344 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
A thorough system of drainage canals, beginning at Lake Okeechobee, 
to cui off the surplus water from the north, and with others through the 
glades at intervals, the natural rainiall of the everglades proper would be 
quickly led away through these channels to the sea, and this great basin of 
more than five million acres become suitable for cultivation. 
Since there is considerably more than twenty feet elevation at interior 
points, and the distance only from thirty to forty miles each way to sea, there 
should be no great difficulty in constructing drainage ditches. 
Throughout the everglades the varying elevations of the underlying coral 
formations, together with the density of the abundant saw grass, cause the 
sheet of water which spreads out over the glades to flow in very irregular and 
tortuous channels, which courses are known to the Seminole Indians, but are 
guarded by them with greatest secrecy, so that the white man is totally ignor- 
ant of their direction or depth. 
On either side the tall grass is so dense and impenetrable nothing can be 
seen from the surface, or from the little canoes which are the only means of 
navigating its passage ways, the height of a man who propels the canoe with 
a pole, and not with paddles, being too low to see more than a few feet dis- 
tant. 
Such white men as have penetrated this water prairie have found the re- 
gion to be very healthful, with pure clear water purified by the water plants 
which abound, while all report the soil to be exceedingly fertile and capable 
of reclamation. 
About Lake Okeechobee the digging would be through earth and loose 
fragments of coraline rock, with an abundant fall to insure a rapid flow of 
water in a straight open ditch. 
At Miami, the Miami River joins Biscayne Bay. Four miles from its 
mouth it pours over the limestone ledge in rapids having a descent of ten feet 
in less than a quarter of a mile. From the head of the rapids there are 
several channels through the glades, more or less obstructed with water lilies 
and various plants. 
The Seminoles enter the Miami River and traverse the glades, reaching 
Fort Myers and other points on the Gulf of Mexico in a very short time, 
threading their way through the narrow passages unknown to the whites. 
I came into view of the everglades at a point some ten miles from Miami, 
and as the water was low passed over quite a large tract which has been part- 
ty reclaimed and which was being planted with oranges and vegetables. 
I procured the best pineapple, and the largest which I have seen, from a 
plantation in the edge of this reclaimed glade land, while near by was the best 
grove of grape fruit I have ever beheld. 
From an elevation T was enabled to see over the glades many miles and 
am convinced that by the expenditure of a moderate sum in ditches the tract 
may become of great value to the state and to the people who will occupy it. 
Miami is situated on a substantial foundation of this coraline formation. 
The streets have been made as solid and smooth as any city in the country. 
as also have miles of country roadway from this extensive coral deposit, which 
