288 
north to Fort Pierce, and thence southwest across the northern 
Okeechobee region and the Indian Prairie to the Caloosahatchee 
River and along the southern bank of that river to Fort Myers. 
From Fort Myers we struck into the wilderness of the Big Cy- 
press where we spent three xploring its botanical neh 
a other natural features, particular] Okal hee 
Slough and Rocky ion lies south of a - 
It is little known and almost uninhabited, except by Geraniol 
Indians. A large part of the Big Cypress is prairie, swamp, and 
marsh. The prairies are often interrupted with hammocks, 
cypress-heads, ete eo and lakes. The northern edge 
n 
went direct to the ieee Slough and then to the 
region of the one time Fort Shackleford which is near the west- 
ern edge of the Everglades only about sixty miles northwest of 
Miami. 
Spring had come and the prairies were natural flower gardens. 
Bright colors, principally yellow and pink, represented large 
patches of different plants often acres in extent; sabbatias, gerar- 
erw 
dias, bla orts, heliotropes, polygalas, and orchids usual! 
eee white star-like spider lily was scattered al- 
most ever 
While in . aliens Slough we visited a great rooker 
inhabited by thousands of birds, representing mostly different 
kinds of ibis. The predominating tree in the slough is the river- 
cypress (Taxodium distichum), and very large trees were often 
literally covered with the birds. This tree perhaps constitutes 
mi 
South of the Or ican Slough we found numerous pal- 
metto hammocks and hard-wood hammocks where deer, bear, 
and wild-turkeys were plentiful. The cypress-heads of that re- 
gion are made up of almost a pure growth of the pond-cypress 
