ORHVAS Te AER la Ve 
ENVIRONMENT OF THE SEMINOLE. 
NATURE. 
Southern Florida, the region to which most of the Seminole have 
been driven by the advances of civilization, is, taken all in all, unlike 
any other part of our country. In climate it is subtropical; in char- 
acter of soil it shows a contrast of comparative barrenness and abound- 
ing fertility; and in topography it is a plain, with hardly any percept- 
ible natural elevations or depressions. The following description, based 
upon the notes of my journey to the Big Cypress Swamp, indicates 
the character of the country generally. I left Myers, on the Caloosa- 
hatchie River, a small settlement composed principally of cattlemen, 
one morning in the month of February. Even in February the san 
was so hot that clothing was a burden. As we started upon our 
journey, which was to be for a distance of sixty miles or more, my at- 
tention was called to the fact that the harness of the horse attached to 
my buggy was without the breeching. I was told that this part of the 
harness would not be needed, so level should we find the country. 
Our way, soon after leaving the main street of Myers, entered pine 
woods. The soil across which we traveled at first was a dry, dazzling 
white sand, over which was scattered a growth of dwarf palmetto. The 
pine trees were not near enough together to shade us from the fierce 
sun. This sparseness of growth, and comparative absence of shade, is 
one marked characteristic of Florida’s pine woods. Through this thin 
forest we drove allthe day. The monotonous scenery was unchanged 
except that at a short distance from Myers it was broken by swamps 
and ponds. So far as the appearance of the country around us indi- 
cated, we could not tell whether we were two miles or twenty from our 
starting point. Nearly half our way during the first day lay through 
water, and yet we were in the midst of what is called the winter ‘“ dry 
season.” The water took the shape here of a swamp and there of a pond, 
but where the swamp or the pond began or ended it was scarcely possible 
to tell. one passed by almost imperceptible degrees from dry land to 
moist and from moist land into pool or marsh. Generally, however, the 
swamps were filled with a growth of cypress trees. These cypress 
groups were well defined in the pine woods by the closeness of their 
growth and the sharpness of the boundary of the clusters. Usually, too, 
the cypress swamps were surrounded by rims of water grasses, Six 
miles from Myers we crossed a cypress swamp, in which the water at its 
greatest depth was from one foot to two feet deep. A wagon road had 
