730 THE VEGETATION OF THE LOWER WABASH VALLEY. 
point of land known as “‘the neck” between that stream and the 
Wabash, is a cypress swamp of very considerable extent, embrac- 
ing, according to the report of the Indiana Geological Survey (p. 
179), an area of 17,000 acres! I have visited this swamp, but as 
yet have only just entered its borders, a penetration into its centre 
being almost a matter of impossibility; and, if possible, is at- 
tended by great difficulties and fatigue. In June and July, 1871, 
I made several attempts to explore to my satisfaction these cypress 
ponds, but partly from want of familiarity with the locality, and 
partly from the great difficulties encountered in penetrating the 
almost impassable undergrowth and débris, became tired out 
before I had fairly found myself surrounded by cypresses. In 
these swamps, the bald cypress (Tazodium distichum) is, of 
course, the prevailing growth; but the gigantic pillars of this 
species overtop a smaller growth of such trees as Nyssa uniflora, 
Liquidambar styraciflua, Gleditschia monosperma, and such others 
as require a boggy situation. Though the finest accessible trees of 
the cypress had been long destroyed, there were yet a few stand- 
ing which appeared to approach, perhaps to exceed, 150 feet in 
height, while there were trunks, with immense conical bases, more 
than 10 feet in diameter. I have no doubt, however, that the 
almost inaccessible recesses of the swamp contain trees of this 
species of far greater dimensions. In the portion of the “swamp” 
which I was able to penetrate, the ground was not overflowed, but 
moist, or in a few spots boggy, with now and then a lagoon of 
clear water — clear of trees, but filled up with aquatic plants. 
One must penetrate sucha place before he can appreciate its dif- 
culties; then before he has penetrated fifty feet he is likely to 
have stumbled over a dozen logs, butted, every few steps, against 
a cypress “knee” concealed in the rank weeds, and thereby 
tumbled head-foremost into a thorny bush, or mired in the black 
mud. After such an experience, stopping on a prostrate log to 
rest, I prepared to contemplate my surroundings as calmly as I 
could while wiping ihe sweat from my eyes, and panting with the 
rough treatment I had met. Except upward, a view in any direc- 
‘tion could not possibly extend beyond a few rods. The tall 
Cypresses stretched their arms overhead, though often they were 
concealed by the intervening growth of smaller trees, or py the 
close canopy of button bush (Cephalanthus) and spice wood = 
(Lindera). The fallen trunks, in every position, from an angle. 
