252 THE OKEECHOBEE EXPEDITION. 



width. In length, the greatest from the month of the 

 Kissimmee south-east ; in breadth, near the centre. It 

 is very shallow, and grass shoals extend for miles into the 

 lake. Nowhere did we find a greater depth than twelve 

 feet. In fish Okeechobee is deficient ; such is the violence 

 of the storms there, and such the shallowness of the lake, 

 that it is often stirred to its very centre, and no fish of 

 ordinary mould can survive such a stirring up. The 

 fish-food, also, the Crustacea, etc., is&quot; scarce. Alligators 

 are not so numerous as one would expect, except in the 

 lagoons and at the creek-mouths. Birds are not abun 

 dant, with the exception of the fish-hawk, crying-birds, 

 snake-birds, and heron. A complete list of the birds 

 will be found in a separate chapter. 



During all our voyage w r e saw but 6ne man, beside 

 our party, and the only evidence of any people ever 

 having lived here was in the discovery of the remains of 

 two villages, the houses sunken to the ground, and the 

 plantations overrun with the wild growth of the swamp. 

 This was upon the east shore, eleven miles east of the 

 Kissimmee river. Bananas, paw-paws, sugar-cane, and 

 guavas were growing here in wild luxuriance. These 

 villages belonged to a portion of the Okeechobee tribe 

 of Seminoles, now living in the Big Cypress, south 

 west of Lake Okeechobee. 



FEED BEVEKLY. 



