AND AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES. 67 



entire winter from December to April. In the cultivation of such 

 articles there is a mine of wealth opened to the enterprising and indus- 

 trious settler. But little heavy clothing, and scarcely any fuel, except 

 for culinary purposes, is required in this genial climate, so that there is 

 a great saving in these items, so costly in a more rigorous latitude. 



The question of transportation, which has heretofore been a barrier 

 to the occupation of this desirable country, is about to have an early 

 and satisfactory solution. By the time this report will be given to the 

 public a line of steamers will be in operation upon the Kissimmee Eiver 7 

 connecting Lake Okeechobee with the new city of Kissimmee, recently 

 laid out on Lake Tahopekaliga, in Orange County. Here a junction is 

 effected with the South Florida Eailroad, a line stretching from Sanford, 

 on the Saint John's Eiver, to Tampa and Charlotte Harbor. Communi- 

 cation will also be had with the West as soon as the Caloosahatchee 

 Eiver is open to navigation. 



A company was chartered by special act of the legislature of Florida, 

 March 8, 1881, for the purpose of purchasing and improving certain 

 tracts of land in Florida, the building of canals and other lines of trans- 

 portation, and the carrying on of all other business incidental thereto. 



The following information is taken from a pamphlet recently pub - 

 lished by the above company: 



This company has a concession from the board of internal improvement of the 

 State of Florida for the reclamation of all the lands lying south of townships 24 and 

 east of Peace Creek, this area containing upwards of 8,000,000 acres. 



The United States survey, made in 1879 by Col. J. L. Meigs, established the eleva- 

 tion of Lake Hickpochee, adjoining Lake Okeechobee, as being 22 feet above mean 

 low tide, and he recommended the construction of a drainage canal similar to that 

 now proposed to be established. These surveys and observations have recently been 

 verified by a corps of engineers in the employ of this company, who found Lake 

 Okeechobee to be 25 feet above tide water. 



Lake Okeechobee, situate about the center of this 8,000,000 acre tract, is upwards 

 of 40 miles in length by 25 miles in width, or covering an area of over 1,000 square 

 miles. It has an outlet, but receives the drainage of a number of lakes intercepted by 

 the Kissimmee River, also the waters of Fish Eating, Taylor's, and Mosquito Creeks, 

 which vary from 20 to 150 feet in width. During very heavy falls of rain, this lake 

 rises to such a point as to not only overflow its banks, but to cause the waters of the 

 rivers to be backed up, so that the country becomes more or less submerged, until the 

 waters find the ocean and gulf through the tortuous and inefficient channels of widely- 

 separated streams. 



It is proposed to provide against these periodical overflows by the opening of canals 

 from Okeechobeo to the Saint Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers that will not only per- 

 manently lower the level of the lake, but at all times furnish a safe outlet to the gulf 

 and ocean for the waters of the lake and confluent streams, and which will also afford 

 means of transportation for the products of the Kissimmee Valley and surrounding 

 country. 



The reclamation of the land included in that portion of the peninsula of Florida 

 south of latitude 28 15' N., and generally east of Pease Creek, embraced in the coun- 

 ties of Monroe (5,000 square miles), Bade (5,000 square miles), Brevard (4,000 square 

 miles), and portions of Manatee (5,000 square miles), and Polk (1,900 square miles), is 

 a problem the magnitude of which can be more readly comprehended when we con- 



