CHAPTER VI. 

 THE EVERGLADE SECTION. 



ITHOUT doubt, the richest soil in the State is 

 in the section known as the EVERGLADES. This 

 great swamp covers an area of over four 

 thousand square miles, embracing considerably 

 more than half of the territory lying south of 

 Lake Okeechobee. This region does not pre- 

 sent an impenetrable thicket, as is so often sup- 

 posed, but it is in appearance more like an Illi- 

 nois prairie, dotted here and there with a clump of trees, quite 

 similar to our Northern windbreaks, the only difference being that 

 they have been covered during the rainy season with more or less 

 water. This vast area is also covered with large patches of coarse 

 grass, which, on account of the leaves or blades having rough or 

 serrated saw-like edges, is called saw-grass. 



This grass in places grows so rank as to form a dense mass, 

 often ten feet high. Through this tall grass here and there are 

 winding, tortuous channels which, after enticing the canoeist 

 through a maze, terminate more often in a still denser barrier of 

 saw-grass. During the dry season these saw-grass beds are often 

 fired by the Indians in quest of game, and burn to the ground, 

 accompanied by loud popping noises not unlike the cracking of 

 rifles in sham battles. 



Should the rainy season begin after one of these saw-grass 

 fires, the life is smothered out of the roots by the water standing 

 over them, and as these patches seem to have accumulated a 

 great amount of humus, being frequently several inches higher 

 than the surrounding land, they form an enticing seed-bed for 

 trees, and low hammocks are frequently formed in this way. 

 There seems to be no part of this immense elevated plateau that is 



