INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, PHILADELPHIA. 37 



reaching the actual bottom of the lake. I have little doubt, that the 

 true fundament is a compact sand, similar to that which we sub- 

 sequently found to constitute the floor of Lake Okeechobee, although 

 along the eastern border of the lake, especially at the mouth of the 

 Okeechobee canal, a vast accumulation of black vegetable muck, con- 

 taining much woody-fibre, and representing the incipient stages of peat 

 formation, clogged the waters over considerable areas. The fauna of the 

 lake appears to be a very deficient one, if we may be allowed to judge 

 from the character of our drags. Apart from a few Unios and Paludinas 

 obtained in one of the western bays, the dredge, in several trials, brought 

 to the surface from deepest water (fifteen feet) only the red larvae of a 

 species of annelid, a form which was also subsequently obtained in Lake 

 Okeechobee. The fact, however, that the dredge in most instances did 

 not completely penetrate the grass-growth covering the bottom, accounts 

 in a measure for the poverty of the catch ; but yet the almost total 

 absence indeed, it might practically be said, total absence of animal 

 forms in the grass with which the net came up loaded, is certainly very 

 surprising, and argues strongly for an actual deficiency in the lake fauna. 

 Several species of fish, among them the bass, were fairly abundant in the 

 eastern shallows, where we also obtained a specimen of the alligator-gar, 

 and a number of alligators. None of the last named animals were 

 observed to pass far into the lake. 



Contrary winds, and a powerful current, probably not less than three 

 miles an hour in the inflowing canal, prevented us from continuing our 

 journey during the day beyond the eastern margin of the lake. We 

 tried the plan of warping, i. c., pulling the boat by means of a long line 

 doubled over advanced stakes, but were compelled to desist after a drag 

 of a few hundred feet, and after very nearly meeting with a serious mis- 

 hap. Only four miles intervened between us and the large body of water 

 which so many before us had vainly attempted to reach, and concerning 

 which so many vague and contradictory reports had been spread. I 

 allowed myself to be hoisted to the mast-head, whence, with the aid of a 

 powerful field-glass, I obtained an unbroken survey of the surroundings. 

 To the north and east the eye wandered over an almost unbroken ex- 

 panse of swamp low-land here and there a few clumps of hard wood 

 relieving the monotony of the endless sea of saw-grass while to the 

 west the low line of sedge, making the western boundary of the lake, 

 could just be distinguished. I had expected to obtain a fairly good view 

 of Okeechobee, but a lowering sky, combined with an intervening fringe 

 of willow scrub, practically shut out the object of my search, although 

 from an occasional momentary shimmer I could just determine the posi- 

 tion of the ruffled waters of the lake, and mark a boundary to the dreary 

 waste of Everglades. 



