230 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



unpracticed eye, every part looks exactly alike. 

 Even with a compass I find it necessary to be 

 watchful whenever I venture alone into the great 

 forests; one constantly encounters the obstruc- 

 tions of fallen timber or tangled vines to prevent 

 a straight course. 



How old are the primeval forests of Lower 

 Florida? It is impossible to guess even within 

 centuries. At the farthest limit none can possibly 

 be older than the latter part of the Pleistocene, 

 and, geologically speaking of course, that epoch 

 only began yesterday; it marked the falling of the 

 curtain upon the great drama of the physical 

 world's past history. Since the close of the Pleis- 

 tocene, conditions on the earth have been essen- 

 tially as they are now and geologists call this brief 

 period "the Recent." It is, then, within this last 

 flicker of cosmic time these hammocks began to 

 develop. When we talk of age in terms of the 

 calendar we speak another language and we must 

 also employ quite different standards of com- 

 parison. 



The new outer parts of the forest are less than a 

 century old; some of it is much less. The live 

 oaks, those patriarchs of the forest, date much 



