A History of the Everglades of Florida by Junius Elmore Dovell, 1947
http://sofia.usgs.gov/memorials/dovell

Davis Library Thesis, Call number 378.756 History D743h
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill


CHAPTER I
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE EVERGLADES

1. Geological Background

The Everglades of Florida occupy an irregularly marked shallow slough 
thirty-five to fifty miles wide and a hundred miles in length.  They 
comprise an area of approximately four thousand square miles, all south of 
the twenty-seventh parallel of latitude with the exception of a small strip 
bordering the shores of Lake Okeechobee.1  The soil of the Everglades is of 
organic origin.

Bounded on the eastern side by a coastal fringe of sand dunes and on the 
western side by the Ocaloacoochee Slough and the Big Cypress Swamp, the 
Everglades extend to the southern and southwestern coast of the state, where 
the salt-water marshes and the mangrove swamps form the southern border.

The Everglades constitute the third or downstream unit of the watershed of 
the interior of the Florida peninsula below the twenty-eighth parallel.  The 
first or tributary section of this drainage area, the Kissimmee-Everglades 
watershed, comprises some five thousand square miles.2  The drainage 
elements of the first area are the Kissimmee River, which drains about 
two-thirds of the area, and numerous smaller streams such as Fisheating 
Creek and Taylors Creek.  The second or middle unit of this watershed is 
Lake Okeechobee, a shallow body of fresh water of seven hundred and twenty 
square miles whose surface elevation is regulated between fourteen and 
eighteen feet. The composite area of the three units approaches ten 
thousand. square miles.  Under natural conditions, prior to the advent of 
artificial drainage, the outflow of the waters of the first two units passed 
onto the third unit.3

Taken as a whole the topography of the Florida mainland. has all the 
aspects of  infancy.  Drainage is defective, sloughs, shallow ponds and 
Lakes abound.  Most of the, interior is a swamp, there are no well-defined. 
river systems nor stream valleys. . . . 4

These infantile aspects are due, insofar as the Everglades are concerned, to 
the gradient of one-tenth of a foot per mile over the hundred miles from 
southern shore of Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico.  This vast basin,  
forty miles wide, has been the scene of the growth and slow decay of 
vegetation in an area of low elevation enjoying a warm climate and heavy 
rainfall.  Inside the basin is a wide and flat plain, flanked by natural 
drainage ways which have imperceptibly divided the area into a saw-grass 
plain bordered by a series of ridges and sloughs.  In general, surface water 
flow and vegetative accumulation are in opposition,

. . . but the gradient would have to be greatly increased before running 
water would begin to cut down the gradually thickening mass of plant remains 
that makes up the organic soils of the Everglades.5

The vegetative accumulation, or soil, varies from an average thickness of 
eight feet at Okeechobees shores to the thinnest of deposits at the sides 
of the Everglades.

The line of demarcation between the glades and adjoining areas is extremely 
irregular: along this line extends a stretch of grass land that may be under 
two feet of water at the end of the rainy season, but in most years is dry 
enough for the cultivation of a winter vegetable crop.  The actual boundary 
between the Everglades and the adjoining prairie is where the sedges of the 
glades are met by true grasses, cypress, salt marsh, or mangroves.6

Scientific interest in the geology of the Everglades began after the middle 
of the nineteenth century.  The first state geologist of Florida, E. H. 
Sellards, brought together the geological investigations of the peninsula 
prior to 1908 in a section of his first report.  In 1825 James Pierce 
visited south Florida and observed a great savanna which he estimated to be 
a hundred miles in circumference, but, The existence of a large permanent 
lake located by maps in the southern part of the peninsula is doubted.7  
The publication of Buckingham Smiths documentary report on the Everglades 
in 1848 established the existence and general location of the area.

Smith believed the geology of the southern portion of the state be similar 
to that of the sea-coasts of Georgia and South Carolina.  Oolitic 
lime-rock, filled with the shells and corals of species that still exist, 
forms the great geo1ogial feature of the country.8  Smith found the rock to 
be porous and susceptible of easy excavation; exposure to air hardened the 
rock and made it useful for building purposes.

The same rock forms the bottoms of the openings through the rim of the Ever 
Glades to an unknown depth.  It composes the floor of Biscayne Bay, and of 
the other bays and sounds, and of the rivers along the coasts on both sides 
of the peninsula, and also the basin of the Ever Glades.9

In 1851 Michael Toumey examined the limestone at the falls of the Miami 
River leading into the Everglades.  These rooks, he found, were of the same 
age as those he had seen at Key West, and were identical with living shel1s 
in the surrounding waters.  Touney regarded the glades as resting on a basin 
of what he termed Miami limestone, clearly distinguished from the Tertiary 
limestone at Tampa Bay.  The contour of the ridge surrounding the 
Everglades, together with its structure and the embedded remains, led Touney 
to the conclusion that the elevation of the Florida Keys by twenty feet 
would produce a similar ridge shutting out the sea between the Florida reef 
and the mainland.  Such an elevation, Touney believed, would produce another 
basin similar to that of the Everglades, differing only in greater 
comparative length.10

Because of their accessibility the fossil-bearing beds of the Gulf Coast and 
  the Caloosahatchee River aroused the interest of geologists before 1900.   
The geologic formation of the southern part of the peninsula, however, 
remained obscure for another generation on account of the difficulties of 
making observations.

. . . The combination of low, flat terrain with few and very shallow river 
cuts,  the difficulty of transportation, the 1ack of cuttings from deep or 
shallow wells, and the mantle of muck, marl, sand, water, and vegetation 
that covers the underlying rocks . . .  

caused the investigations of early workers to be restricted, to the seacoasts and river banks.11

Since the beginning of drainage operations in 1882, the cutting of canals 
and channels in South Florida has added an abundance of geological 
information.  Other sources of data were found in the excavations made for 
roads, ditches, and dikes, as well as the samplings of material through 
which numbers of drills have passed in the sinking of water and oil wells.  
Had the mass of data now handy for modern geologists been available to Louis 
Agassiz in 1851, or to Joseph LeConte in 1878, they would never have 
subscribed, to a coralline theory of growth for the southern part of the 
state.12

