478 Wright and Harper, The Birds of Okefinokee Swamp. [o c t. 



Swamp Owaquaphenoga,' its boundaries reaching almost to the 

 Flint River. This was the heart of the country of the Lower 

 Creeks and Seminoles, who enshrouded the swamp with mystery 

 and peopled it with an immortal race which neither they nor the 

 Spaniards could conquer. In Bartram's well-known account l 

 of this pleasing legend, one of the islands in the swamp is repre- 

 sented as 'a most blissful spot of the earth; . . .it is inhabited by a 

 peculiar race of Indians, whose women are incomparably beautiful,' 

 and are called ' daughters of the sun.' 



The Okefinokee has repeatedly served as a refuge for non-com- 

 batants or the weaker side in wars. During the Revolution some 

 Indians who were unwilling to take part in the war settled here. 

 In the Seminole or Florida War it proved an almost impregnable 

 fastness for the Creeks and Seminoles. At this period a number of 

 the places in the swamp and its vicinity received their present 

 names, e. g., Billy's Island and Billy's Lake (after Billy Bowlegs, 

 a Seminole chief), and Floyd's Island (after Gen. John Floyd, who 

 dislodged some Indians from this island). In the Civil War Con- 

 federate deserters sought its protection, and even to-day miscreants 

 flee here to evade the arm of justice. 



The swamp has been the subject of untold memorials and peti- 

 tions on behalf of the legislatures and the officials of Florida and 

 Georgia. In 1800 the first good boundary line between these two 

 states was established by Ellicott, and his famous mound in the 

 southeastern corner of the swamp is not yet entirely obliterated. 

 In 1829, in 1850 (approximately), and finally in 1879, the Oke- 

 finokee commanded attention because of a projected ship canal 

 connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Gulf. At the last date a 

 careful survey of its confines was made for the federal government. 

 It was proposed to send feeders for the canal into the swamp, and 

 the canal itself was to pierce its southern part. 



Of drainage investigations and commercial operations in the 

 swamp, a few excerpts from McCallie's 'Drainage Situation in 

 Georgia' 2 will suffice to furnish an account. He speaks first of 

 'Col. R. L. Hunter's survey of the Okefinokee Swamp, made in 

 1856-7. . ., with a view of ascertaining the practicability of its 



1 Bartram, Wm. Travels, etc. Phila., 1791, p. 25. 



2 McCallie, S. W. Bull. 25, Geol. Survey of Ga.. 1911, pp. 14-18. 



