2 RhoADS oti the Florida I^iiyyozving Owl. [January 



were more Owls than I could carry away. We struck into and 

 through the pines aiul live oaks, which here reach near the upper 

 waters of the lake, in a northeasterly direction and emerging 

 upon the prairie five miles beyond, took a direct easterly course 

 across it. 



The elevation of the land in Florida south of Lake Okeechobee 

 is not more than twenty-eight feet above the Gulf of Mexico, that 

 is, the average between high and low lands is at about the level 

 of Lake Okeechobee* in the rainy season. Four feet above this 

 level and higher grow the pines, within three feet of it flourish 

 live oaks, within two feet of it grows the cabbage palmetto, and 

 within a foot of it the saw palmetto. The true prairie region in 

 this neighborhood comprises a vast extent of country whose ele- 

 vation is less than a foot above the high water mark of Lake 

 Okeechobee. At widely distant intei-vals in this plain occur cir- 

 cular mounds varying in extent from plots twenty feet in diam- 

 eter to those of several acres, which are evidently composed of 

 sand blown up bv the winds of summer. Upon these, according 

 as they range one, two or three feet above their surroundings we 

 find dense clumps of saw palmetto, cabbage palmetto, or live oak 

 hammocks. '^I'hose hammocks which are three feet high, contain 

 all three species arranged symmetrically, the dwarf palmettoes 

 forming the border, the cabbage palms coming next and mingling 

 with the live oaks which crowd the centre. The prairie proper 

 is thickly clad with short grass, indicating considerable fertility 

 in the soil, and upon this subsist immense herds of half-wild 

 cattle and hogs, and numerous deer. By the first of May the 

 greater part of this area is three feet above the water level, and 

 one may travel for miles without finding anything in the number- 

 less dry lakes and water holes that is fit to drink, until he reaches 

 some slough that communicates by a depressed channel with the 

 main lake. Despite the greenness of this grassy wilderness the 

 northern traveller who looks abroad over it, is involuntarily 

 reminded of a desert — a sort of Sahara in miniature. The heat 

 on his back, the dancing reflections of the semi-tiopic atmos- 

 phere, the distant groups of tall palmettoes rising sheer from the 

 plain, all conspire to impress him with the wonderful resem- 

 blance. 



*Twenty feet. 



