Florida Swamps and Forests 
that I most dreaded. I knew that I would have 
to find the narrow slit of a lane before dark or 
spend the night with mosquitoes and alligators, 
without food or fire. The entire distance was 
not great, but a traveler in open woods can form 
no idea of the crooked and strange difficulties 
of pathless locomotion in these thorny, watery 
Southern tangles, especially in pitch darkness. 
I struggled hard and kept my course, leaving 
the general direction only when drawn aside 
by a plant of extraordinary promise, that I 
wanted for a specimen, or when I had to make 
the half-circuit of a pile of trees, or of a deep 
lagoon or pond. 
In wading I never attempted to keep my 
clothes dry, because the water was too deep, 
and the necessary care would consume too much 
time. Had the water that I was forced to wade 
been transparent it would have lost much of its 
difficulty. But as it was, I constantly expected 
to plant my feet on an alligator, and therefore 
proceeded with strained caution. The opacity 
of the water caused uneasiness also on account 
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