A Thousand-Mile Walk 



pierced with direct ray lances, or [the sun 

 light] passing to the earth and the lowly plants 

 in filtered softness through translucent leaves. 

 But in the dense Florida forests sunlight can 

 not enter. It falls on the evergreen roof and 

 rebounds in long silvery lances and flashy 

 spray. In many places there is not light suffi 

 cient to feed a single green leaf on these dark 

 forest floors. All that the eye can reach is just 

 a maze of tree stems and crooked leafless vine 

 strings. All the flowers, all the verdure, all the 

 glory is up in the light. 



The streams of Florida are still young, and 

 in many places are untraceable. I expected to 

 find these streams a little discolored from the 

 vegetable matter that I knew they must con 

 tain, and I was sure that in so flat a country I 

 should not find any considerable falls or long 

 rapids. The streams of upper Georgia are al 

 most unapproachable in some places on ac 

 count of luxuriant bordering vines, but the 

 banks are nevertheless high and well defined. 

 Florida streams are not yet possessed of banks 

 [ ioo] 



