227 



had traveled al)f)ul fifty miles, or some ten miles above the mouth 

 of the Chipola River.* Notes on the river-bank vegetation were 

 taken all the way in the usual manner, mostly from the pilot- 

 house, about 25 feet above the water, which afiforded an ample 

 view in all directions. 



Near the mouth of the river it is bordered by extensive marshes 

 based on soft mud.f A little farther upstream strips and patches 

 of trees begin to appear in the marshes, increasing in size and 



Fig, I. Looking down Apalachicola River near Smith's Bend, about 25 miles 

 above Apalachicola, showing swamp vegetation extending to water's edge. A few 

 specimens of Pinus glabra visible at right. 



abundance until within a very few miles the marshes are re- 

 duced to narrow and more or less interrupted strips of reed-like 

 vegetation at the water's edge, which gradually disappear en- 

 tirely. The banks at the same time become firmer and higher, 

 but in this lower portion of the river there are very few places 

 that can be called bluffs, and the trees nearly everywhere grow 

 right down to the water. From the boat it was difficult to form 



* The Apalachicola seems never to have been carefully measured like some of 

 the other navigable rivers of the South, so that it is impossible to give exact figures, 

 t See Ann. Rep. Fla. Geol. Surv. 3: 235. 191 1. 