The name Floridian Plateau has been applied, to the great projection 
southeastward of the continent of North America.  This projection separates 
the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico from the deep water of the Atlantic 
Ocean.13  This Floridian Plateau has been in existence since very ancient 
times, and appears to have lain east of the epicontinental seas during the 
Paleozoic era.  The plateau probably remained dry land during the Triassic, 
Jurassic, and Lower Cretaceous epochs, but was covered by the seas during 
the Upper Cretaceous times.  In the Cenozoic era the plateau underwent many 
shiftings, but the water was never very deep, nor the land high above the 
sea level.14   At the western edge of the Everglades, fifty miles from 
Miami, sedimentary rock exists to a depth of at least ten thousand feet. An 
examination of the cuttings of an exploratory well for oil showed that the 
drilling ended in Lower Cretaceous strata, . . . comparable to the 
Fredericksburg group of Texas and southern Oklahoma, and suggests that this 
area is underlain by still older sedimentary rocks.15

In a resume of structure and stratigraphy of Florida, Stuart Mossom outlined 
the sedimentary formations of the state.  He found these formations to 
describe an anticline in a southeasterly direction from the Ocala limestone 
dome of the Eocene Age.  From surface level at Ocala, the Eocene limestone 
dips to a depth of twelve hundred feet as the Everglades give way to the 
Gulf.  Atop the Ocala formation are the younger groups of Oligocene and  
Miocene ages which become thicker as they approach the coast lines.  The 
Pliocene and Pleistocene formations do not extend more than one hundred and 
sixty feet under the surface.16

The Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene formations extend to a depth of twelve 
hundred feet in the Miami area, dipping to the sea in every direction.  On 
account of this anticline and the permeability of the rocks, they are 
excellent artesian aquifers.  The waters of these formations are not only 
highly mineralized . . .  but are corrosive, rendering them unsatisfactory 
for most needs.17  The formations of the Pliocene and Pleistocene, flanking 
the Miocene, are exposed in many places in and around the Everglades.

Angelo Heilprin, exploring the Caloosahatchee and Lake Okeechobee in 1886 
found no evidence to support a coralline theory of growth of Florida; he 
decided that the growth had been through accessions of organic and inorganic 
material in  the usual methods of sediment and upheaval.18   Matson and 
Clapp expressed the joint belief that the deposition of the Pliocene rocks 
began with an encroachment of the sea which extended beyond the latitude of 
Lake Okeechobee.  Following the deposition of the Pliocene the land emerged 
to a probable greater height than at present, and It was during this period 
that the major features of the present topography were produced.19

Two Pliocene formations are located in the Everg1ades, the Caloosahatchee 
marl and the Tamiami limestone.  The Caloosahatchee marl, exposed in the 
banks of the river of the same name, consists chiefly of fine sand and 
shells.   Its color ranges from white to light gray, blue, or yellow.  It 
appears to underlie a large part of F1orida south of the twenty-seventh 
parallel.  Deposited in a warm and shallow sea, this marl contains a large 
proportion of unbroken shells.  Water from the marl has a high chloride 
content, due in part to Pleistocene sea invasions, and in part to the 
Miocene rocks underneath it.20

The Tamiami limestone, coming to the surface in the lower reaches of the Big 
Cypress and appearing as far north as Fort Lauderdale on the east coast, is 
a wedge-shaped formation, inclining toward the coast, and the source of
water for the cities of the east coast.  The calcareous sandstones and 
sandy limestones of this formation are among the most permeable rocks ever 
investigated by the Federal Geological Survey.21  These rocks were 
deposited in a warm shallow sea, followed by an elevation above sea level 
when erosion and solution took place, and a sequent lowering under the sea 
brought about a deposition of the Miami oolite on the Tamiami.

The close of the Pliocene epoch witnessed a great change in the climate of 
the earth.  This change brought about the formation of glaciers that covered 
a third of the northern hemisphere.  The Pleistocene epoch has been divided 
into four major glacial stages and a minor one . . .22 during which the sea 
level fell in producing the massive fie1ds of ice.  In the interglacial 
stages the seas rose again, as the ice melted, and the lower lands of the 
world were covered by the seas.  These successive inundations were 
accompanied by the deposition of marine materials and were followed by the 
recessions of the waters which gave the land its approximate present 
appearance in lower Florida by building up the lands on the north, east, and 
west of the Okeechobee-Everglades depression.  Longshore currents swept 
sands from the north, along both coasts, which merged with the lime deposits 
in the south.  These mergers built up the edges of the Floridian Plateau and 
produced the large slough in the area under study.23

The first of the Pleistocene formations to be laid down was the Miami 
oolite, present in the southern and eastern parts of the Everglades.  The 
oolite varies in thickness from the merest deposit to thirty feet and is 
overlain by sand, muck, and marl, and cut through by sandy channels in many 
places.  It is a white or light yellow limestone of very high porosity, 
easily quarried, and used for rough constructional purposes.  Because of its 
outcroppings along the east coast and in the banks and rapids of the short 
rivers, it was the first of the south Florida rocks to be noted.24  Modern 
geologists believe the oolite was formed as a shallowly submerged. bar 
which, as has been suggested, shut off a wide shoal, now the Everglades, 
from deeper water of the Atlantic.  It is possible that Lake Okeechobee 
marks a deeper part of the sea, as its present bottom is fifteen feet lower 
than the neighboring Everglades.25

That part of the Everglades soils not underlain by Miami oolite and Tamiami 
limestone is generally underlain by the Ft. Thompson deposits, also of 
Pleistocene age.  This formation averages ten feet in depth over the 
northern part of the glades and includes freshwater, marine, and 
brackish-water limestones and marls.  Found at the surface near Ft. Thompson 
on the Caloosahatchee River, the formation covers the area occupied by Lake 
Okeechobee when that body of water extended from the present site of the 
town of La Belle to the present eastern border of the Everglades and south 
to the Tamiami Trail.26  The alternation of marine and brackish water 
deposits combined with fresh water shells provides a clear record of the 
several inundations of the seas.  Ground water in the Ft. Thompson formation 
is found in the shallow wells in the vicinity of Lake Okeechobee, where it 
is sought for domestic use. The fact that the Ft. Thompson is relatively 
low in permeability makes it valuable asset in areas of  ditching and diking 
for water control.27

