News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-06-07
IN OKEFENOKEE'S DEPTHS.
Queer Stories of the Great Swamp
in Florida and Georgia.

II
Ten miles to the northwest of Glen
st. Mary, Fla, are the southern out
) skirts of Okefenokee, the great swamp
extending across the state line and &c
miles into Georgia. Excepting the
Dismal Swamp in Virginia, there is nc
waste stretch in any of the Atlantic
States which can compare with Okefe-
mckee in size. 1t extends over an area
of 900 square miles. Probaly nowhere
on the face of the globe is there any one
malarial factory so vast, pestilential and
gloomy. The swamp is historic, too,
in its way. 1t was favorite retreat for
the Seminoles, and in it, near the Rod
denburg settle, is a verdure-crowned
island, where the remnant of the North
Florida Indians took refuge in 1887, and
successfully defied the regulars and the
Territorial militia.
Strange stories are told of the I'M
known recesses of this swamp. Years
ago, in ante-bellum days, one tradition
says: Two desperate runaway slaves
penetrated to the very heart of the mys-
FERROUS region, taking to the swamp as
last resort to escape the pursuing
bloodhounds. Weeks afterward one of
bllSLl1s nSdI NlcdU lIOI1 5bdINdllODJ was
found stretched on bog in the South
ern outskirts of the swamp. He was
given stimulants, and revived sufficient
" to narrate to his captors one of the
widest tales ever told of this wild re-
gion.
The first Thought of the fugitives, the
negro said, was TO place as much ground
as possible between themselves and the
bloodhounds. They fOundered along
through Shiny morasses and the luxuri-
ant vegetation of the cypress olses,
which ere thickly scattered through this
wilderness of mud, ooze and ''water
prairie" After two days of this desper-
ate fight the poor wretches We're thor
oughly exhausted. The exertiOn of
travelling through the treacherous mix
trlre OF clay, water and swampy vegeta
tion had strained every muscle to the
limit of its strength. They were in
/ about as pitiable state as can be mag
ined. Their slender stock of provisions
had been eaten. They had no water.
! The swamp water was not fit to drink.
They were in the inhospitable depths of
the miasmal Okefenokee, which extend
ed for leagues on every side. The Shiny
waters we're full of strange forms and
animal life and of poisonous shrubs and
vines. The unknown terrOrs ahead,
however, they thought less frightful than
the bloodhounds and the lash behind,
and so they pushed on. Another day of
mental and physical torture brought
them to the dreary banks of small
lake. A few rods away over the black
water they saw a rocky island. Terra
frma, even though terra incognita, was
a welcome sight, and Pomp and Tibe
determined to get to the island at any
sacrifice. Both we're expert swimmers,
and they plunged in confidently, but
We're terrified to find the water unpleas-
antly warm, and growing perceptibly |
warmer as they approached the island.
The water, too, was agitated in an I'M
natural manner, for there was not a
breath of air moving, not feck of !
cloud in the sky. But they reached the .
island safely, and were at once struck
with the peculiar character of the rocks,
which were entirely different from any
thing they had seen before.
Looking up from an examination of
blackened stone, Pomp suddenly saw
curling up behind clump of stunted
bushes hundred yards away column
of thin blue smoke. Fearful, even in
that extremity, of the presence of slave
hunters, the runaway silently skunk into
the underbrush. After the first alarm
had subsidized they reasoned that the
smoke might be caused by fugitive slaves
like themselves, or even by colony OF
blacks, for stories were told in the plan
tations of Middle Florida at that time of
a nest of black savages in the inmost re-
cesses of the Okefenokee. Plucking up
courage, they cautiously approached the
dreaded clump, behind which the little
whIhs of smoke rose occasionally. As ,
they neaued the spot they We're sensible !
that the rocks and soil were hotter to
/ their feet than the hottest sand either
had felt while working in parched cot
ton fields in the blazing monday. At
last the little withered clump was
reached, and peering afrightedly be-
tween the thin branches and dried leaves |
they saw what filed them with super
stitious awe. An irregular fissure, vary
ing in width from several inches to
several feet, stretched before them. Its
sides were slowly but constantly closing
and opening, and after the more pro
nounced disturbances little putfs of va
por shot into the air. This was too much |
for Pomp and Tibe, and they both made
for the shore as fast as they could. They |
were about to plunge in again to SWIM
away from the island when they discov-
cred that the water had become much |
hotter, SO that they couldn't hold their
hands in it without pain. A rude raft .
was quickly constructed out of dead /
wood and brush, and the pair pushed off |
for the nearest point of the swamp.
When half the distance had been cover
ed, Tibe, enfeebled through starvation
and terrified by the experience, lost all .
control of his nerves, tumbled headlong |
into the lake and disappeared under the !
dark water.
Pomp remembered reaching the |
swamp land a few minutes later, and |
the next thing that he was aware OF was
the stale whiskey of his captors tickling
in his throat. He must have wandered
about for days in the gloomy swamp
solitudes out of his head, until ex-
hausted nature gave way and he sank on
the bog where he was found. His ac-
count was condemned as an extravaganza /
lie, designed TO cover the death of his
comrade, whom he was accused of hav
ing murdered to obtain food. Though |
threatened with death by flogging if he
denied the charge, he protested lnno-
cence to the end, and the barbarous
threat was actually carried into execu-
ton. In one of his pockets was found
stone exactly similar to those he de-
scribed as having found on the mysetri-
GUS island. This was sent to an eminent
geologist, who pronounced it undoubted
ly lava 1t was then recalled that an
obscure English scientist was said to
have penetrated, decades before, to the
heart of the swamp, and i'll the delirium
of the malarial fever, of which he died
on his return, to have spoken incoher-
emily of lonely island, volcanic at no
distant date, and having bot spring of .
a much higher temperature than any of .
the hot springs in the State.
AS might be imagined, Okefenokee is /
an alligator's paradise. The "'gater" is
the suzerain of the swamp and the patri- !
arch of the ponds. He is pre-eminently |
typical of the swamp-gigantic, slug
gish. repulsive, Shiny, treacherous. The |
'gater is an interesting study, provided /
observations are not too closely taken. |
His style of beauty is not marked by re- |
gularity of features or symmetry of fig |
ure, but he has an honest expression,
and you know what he means when he /
opens his mouth. When he desires
more oxygen he pulls his ungainly
length upon some log, and makes a
picture that would inspire Dore. His
throat is trap. Taking his dolce far
niente on a summers day, he will allow
to enter into bis mouth bugs, gnats, /
mosquitoes, insects of all kinds, frogs, ]
lizards, in fact, almost anything that |
can get in. When the matinee is in full |