PEEFATOEY. 13 



who came, to regard the Everglades and Okeechobee as 

 a forbidden Eden, which none might enter except by the 

 sesame of some secret portal. The evidences that some 

 undiscovered route existed, by which the lake could be, 

 and had been, reached in earlier times, at last became so 

 indubitable as to determine the publishers of &quot;Forest 

 and Stream&quot; to fit out an exploring expedition with. all 

 the appliances necessary to success. Volunteers were in 

 readiness, and the expedition started about December 1, 

 1873. It was headed by Mr. F. A. Ober, a young natu 

 ralist of Massachusetts, possessing all those qualifications 

 indispensable to the accomplishment of its object which 

 are so rarely found in combination, viz., physical tough 

 ness and endurance, pluck, push, dogged perseverance, 

 a thorough knowledge of woodcraft in general and of so 

 much of this portion of Florida as he had acquired by 

 previous visits, skill with the canoe, the rod, and the 

 rifle, and an intelligent acquaintance with drawing, pho 

 tography, and natural history. To this valuable stock in 

 trade he added an outfit complete in all its requirements 

 of boats, implements, guides, photographic instruments, 

 etc. He was absent four months, and the successful 

 result is shown in the chapters that follow over the signa 

 ture of &quot; Fred Beverly.&quot; Only those who have engaged 

 in similar service can appreciate the difficulties that beset 

 his endeavor. More than twenty miles of the journey 

 was accomplished by wading and pushing their boat by 

 hand through swamps swarming with alligators, and 

 infested with poisonous snakes and all kinds of creeping, 

 stinging, and flying vermin. Mud, water, and heat 

 made the transit most fatiguing, trailing vines that con- 

 Artillery, once a professor at the United States Military Academy 

 at West Point, now lies buried upon its banks. 