The Anastasia and Pamlico formations, found in the coastal ridge on the 
Atlantic and along the eastern borders of the Everglades, are composed of 
sand, sandy limestone, and. calcareous sandstone.  In the strip bordering 
the Everglades where the sands of these formations are mixed with glades 
organic soils the lands are valuable for cropping and grazing.  Water wells 
developed in these deposits are of relatively indifferent quality.28

The most recent geological formation in the Everg1ades is the Lake Flirt 
marl, composed of soft gray marl or calcareous mud almost universally 
present under the deeper muck of the upper Everglades.  Flirt marl is of 
value because of its impermeability, which prevents the percolation of 
ground waters in the organic soils of the region.  Where it is present 
under sufficient thickness of soil that ditches do not cut through it, the 
water table can be controlled even in areas of permeable underlying 
rocks.29  The top fifty feet of rock strata in the northern half of the 
Everglades is relatively impermeable and subjects this half to water 
control.  In the lower half of the Everglades the strata become looser and 
highly water-bearing as the rim is approached.  Canals cut through permeable 
strata drain adjacent lands to the limit of the canal; contrariwise, the 
success of water control by dikes and pumps depends on impermeability.

Lacking modern geological information, yet seeking the truth, John. R. 
Mizell in 1902 compared the Okeechobee-Everglades formations to a large bowl 
with two rims. The inner basin he likened to the big lake, a small sea 
within itself.  The outer basin he likened to the Everg1ades, with the rock 
rim on the east and swamps and sloughs on the west.  Mize11 believed the 
normal condition of the glades to be unaffected by the inner basin until the 
lake was taxed beyond its capacity to relieve itself through the 
Caloosahatchee Canal.  The short streams on the Atlantic side of the 
Everglades were produced by the head of water from the lake overflow being 
unable to force its way down the Caloosahatchee, and seeking its way across 
the low spots in the outer rim.30

2. The Soil Deposits of the Everglades

The topography of the rook foundation on which the cumulative deposits have 
been built is, in rea1ity, not similar to a basin but more comparable to a 
broad and open trough fifty miles wide and a hundred miles long.  The 
Everglades are a component of an immense hydrologic unit consisting of the 
Kissimmee River Valley as the watershed, Lake Okeechobee as the storage 
basin, and the Everglades as the overflow area.  Seen in this light,

The Everglades are the result of slow vegetative decay in an area having 
low elevation, warm c1itmate, and heavy rainfall, and would continue to 
build up on a surface having even a steeper gradient than that now existing 
were it not for the drainage system man has installed.31

The northern and eastern sections of the Everglades are nearly devoid of 
trees, being covered with saw grass (Mariscus  jamicensis), a sedge  growing 
in dense tussocks to heights of ten and twelve feet.  Although saw grass 
covers most of the glades, bushes and trees of myrtle, willow, and bay often 
appear in sporadic clumps or little islands.  On the eastern and western 
edges many islands or hammocks appear in close proximity to the mainland.   
These hammocks consist of a dense growth of broad leaved trees and shrubs 
and appear as true  islands during periods of high water.32

This rank growth of herbaceous vegetation has occupied this large trough 
through the center of southern Florida, and from its decay and settlement 
has built up the ground level at the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee to 
fourteen feet above bed rock.  This thickness of the cumulative soils at 
Okeechobee gradually thins out to a feather edge at the sides of the 
Everglades.33  Charles T. Simpson, a naturalist who spent a good many years 
in southern Florida, believed that The southern part of the glades was 
recently elevated and there has not been sufficient time as yet . . . to 
form any great depth of vegetable deposits.  In fact the rock appears on the 
surface over extensive areas in the newer part. . . .34

The publicity attending the progress of canal excavation and land sales in 
1912 gave rise to a demand for information as to the chemical composition 
and productiveness of the soils of the Everglades.  The examination of 
thirty-five samples of soils taken from Lake Okeechobee to Miami was the 
first scientific analysis of these soils.  Previous to that time 
examinations of Florida muck soils had been on the basis of other localities 
in the state, principally in the Kissimmee-St. Cloud area.  The analyses of 
the glades soil showed an exceedingly high nitrogen content with 
comparatively small quantities of potash and phosphates.35  In 1913 State 
Chemist  Rufus E. Rose reported that the soil would grow large crops of 
foliage plants without fertilization, but would need the addition of potash 
and phosphate for a satisfactory yield of grain or sugar.

A survey of the Everglades soils from the site of the rock rim at the head 
of the north branch of the New River at Ft. Lauderdale to the south shore of 
Lake Okeechobee was made in the winter of 1915, under the auspices of the 
United States Department of Agriculture.  This soil survey covered a strip 
two and a half miles wide on each side of the North New River Canal.  The 
surveyors reported that From the rock rim to the shores of Lake Okeechobee 
the soils mapped in this survey are composed largely of organic matter in 
various stages of disintegration and decay.36  Grouping the soils according 
to the percentage of mineral constituents and the stage of decomposition of  
the vegetable tissue, the survey located three classes of Everglades soils.

Near Lake Okeechobee, bordering the shore for a width of one to two miles,  
the material was found to be black and well decomposed, and. averaged sixty 
percent ash content.  The inorganic matter consisted of fine sand, silt, and 
clay, and gave the soil a heavy silty texture.  Because of the growth of the 
custard apple tree on this type of soil, it has been called the custard 
apple muck.37  The best land in the Everglades is where the custard apple 
grows.   Some claim the custard apple is there because the soil is naturally 
better, others that the soil is better because of the custard. apple.38  
Silting, bird rookeries, depth, and age have all had a part in the 
development of this band at Okeechobees edge.  Baldwin and his associates 
measured. the depth of the muck and noted. that it averaged from forty to 
seventy-five inches, and that it was underlain with peaty-muck to the 
limestone at one hundred  twelve to one hundred and fifty inches.  The 
surface was flat with a very gentle slope away from an elevation of 
twenty-one feet above sea level at the
waters edge.39

Twenty-five years later, in 1940, the Soil Conservation Service of the 
federal government began mapping the Everglades soils, and found. the most 
valuable to be the Okeechobee muck, known locally as custard apple.  
Bordering the shore of the big lake on the eastern and southern exposures 
for a distance of one to three miles, this earth measured from thirty to 
sixty inches and lay on brown fibrous peat which in turn rested, on rock at 
a depth of five or more feet.  A heavy, black, organic material with a high 
mineral content of from thirty to sixty per cent, this belt is highly 
desirable for the growth of sugar cane and vegetable crops.40

