°1913 * J Wright and Harper, The Birds of Okefinokee Swamp. 479 



drainage, the cost of the same, etc. . . . There was furnished to the 

 Governor a map of the swamp, with the elevation around the 

 whole swamp and lines of ditches, which it was estimated would 

 drain the swamp at a cost of $1,067,250. . . . 



'On November 4, 1875, by direction of Governor J. M. Smith, 

 the party of the Geological Survey operating in Southern Georgia 

 joined the " Constitution Expedition," organized by the proprietors 

 of the paper of that name in Atlanta, and remained until December 

 14th. A line of levels was run by Mr. C. A. Locke, engineer of the 

 "survey," from Mixon's Ferry on Suwanee River to Trader's Hill 

 on St. Mary's, .... 



' In 1889, the Okefinokee Swamp, or that part of it owned by the 

 state of Georgia, comprising an area of 380 square miles, was pur- 

 chased by the Suwanee Canal Company at 26^ cents per acre. The 

 object of this company in acquiring the swamp was, first, to utilize 

 the timber which was known to exist therein in large quantities, 

 and subsequently to drain the swamp and use the lands for agri- 

 cultural purposes. With these objects in view, the canal company 

 began, in September, 1891, the construction of a canal from St. 

 Mary's River to the swamp, a distance of about six miles. Later 

 this canal, which was 45 feet wide and six feet deep, was continued 

 into the swamp for something like 12 miles. ... The Suwanee 

 Canal Company, under the presidency of Captain Henry Jackson, 

 of Atlanta, was successful in winning a large amount of cypress and 

 other timber from the eastern side of the swamp, but operations 

 were discontinued before the canal was sufficiently completed to 

 have but little effect in draining the swamp as a whole. The large 

 holdings of the Suwanee Canal Company have, within the last 

 two or three years, been acquired by the Hebard Lumber Company, 

 which is at present engaged in cutting and preparing for market 

 the timber in the large cypress forest on the northwestern margin 

 of the swamp.' 



Few men of scientific interests or training have ever entered the 

 swamp, and still fewer have traversed or explored any consider- 

 able part of it. Paul Fountain, in his ' Great Deserts and Forests 

 of North America,' speaks of visiting it in 1871 and 1876, but his 

 description is so far from what would be expected of one who had 

 been in the interior, that it is extremely doubtful if he saw more 

 than the borders of the swamp. 



