PRINCETON 91 



sour oranges. The fine-leafed water-oaks grew 

 everywhere. Shading all these, and towering high 

 above them, were the giant live-oaks, often five or 

 six feet through near the ground, and with spread- 

 ing limbs extending seventy-five feet on either 

 side. It will give an idea of the size of these 

 trees and the difficulty in felling them when the 

 reader learns that the usual method of clearing 

 the land was to girdle them near the ground, let 

 them die, and then cut down the smaller ones, the 

 huge skeletons of the live-oaks standing for years 

 afterward. 



In many places in Florida there were at this 

 time extensive groves of wild oranges. Univer- 

 sally they flourished beneath the shade, and were 

 protected by large trees. Frost nor sun nor wind 

 injured them in such situations, and they bore 

 luxuriant crops. No hint seems to have been 

 taken, from such conditions, by the fruit grower. 

 The ensuing result tells its own story. 



Panasofkee Lake itself is a sheet of water eight 

 miles long and some four miles wide in its broad- 

 est expanse. The country about it was then 

 practically unsettled. There were but few houses, 

 and these occurred at long intervals, so that we 

 had reached an almost virgin wilderness. The 

 outlet of the lake flowed between that body of 

 water and the Withlacoochee River. This " run " 

 wended its course for some two miles before it 