South of the area of the custard apple muck, Baldwin and his associates 
surveyed a gradational belt of less decomposed material with a smaller 
percentage of mineral matter which they called Peaty Muck.  Known throughout 
the Everglades as Willow and Elder Land, because of this characteristic 
growth on a belt of two to four miles to the south and east of the 
Okeechobee muck, it consisted of a transition strip between the lake border 
soils and the Everglades Peat at its rear.  With from six to eighteen inches 
of finely fibrous and partially rotted matter lying on a stratum of 
Okeechobee muck varying in thickness from two to thirty or more inches, it 
is underlain with peat to a depth of from five to eight feet before reaching 
the bed rock.  Mapped by the 1940 survey as Okeelanta Peaty Muck, this soil 
has been found to be very desirable from the standpoints of both location 
and quality.42

Approaching the interior of the Everglades away from Lake Okeechobee the 
material becomes less decomposed and is nearly pure organic matter.  The 
1915 survey came upon the soil which occupies the majority of the Everglades 
within two or three miles of the lake and mapped it as brown fibrous peat.   
The surveyors determined that this material averaged from eighty-five to 
ninety-three per cent combustible, and to comprise over sixty per cent of 
their mappings.

. . . a remarkably uniform body of material, typically it consists of brown 
fibrous to dark brown semi-fibrous, slightly decomposed organic  matter, 
underlain by limestone at depths varying from about 36 to 140 inches.43

In 1915 the depth of this region of Everglades Peat varied from 110 to 130 
inches 10 miles south of the lake to 50 inches at the 32 milepost below the 
lake.

The surface of the upper part of the large area of this type is flat and. 
nearly level.  No natural drainage channels are apparent and the flatness is 
broken only by infrequent alligator holes and, runways.44

The 1940 Soil Survey identified the Everglades Peat as the most extensive 
soil type in the area.  It found the top six to eighteen inches to be a 
fine, black, fibrous material containing up to fifteen per cent mineral 
matter, lying over rock or sand.45

The agriculturally important types of organic soils surveyed in the  
Everglades to 1943 were: Okeechobee muck, deep and very deep phases: 25,000 acres;
Okeelanta peaty muck, deep and very deep phases: 30,000 acres;
Everglades peat, deep and very deep phases: 350,000 acres; and
Everglades peat over sand: 130,000 acres.46

In the portion north of the Hillsboro Canal and west of the Lake Worth 
Drainage District dikes, roughly the far northeastern corner of the  
Everglades, the 1940 Soil Survey mapped 165,000 acres of Loxahatchee peat.  
Found in the more inaccessible portions of the glades, this soil is a soft, 
felty, brown, fibrous material which is spongy in character, and in general 
has been laid down from tenderer plants than the saw grass.  This earth 
loses three-fourths of its volume on drying and is not considered 
particularly desirable for agricultural purposes.  Since it is covered with 
water during the greater part of the year it has been a refuge for frogs, 
fish, alligators, and ducks.  Attempts to bring the Loxahatchee peat into 
Cultivation have been generally unsuccessful.47

Local classification of the soils of the Everglades has been according to 
the native vegetation growing upon them.  The custard apple is a true muck 
of a sedimentary nature, while the saw grass is a true peat of an 
accumulative nature.  The elderberry and willow is not distinct, but a 
combination of the other two.48

Between 1940 and 1943, 5,800 of the 7,000 square miles in the Everglades and 
Everglades Drainage District had been surveyed and mapped by the United 
States Soil Conservation Service.  The information obtained indicated that 
some 435,000 acres of the land examined was suitable for long term use for 
crop production.49   Non-agricultural organic soils, marls, sands, rock 
land, tidal marsh, and dredged land made up the remainder of the soils found 
in the Everglades and the district.  The non-agricu1tural organic soils 
included Everglades peat of the shallow and very shallow phases and peat 
over shallow marl, as well as every phase of Loxahatchee peat.  While a 
small percentage of the marls and sands have been brought into agricultural 
production, their most extensive use has been for dry weather grazing and 
wildlife and water conservation.50


3. The Flora and Fauna of the Everglades

The Everglades are situated in a semi-tropical climate.  The average yearly 
rainfall varies from sixty inches at Miami to fifty inches at Okeechobee.51  
The yearly variation is considerable, and even the distribution within the 
year produces wet and dry seasons.  Temperatures vary from the summer high 
of 98 F. to winter temperatures as low as 9 F. under conditions of very low 
water in the open glades.52  The region is . . . remarkable for the fact 
that it is a meeting piace for many temperate and tropical types of plants 
and animals.53

It is by definition, and by the usual boundaries applied to it, a region 
without many trees and dominated by grasses, sedges, reeds, rushes, and 
other herbs growing on peat, marl, or even sandy soils that are nearly 
level, and which are flooded or wet nearly to their surface most of the 
year. . . . From the point of view of the plant ecologist, these marshes are 
like low moors which are similar in some respects to bogs because peat 
does accumulate in them.54

The plant ecologist has divided the vegetation of the Everglades into six 
broad types, with the general areas covered, by them as follows: (1) custard apple and willow-elderberry zone along the eastern and southern 
shores of Lake 0keechobee: 140,000 acres; (2) saw grass marsh plains of the northern and central glades: 1,000,000 
acres; (3) saw grass and wax myrtle or bay-berry thicket, areas along the sides of 
the central plain: 240,000 acres; (4) slough and tree-island areas north of the Hillsboro Canal and west of 
the Miami Canal: 775,000 acres; (5) mixed marshes and wet prairies east and west of the central plain sough 
of the Tamiami Trail: 300,000 acres; and (6) bordering prairies with scattered hammocks and stands of trees along the 
borders of the Everglades: 145,000 acres.55

A majority of the plants in this great partially submerged bog stem from 
aquatic families.  Covering the larger part of the Everglades, the saw grass 
has been the predominant growth which has impressed every traveler in the 
area.  Misnamed a grass, this luxuriant growth is in fact a sedge whose 
leaves are armed on their edges with teeth like a rip saw and . . . attain 
a length of seven feet and in the spring or early summer the plant sends up 
a nearly round flower stem to a height of ten feet or more.56  The water 
hyacinth, a naturalized, plant, has become as predominant on the canals of 
the Everglades as the saw grass on the soils.57   Introduced into Florida 
just before the turn of the nineteenth century, the hyacinth has completely 
outstripped its  floating cousin, the water lettuce, which Heilprin noted in 
the Taylors Creek swamps in 1886.58

