Camp on Caloosahatchee River 



were bad in the pine woods. We as- 

 cended the New River, a beautiful, 

 winding stream, generally deep, but 

 very deep in places, one spot having a 

 depth of eighty-five feet. The banks 

 were quite low and sandy and lined 

 with moss-draped cypress, oak, maple, 

 magnolia, cocoa plum, pond apple, etc. 

 After a short ride we reached the be- 

 ginning of the drainage work one long 

 canal ran northwestward, with the 

 dredge Everglade at its head, hard 

 at work ; another due westward, with 

 the dredge Okechobee at its end at 

 work. These canals will run about 

 twenty miles out into the glade and will 

 be met by a canal running north and 

 Mmtli from Lake Okechobee to a point 

 about twenty miles west of Miami. The 

 dredge Miami is now at work at the 

 head of the Miami River; another 

 dredge is at work on the west coast, 

 opening the old Disston Canal into Lake 

 Okechobee. 



As these canals are finished, dams 

 are made to hold back the water to fa- 

 cilitate dredging, showing rather a sur- 

 prising amount of fall and how ef- 

 458 



fective these canals will prove in dis- 

 charging the floods of water from this 

 big area. I understand that the Gov- 

 ernment will permit the level of Lake 

 Okechobee to be lowered only four 

 feet, since a Federal appropriation has 

 been made to dredge the Kissimee 

 River, which empties into the northern 

 part of the lake. 



There were no mosquitoes in the 

 Everglades during our visit, and crops 

 already growing on the land, owned by 

 eager settlers, show what can be done 

 on land only partially drained. 



Western capitalists mainly have 

 bought this land ; the money from the 

 sales is doing the work, and the fur- 

 ther it progresses the more the land 

 will bring and the more eager people 

 will be to get hold of it. The Board 

 of Internal Improvement is wisely hold- 

 ing back much of the land from sale, 

 knowing full well that as time goes on 

 it will increase in value and thus yield 

 ample funds for the continuation of 

 this important work. In many cases 

 the state has sold only the alternate 

 sections. 



