OF THE UNITED STATES 
3f)l 
tive civilization. Choosing some specially high and fertile island, 
he clears away enough of the dense growth to make a garden. 
Here he grows bananas, sweet potatoes, and other vegetables. 
He is reasonably industrious and does his own w'ork, leaving it 
only to hunt or to attend the symbolic dances of the tribe. For 
many years his chief support was derived from the sale of bird 
l^elts and the growing of coontie, the arrowroot of Florida. But 
the one has been rendered illegal and the other unprofitable. 
His home is usually a somewhat crude hut, made of rough 
boards riven from the log, and covered with a thatch of pal- 
metto. The women of the Seminole are treated as women, the 
rearing of the children and the cares of the household being 
their only labor. As the tribe is gradually diminishing in num- 
bers, an abundant game supply is found in the water-bound 
reservation and in the Big Cypress swamp. Deer, bear, and the 
wild turke}^ are found in fair quantity, and countless herons and 
ducks have their perpetual home on the islands. The wild-cat 
and the panther also are found in moderate numbers, while the 
alligator is always in evidence, with now and then a crocodile. 
The fine array of venomous snakes of the early geograjfiiies is 
not to be found in the eastern glades, an occasional moccasin 
only appearing. 
The average distance from the rim of the glades to the coast 
is : on the south and southwest about 15 miles, on the east about 
6 miles, and on the west about 50 miles. West of the glades 
lie the Okaloocoochee slough and the Big Cypress swamp. 
Southwest of the Big Cypress and south of the Everglades 
exploration is fraught with so many difficulties that the country 
remains to a large extent unknown. Along the greater rivers, 
such as the Fahkahnatchee, Harqey, Rogers, and Ingraham, the 
land lies very low, a little higher usually on the south hank 
than the north. These banks are subject to overfiow, continuing 
through a considerable period, during the spring. This makes 
the region practically unavailable for settlement. The hanks of 
many of these rivers are covered with a growth of black and red 
mangrove, which grow here to the giant sizes, comparatively 
speaking, of 50 to 75 feet in height and 24 to ffO inches in diame- 
ter. W hen the mangrove is not present there is a dense hammock 
growth springing IVom a soil of wonderful richness, composed 
of muck with an underlying green marl, below which the cver- 
])resent limestone is found. Inside thi! hammock and nc.xt the 
rim of the ghulcs is tin; usual prairie fringe;. On the south coast 
of the peninsula there is almost no shore-line. The dense Ibrests 