In the sloughs and deeper waters of the glades, where not crowded out by the 
saw grass, are found other grasses and water plants.  Hugh Willoughby 
encountered great masses of an underwater grass similar to that used in 
aquaria, and to which he attributed, the clarity of lower Everglades 
waters.59  Gama grass, of times cultivated for ornament in gardens, with its 
twelve-foot-long flowering stems, cattails and their accompanying reeds, 
giant foxtail similar to domesticated millet, common reeds, boneset, elegant 
thalia, bull-rushes, and maiden cane form but a part of the prolific plant 
life in the grassy water.60  . . . handsome blue nama and two charming pond 
  lilies, one . . . with yellow and the other . . . with white flowers;61 
arrowheads with lance shaped leaves; pickerel weed, with spikes of blue 
flowers; water arums, like jacks-in-the-pu1pit; and spider lilies all 
contribute to the twelve hundred species of native and naturalized flowering 
plants growing on the lower mainland of Florida, many of which are located 
on the glades and island hammocks below Lake Okeechobee.  With the advent of 
artificial drainage and the creation of spoil banks came a rank growth of 
poke-weed, pickerel weed, pig-weed, and water hemp.  The amazing growth of 
these annual plants to a height of twenty feet may lead the unsuspecting to 
mistake them for a real forest.62

Through the length and breadth of the Everglades, and especially near the 
eastern and western edges, marsh shrubs and trees grow in isolated clumps or 
on the islands.  Among them, the amphibian willow, elderberry, wax myrtle, 
swamp bay, cocoa plum, and the custard apple predominate.  For many years 
the eastern and southern shores were bordered with a two to three mile belt 
of the custard apple, f1anked to the rear by the elderberry.63   In 1911 a 
traveler made the first note of the moonvine covering the custard. apple 
growth almost in its entirety, like a green mantle.64  Growing on the small 
islands on the edge of the glades and forming a dense green foliage on the 
streams, the cocoa plum with its insipid purple and white fruit was used by 
the Seminole as a part of his diet.65

On the larger islands or keys in the area, as well as on the eastern and 
northern shores of Lake Okeechobee, many large trees were found.  Here grew 
the live oak, cypress, maple, bay, and a few of the long leaf pine.

Of special interest is the strangling fig which begins life somewhat like a 
mistletoe, sprouting from a tiny seed dropped on the limb of a tree.  It 
soon sends down threads which  take root when they reach the ground, and 
which grow together wherever they touch one another, forming a meshwork 
about the trunk of the host which is slowly strangled to death.66

Among the climbing plants, always indigenous to tropical climes, W. E. 
Safford catalogued many interesting specimens.  Wild. grapes, hunters vine 
with the sap filled stem for drinking, cockspur, and the climbing brambles  
caught his attention among the myriad plants of the hammocks and glades.   
In the limbs of the trees and amidst the vines encompassing them he located  
many modest and inconspicuous orchids and other epiphytes.  Of these the 
creeping, spider, Shell, chintz-flowered, and marsh orchids he believed  
attractive for their odd forms and fragrance.  Included among the other air 
plants collected. were the resurrection fern, Spanish moss, the 
pineapple-like bromeliads, and a number of tree ferns.67

One of the most utilitarian members of the plant life of the Everglades is 
the cabbage palm or sabal palmetto.  This palm grows to a majestic height on 
the islands of the glades and adjoining prairies.  Its trunk is used for 
building purposes, its leaves for thatch, and the tender bud at the heart of 
the  uppermost end of the trunk is a succulent food when properly cooked.  
It is known locally as swamp cabbage.  The royal palm, found on Paradise 
Key, grows only in hammock or wet soil.  These palms, with a clean, gray, 
and smooth trunk, crowned by ten or twelve shining and deep, dark green 
leaves, rise as high as a hundred and twenty feet.  Describing the royal 
palms on Paradise Key in 1921, Charles T.. Simpson wrote:

Viewed from a distance of half a mile or more this forest is one of the 
most beautiful my eyes have rested on.  The whole forms a superb emerald 
island decorated with splendid palms which everywhere cut the skyline with 
unsurpassed effect, and it is set in a sea of green everglades.68

The animal life of the region of the Everglades is equally as varied as the  
plant life.  Safford in his paper on the natural history of Paradise Key and 
the surrounding glades wrote that the insect fauna alone must certainly 
include thousands of species. . . .69  Charles T. Simpson, in one of his 
many  fascinating books on the flora and fauna of southern Florida, 
commented that one hundred twenty-eight species of birds had. been sighted 
on or near the same locality and a considerable variety of small mammals, 
fish, and frogs.70

Of great interest to naturalists, the shell life of the Everglades has 
produced many specimens of crustacea and gastropada.  The tree snails found 
on the trees of the islands are among the moat attractive of their species, 
with their shells of varying and beautiful colors.71  The marsh snails 
thrive in the grassy waters and furnish a large food staple to the bird life 
in the area.   Crawfish abound throughout the grassy waters and likewise 
form a part of the diet of the marsh birds.  Centipedes and scorpions are 
found on the islands in large numbers around rotting logs and other 
vegetable matter.

In his study of the insect life of the Key and its environs, Safford was 
able to collect and classify a large number of spiders, white ants or 
termites, dragon flies, roaches, grasshoppers, beetles, moths, butterflies, 
ants, wasps, bees, hornets, and flies.

