A BIOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE OF THE OKEFINO- 
KEE SWAMP IN GEORGIA: THE FISHES 
E. L. PALMER AND A. H. WRIGHT 
From the earliest* days of North American ichthyology to the 
present the fishes of South Carolina and North Carolina have 
received particular attention and in more recent times according 
to one author ® Florida fishes have attracted more general in- 
terest than those of any other state in the Union. Georgia 
forms by contrast have received scant attention and often have 
come into ichthyologic literature by inclusion in the range of 
northern species known from Florida or of southern species known 
from South Carolina and northward. 
The only ichthyologist who is associated in literature with 
Okefinokee swamp is Charles H. Bollman.^® In the latter part 
of June, 1889, he with Mr. Bert Fesler explored some of the 
lowland streams of Georgia and as< the result of this trip* lost 
his life. He spent most of his time at Savannah, at Waynes- 
borough and at Millen on Ogeechee river, quite remote from the 
Okefinokee swamp. He spent a day or so at Waycross on 
Satilla river but it is doubtful if he entered the Okefinokee swamp 
proper. Some distance southeast of Waycross is the Little Oke- 
finokee swamp, a tributary of Satilla river, but there is no evi- 
dence that he visited it. Jordan and Evermann in speaking of 
Chologaster cornutus gives the following notation : “Gilbert. Bull. 
U. S. Fish Commission, VI 1 1, 1888, 227, specimens from Oke- 
finokee Swamp, Millen, Ga. ; caudal fin more dusky, with little 
white at base.” First of all only one specimen was taken and 
secondly this was secured at Millen, Georgia, one hundred or 
more miles north of the swamp. 
The record that Notropis roseus is “the commonest 
species in the Okefinokee swamps” is based on cap- 
tures at Waycross and might possibly pass unchallenged yet it 
is hardly in Okefinokee swamp proper. But the hardest blow 
for a zealous lover of the Okefinokee is Dr. Jordan’s statement 
that “Charles Henry Bollman (1868-89) (was) stricken with 
fever in the Okefinokee Swamps in Georgia.” The evidence from 
Dr. Gilbert’s paper does not show it nor does he claim it but of 
