has to-day, which 

 will be described more in detail below, under the head of vegetation. 

 A glance at the map will show how the waters are dammed up by the 

 ridge, the straight eastern border contrasting with the very irregular 

 western border of the swamp. 



The drainage of the region presents some peculiar features. Oke- 

 finokee Swamp is approximately on the watershed between the Atlantic 

 Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. In dry weather the Suwannee Eiver 

 seems to be its only outlet, but at other times some of the water may 

 be discharged into the Atlantic through the St. Mary's. Being about 

 on a watershed, the drainage area of the swamp is rather small, in- 

 cluding only a few hundred square miles outside of the swamp itself. 

 Its tributaries are practically confined to Ware County, on the north- 

 west, and none of them exceed twenty miles in length. As the swamp 

 is a few hundred feet vertically and a good many miles horizontally 

 from any limestone, subterranean inlets and outlets are out of the 

 question.'^ The color of the water in the swamp and in all the streams 

 in the vicinity shows it to be entirely free from lime as well as from mud. 



The courses of the Satilla and St. Mary's Eivers in the neighbor- 

 hood of the swamp are rather peculiar. Each after passing through 

 the Okefinokee Eidge turns and flows parallel to the coast for about 

 thirty miles, in the trough between the two low ridges mentioned, and 

 then resumes its eastward course to the sea. The circuitous channels 

 of these rivers must have been formed at the time of the Columbia 

 submergence of the coastal plain if not before, for in such a flat sandy 

 country there is practically no erosion going on at the present time, and 

 such phenomena as stream-capture are unknown. 



Climate 



A pretty accurate estimate of the climate of the Okefinokee can be 

 obtained by taking the averages of the figures for Waycross, Ga., and 

 Macclenny, Fla., which lie on opposite sides of the swamp and at about 

 the same distance from the Atlantic coast. Summed up by seasons, the 

 average temperature and total rainfall are as follows : 



' Paul Fountain, in his book previously referred to, described a large lime- 

 stone spring in the " northern part " of Okefinokee, but in all probability this 

 spring was on the Suwannee River somewhere in Florida, Avhere such things 

 are rather common. 