The Diptera of Paradise Key include many groups zoologically related but 
with very diverse habits: mosquitoes; horseflies and deer flies, which not 
only attack animals but even pursue automobiles for miles; robber flies, 
which catch their insect prey on the wing; flower flies, which feed on 
nectar and pollen; parasitic tachina flies, which lay their eggs on living 
insects; and carrion-eating flesh flies.72

The mosquitoes of Florida, and especially southern Florida, are renowned for 
their painful bite.  Simpson related an incident where the insects covered 
the exposed parts of his body until the skin could not be seen.  With cheeks 
swollen and eyelids puffed from the poisoning, he could scarcely see, and 
felt stupid with a desire to lie and sleep.  One of his companions, not so 
badly affected, was able to find some wild limes, the juice of which he 
applied to the swollen parts, and relieved Simpson almost instantly.  He 
noted that there were well authenticated instances in Florida and elsewhere 
of death occurring from the attack of mosquitoes.73

Equally b1ood-thirsty are the Florida horsefly and deer fly.  Zane Grey, on 
a hunting and fishing trip through the Ten Thousand. Islands and Shark River 
waters in 1924, reported the following experience:

Suddenly something bit a fiercely through my shirt. . . . I slapped my 
shoulder. A huge black fly dropped. to the floor of the launch.  He had 
brought the blood. . . .  He resembled the common horsefly I had observed in 
the west, yet he appeared more vividly colored.74

The several varieties of horseflies in South Florida can become the most 
annoying of pests, often flying after automobiles and railway trains; so 
annoying . . . to painters and other workmen that they have to protect 
themselves by means of portable smudges.75  Simpson pointed out the curious 
nuptial flights of the males in which they swarmed in millions, making an 
almost deafening noise.76  Several members of the deer fly family, smaller 
and more brightly colored than the horseflies but just as blood thirsty, 
have been found throughout the area.  Other types of flies thriving in the 
glades include the soldier fly, the Midas fly, the tachina fly, and the 
screw-worm fly.  The last, a terrible little fly, lays its eggs in wounds or 
in the nostrils of living animals.  It has even been known to deposit its 
eggs in the nostrils of human beings sleeping out of doors, but this is a 
rare occurrence.77  The larvae from the hatched eggs, known as screw worms, 
eat the flesh of the host, and stock owners must be ever alert to arrest the 
ravages of this insect.

Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades have been near perfect homes for fish, 
especially in times of high water. During these periods the fish go into the 
weedy sections bordering the lake and the glades to enjoy new feeding 
grounds.  Without doubt, the most interesting species of fish in the region 
is the predatory alligator gar.  It looks for all the world like a freak of 
prehistoric ages and ichthyologists find it is a direct descendant.  John C. 
Gifford, pioneer Miami resident, related an incident in which he had been 
attracted by a great stench in the glades during a season of low water.   
Approaching a great pool of water, he saw garfish by the thousands in the 
slowly falling water.

The fringe was lined by thousands of birds fighting, squawking, and gorging 
themselves on these dying fish.  We returned a few days later.  The slough 
was dry and covered with a layer of guano.78

The vertebrae of the garfish are similar to ball and socket joints, and the 
head may move independently.  The scales, arranged in diagonal rows, are 
fitted together by a system of hooks and do not lap each other.  Simpson 
declared, the scales to be so hard that fire could be struck from the with 
the use of steel.79

The black or big-mouthed bass roam the length and breadth of the Everglades 
prior to the beginning of drainage operations.  The black bass is the 
pluckiest of Florida fresh-water game fish and when feeding will strike at a 
likely moving object. Specimens of twenty pounds or over have been taken 
from the peninsular waters.  While in the lower glades in 1896, Hugh 
Willoughby crossed many pools ten feet wide and five feet deep which, he 
said, were inhabited by black bass up to a foot in length.80  Bass that 
jumped into the boats of the Ingraham expedition furnished the men with a 
part of their bill of fare when they crossed the middle glades in 1892.81   
Other fish found in the Everglades include the gamy and voracious mud or 
dogfish, which is one of the hardest fighters that ever took the hook.82   
Catfish, shiners, kill fish, sunfish, bluegill bream, and numerous minnows 
are found in the lakes, pools, and sloughs of the Everglades.

Perhaps the fauna which most quickly come to mind, at the mention of the 
Everglades are the reptiles, the largest of which are alligators. These 
huge animals are not at all dangerous, but will flee at the sight of a man 
and will not show fight unless brought bay.83  Heilprin noted an instance 
of a gator feeding in the OkeechobeeHiopochee Canal by grabbing a turtle 
and pulling it under the water.  Naturalists have found that the alligator 
feeds on practically any animal that passes within its reach.  On his trip 
through the very southern end of the glades Zane Grey came upon a Seminole 
encamped at the head waters of Lostmans River with a catch of eleven gators 
for a nights work.84

The Everglades are well supplied with a great variety of snakes.  The 
cottonmouth or water moccasin, a lover of wet and swampy lands, is perhaps 
the most unpopular and predominant of the snake population.  The snake is 
very poisonous and dreaded by all travelers in the glades.  The diamondback 
and ground rattlesnakes are encountered occasionally, but both these 
rattlers prefer a drier habitat.  Garter, water, black racer, gopher, 
coachwhip, and  green tree snakes are additional members of the family 
encountered in the glades.85

The bird fauna of southern Florida is especially rich, not only on account 
of the mild climate, favorable to many subtropical species, but also because 
Florida is a highway for migratory species which spend their winters in the 
West Indies.86

Practically all of the birds which frequent the states of the eastern 
seaboard  are found in or near the Everglades at some time of the year.  The 
distinctive members of the feathered animals in the glades are those who 
frequent a watered plain or a natural habitat.  Of these, the roseate 
spoonbill and the flamingo have almost disappeared from the Everglades.

As late as 1887, several flocks of the spoonbill, a rose tinted heron with a 
shovel shaped bill, were found in the Everglades.  The snowy egret and the 
white ibis, once the prey of plume hunters and threatened with extinction 
but now protected by the wardens of the law, are presented in large flocks 
throughout the area.87

Angelo Heilprin found the swampy prairie from Fort Thompson to Lake 
Okeechobee a virtual paradise for birds; at Taylors Creek he observed 
several flocks of parakeets.88  Other visitors to the area observed teeming 
bird life over all the territory.   Heron, crane, bittern, grebe, water 
turkey, duck, turkey vulture, limpkin,  hawk, osprey, rail, gallinule, coot, 
dove: veritably ad infinitum, the list grows with scarce mention of 
songbirds like the thrush and cardinal.  Before passing on, mention should 
be made of the kite, a bird of prey.  Zane Grey  ably described it as 
follows:

