Forest and Stream 
$3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1912. 
VOL. LXX1X.—No. 5. 
127 Franklin St., New York. 
Roughing it in Big Cypress 
By WILLIAM PERRY BROWN 
W ILD life, of the shootable kind, is much 
more in evidence in the Big Cypress 
than amid the more open savannas of 
the “Grasswater,” or Everglades in South Flor¬ 
ida. To hunt in the Big Cypress swamp it is best 
to either go in the dry season—always uncertain 
as to time and duration—or to proceed through 
some of the many waterways by boat, with a 
competent guide. In fact, even at this day the 
average tourist sportsman is apt to hear more 
about this tremendous swamp than he is likely 
to see, for the difficulty—not to speak of the 
expense—of penetrating the surrounding coun¬ 
try is, to many, too discouraging. 
The Big Q'press lies south of the Caloosa- 
hatchee River, from which it is separated by 
broad stretches of open pine land, low scrub 
ridges, and smaller isolated areas of hammock 
and saw grass marsh. A good deal of this flat, 
open country in Southern Florida is so often 
flooded during wet seasons as to be termed 
“drowned lands.” Miles upon miles of it may 
then be traversed on horseback, the depth of 
water varying from “shoemouth” to near swim¬ 
ming depth, the last when one happens to strike 
a natural watercourse or saw grass, for at these 
wet times all things look alike to the traveler— 
water, water, everywhere, with the perpetual 
forest, and forest undergrowth alone deceiving 
the eye with fallacious promise of dry land. 
One who can go from Tampa or the Char¬ 
lotte’s Harbor section along the gulf coast down 
into Gallivan’s Bay and below Cape Romano and 
effect a landing with suitable guides and other 
equipment, may enter the Big Cypress from the 
west without much trouble. Along this side 
some of the larger hammocks have been secured 
by private individuals for game preserves or 
plantations to raise tropical fruits. This last, 
however, only to a moderate extent. If the great 
drainage development goes on under State super¬ 
vision as at present, this region as well as cer¬ 
tain portions of the Glades will be much more 
accessible. But at this time to reach the more 
accessible points nearest to the big swamp, the 
tax for a coasting sloop, boats, guides and other 
paraphernalia is beyond the purse power of 
ordinary, every day hunters, unless they club 
together, or are personally known to some one 
of the class of individuals who have already 
secured a foothold along the edge. 
When once beyond the immediate influence 
of railroads, steamers, and the towns they have 
created, the natural conditions surrounding and 
within the Big Cypress are much the same as 
when the Seminoles took refuge there in the 
wars with the whites, and when, after most of 
them were taken west, the remainder made their 
final home in the Everglades. 
Coming to the big swamp itself, when we 
reflect that here is a water-wooded wilderness 
probably larger than the Great Dismal (in Vir¬ 
ginia) and the Okefenokee swamps put together, 
we may have a stray notion as to its extent. 
Add to this that it is so far south that frost is 
practically unknown, with all which this implies 
THE BIG CYPRESS. 