Opportunity was afforded to watch an Everglade kite, a rare bird I had not 
seen before.  This one soared above us, round and round swooping down to the 
treetops.  It was about the size of a pigeon, only more slender, a little 
longer, and possessed a remarkable build.  It was a giant swallow.  The 
wings were perfectly bowed. . . .  The tail was wide with a deep fork.  Its 
head appeared. small.  Perhaps its most striking feature was the color.  The 
underside of the wings was half black, half white, and the tail had the same 
beautiful markings. . . .  In beauty, grace, and wildness this Everglade 
kite  equaled the frigate bird of the keys.89

The mammals which are found in the Everglades proper are very few in number. 
  Deer graze in open spots on the tender grass. An occasional wildcat will 
make his home on one of the islands in order to prey on rats and mice.   
Possum and raccoon are found along the borders and sometimes on the islands. 
  Perhaps the mammal best adapted to the glades is the Florida otter, whose 
trails Willoughby saw by the thousands.  Constant hunting for the valuable 
pelts has reduced this animal to a veritable rarity in his natural 
habitat.90  Other than birds, fish, and reptiles the center of the 
Everglades is nearly  devoid. of life.  In the tall saw grass, inundated for 
a large part of the year, the lack of life is not hard. to understand.91


Chapter Notes

1 Samuel Sanford, The Topography and Geology of Southern Florida, Florida 
State Geological Survey, Second Annual Report (1909), 189; C. Wythe Cook 
and. Stuart Mossom, The Geology of Florida, Florida State Geological 
Survey, Twentieth Annual Report (1928), 43; E. H. Sellards, Geologic 
Sections Across the Everglades, Florida State Geological Survey, Twelfth 
Annual Report (1919), 67-68; .J. C. Stephens and C. C. Schrontz, The 
Principal Characteristics of the Kissimmee-Everglades Watershed, The Soil 
Science Society of Florida, Proceedings, IV-A (1942), 14, 24.

2 J. C. Stephens and C. C. Schrontz, The Principal Characteristics of the 
Kissimmee-Everglades Watershed, loc. cit., 14.

3 C. Wythe Cook and. Stuart Mossom, The Geology of Florida, loc. cit., 
43-44.

4 Samuel Sanford, The Topography and Geology of Southern Florida, loc. 
cit., 179.

5 Garald G. Parker, Notes on the Geology and Ground Water of the Everglades 
in Southern Florida, The Soil Science Society of Florida, Proceedings, IV-A 
(1942), 52.

6 Samuel Sanford, Topography and Geology of Southern Florida, loc. cit., 
181.

7 E. H. Sellards, "Geo1ogical Investigations in Florida Previous to the 
Organization of the Present Geological Survey, First Annual Report of the 
Florida State Geological Survey (1908), 56.

8 Thomas Buckingham Smith, Report of Buckingham Smith, Esquire, on His 
Reconnaissance of the Everglades, 1848, Senate Documents, The Reports of 
the Committees, Number 242, 30 Congress, 1 Session, 15.  Hereinafter cited 
as Buckingham Smith Report.

9 Ibid.

10 E. H. Sellards, Geological Investigations in Florida Previous to the 
Organization of the Present Geological Survey, loc. cit., 58-59.

11 Garald. G. Parker, Notes on the Geology and Ground  Water of the 
Everglades in Southern Florida, loc. cit. 53.

12 Ibid.

13 C. W. Cook and. Stuart Mossom, The Geology of Florida, loc. cit., 39.

14 C. W. Cook and. Stuart Mossom, The Geology of Florida, loc. cit., 39.

15 Garald G. Parker, Notes on the Geology and Ground Water of the 
Everglades in Southern Florida, loc. cit., 54.

16 Stuart Mossom, A Review of the Structure and Stratigraphy of Florida, 
Florida State Geological Survey, Seventeenth Annual Report (1926), 171-254.

17 Garald G. Parker, Notes on the Geology and Ground Water of the 
Everglades in Southern Florida, loc cit., 71.

18 Angelo Heilprin, Explorations on the West Coast of Florida and in the 
Okeechobee Wilderness, 65. Hereinafter cited as Okeechobee Wilderness.

19 George C. Matson and Frederick C. Clapp A Preliminary Report of the 
Geology of  Florida with Special Reference to Stratigraphy, Florida State 
Geological Survey, Second Annual Report (1909), 167.

20 C. W. Cooke and Stuart Mossom, The Geology of Florida, loc. cit., 
152-153.

21 Garald G. Parker, Notes on the Geology and Ground. Water of the 
Everglades in Southern Florida, loc, cit., 71.

22 Garald G. Parker and Nevin D. Hoy, Additional Notes on the Geology and 
Ground Waters of Southern Florida, The Soil Science Society of Florida, 
Proceedings, V-A (1943), 37.

23 Garald G. Parker and Nevin D. Hoy, Additional Notes on the Geology and 
Ground Waters of Southern Florida, loc. cit., 41-42, 54-55.

24 C. W. Cook and Stuart Mossom, The Geology of Florida, loc. cit., 
204-205

25 Garald G. Parker, Notes on the Geology and Ground Water of the 
Everglades in Southern Florida, loc. cit., 68.

26 C. W. Cook and Stuart Mossom, The Geology of Florida, loc. cit., 
211-212.

27 Garald G. Parker and Nevin D. Hoy, Additional Notes on the Geology and 
Ground Water of Southern Florida, loc. cit., 51.

28 Garald G. Parker and Nevin D. Hoy, Additional Notes on the Geology and 
Ground Water of Southern Florida loc. cit., 50.

29 Ibid., 49-50, 55.

30 Cited in, Message of Governor W. S. Jennings to the Legislature of 
Florida Relating to the Rec1amation of the Everglades, April 7, 1903, 
Senate Documents, Number 89, 62  Congress, 1 Session, 88.

31 Garald G. Parker, Notes on the Geology and Ground Water of the 
Everglades in Southern F1orida, 1oc. cit., 52.

32 John K. Small, From Eden to Sahara: Floridas Tragedy, 14; M. H. 
Gallatin and J.R. Henderson, Progress Report on the Soil Survey of the 
Everglades, The Soil Science Society of Florida, Proceedings, V-A (1943), 
95-104.

33 Samuel Sanford, Topography and Geology of Southern Florida, loc. cit., 
190-191; Charles Torrey Simpson, In the Lower Florida Wilds, 119.

34 C. T. Simpson, In Lower Florida Wilds, 119-120.

35 R. E. Rose, Analyses of Everglades Soi1s, Florida Department of 
Agriculture, Florida Quarterly Bul1etin, XXXIII (January, 1913), 11.

36 Mark Baldwin, H. W. Hawker, and Carl F. Miler, Soil Survey of the Fort 
Lauderdale Area, Florida, 16.  Hereinafter cited as Ba1dwin, Hawker, and 
Miller, Soil Survey.

37 Ibid., 17, 31.

38 John C. Gifford, The Tropical Subsistence Homestead,  89.

39 Baldwin, Hawker, and Miller, Soil Survey, 32.

40 Charles B. Evans and R. V. Allison, The Soils of the Everglades in 
Relation to Reclamation and Conservation Operations, The Soil Science 
Society of Florida, Proceedings , IV-A (1942), 43.

41 Ibid.

42 As usually mapped this soil has three distinct layers: (1) the surface 6 
to 12 inches of finely fibrous, decomposed peat, (2) a layer of plastic, 
sedimentary muck which varies in thickness from 2 to 30 or more inches, and 
(3) another layer of fibrous, brown peat. M. H. Gallatin and J. R. 
Henderson, Progress on the Soil Survey of the Everglades, loc. cit., 99.

43 Baldwin, Hawker, and. Miller, Soil Survey, 35.

44 Ibid., 39.

45 Chares B. Evans and R. V. Allison, The Soils of the Everglades in 
Relation to Rec1amtion and Conservation Operations, loc. cit., 44.

46 Separation into phases on the basis of depth was made as follows: more 
than 96 inches, very do op phase; 60 to 96 inches, deep phase; 36 to 60 
inches, shallow phase; less than 36 inches, very shallow phase. M. H. 
Gallatin and J. R. Henderson, Progress Report on the Soil Survey of the 
Everglades, loc. cit., 97-100.

47 Charles B. Evans and. R. V. Allison, The Soils of the Everglades in 
Relation to Reclamation and Conservation Operations, loc. cit., 45.

48 Harold. E. Hammar, The Chemical Composition of Florida Everglades Peat 
Soils, with Special Reference to their Inorganic Constituents, Soil 
Science, (July, 1929), 1-13.

49 M. H. Galllatin and J. R. Henderson, Progress Report on the Soil Survey 
of the Everglades, loc. cit., 104.

50 Ibid., 100-104.

51. J. C. Stephens and C. C. Schrontz, The Principal Characteristics of the 
Kissimmee-Everglades Watershed, loc. cit., 24.

52 R. V. Allison, The Soil and Water Conservation Problem in the 
Everg1ades, The Soil Science Society of Florida, Proceedings, I (1939), 38.

53 W. E. Safford, Natural History of Paradise Key and the Nearby Everglades 
of Florida, Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1917, 377.  
Hereinafter cited as, Everglades Natural History.

54 John K. Davis, Jr., Vegetation of the Everglades and Conservation from 
the Point of View of the Plant Ecologist, The Soil Science Society of 
Florida, Proceedings, I. V-A (1943), 105.

55 John H. Davis, Jr., Vegetation of the Everglades and Conservation from 
the Point of View of the Plant Ecologist, loc. cit., 105-112.

56 Charles T. Simpson, In Lower Florida Wi1ds, 121.

57 Charles T. Simpson, In Lower Florida Wilds, 12l; R.V. Allison, The 
Soil and Water Conservation Problem in the Everglades, loc. cit., 51.

58 Angelo Heilprin, Okeechobee Wilderness, 45.

59 Hugh L. Willoughby, Across the Everglades, 40.

60 Charles T. Simpson, In Lower Florida Wilds, 124-126.

61 Ibid., 125.

62 W. S. Blatchley, In Days Agone, Notes on Fauna and Flora of Sub-Tropical 
Florida in the Days when Most of its Area Was a Primeval Wilderness, 102.  
Hereinafter cited as In Days Agone.

63 Charles T. Simpson, Out of Doors in Florida, 233.

64 W. S. Blatchley, In Days Agone, 101.

65 John C. Gifford, The Reclamation of the Everglades with Trees, 22.

66 W. E. Safford, Everglades Natural History, loc. cit., 383.

67 W. E. Safford, Everglades Natural History, loc. cit., 385-386.

68 Charles T. Simpson, Out of Doors in Florida, 241.

69 W. K. Safford, Everglades Natural History, loc. cit., 390.

70 Charles T. Simpson, Out of Doors in Florida, 241.

71 W. E. Safford, Everglades Natural History, loc. cit. 391; Charles T. 
Simpson, Out of Doors in Florida, 243.

72 W. E. Safford, Everglades Natural History, loc. cit., 408.

73 Charles T. Simpson, In Lower Florida Wilds, 107.

74 Zane Grey, Tales of Southern Rivers, 67.

75 W. E. Safford, Everglades Natural History, loc. cit., 409.

76 Charles T. Simpson, Out of Doors in Florida, 242.

77 W. E. Safford., Ever1ades Natural History loc. cit., 410.

78 John C. Gifford, The Tropical Subsistence Homestead, 61.

79 Charles T. Simpson, In Lower 1orida Wilds, 128.

80 Hugh L. Willoughby, Across the Everglades, 119.

81 W. R. Moses, (MSS), The Everglades Exploring Expedition, 27. Typescript 
copy in Albertson Library, Orlando, Florida.

82 W. E. Safford., Everglades Natural History, loc. cit., 411.

83 Ibid., 415.

84 Zane Grey, Tales of Southern Rivers, 75-76.

85 W. E., Safford, Everglades Natural History, loc. cit., 416-418.

86 Ibid., 419.

87 Frederick A. Ober, The Knockabout Club in the Everglades; The Adventure 
of the Club in Exploring Lake Okeechobee, 148; Charles T. Simpson, In 
Lower Florida Wilds; Angelo Heilprin, Okeechobee Wilderness, 35.

88 Angelo Heilprin, Okeechobee Wilderness, 46.

89 Zane Grey, Tales of Southern Rivers, 66-67.

90 Charles T. Simpson, In the Lower Florida Wilds, 128; W. E. Safford,  
Everglades Natural History, loc. cit., 423-424.

91 Hugh Willoughby, Across the Everglades, 160; W. R. Moses, The 
Everglades Exploring Expedition, 27-30.