The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-24
UNTRoD BY HUMAN FOOT.
The Everglades of Florida, Which Exc
tend Ninety by Hundred Miles.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.

From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
The southern extremity of the penin-
sula of Florida is one huge marsh known
as the Everglades. This impenetrable
wilderness, or, rather, Jungle is made up
of about all of the large county of Dade,
almost all of Monroe, the greater part Of
Dee, much of DeSoto and most of Bre-
ward. At the north end of this singular
formation is Lake Okeechobee, into which
the Kissimmee and other rivers Discharge
their waters and which are largely re-
sponsible for the vast swamp. This great
stretch of tangle growth is in some places
ninety miles wide, extending from the
Atlantic across to the gulf and from
its southern extremity northward, is con-
siGerably over one hundred miles. There
are great stretches of cypress swamps,
wiluernesses of vines, lakelets of open
water, immense regions of morass with
comparatively dry spots in this desert Of
untraversable and bewildering inter-
mingling of semitropical flora, with
fauna of alligators, snakes, bears, wild
cats and other carnivora, while geese,
ducks, sea birds and other aquatic fowl
dot the water and myriads of the other
feathered tribes make the somber cypress
forests vocal. The entire state OF Flor
ida is not much above the level of the sea
and this dismal waste is scarcely more
than few dozen feet higher than tide
water.
Throughout this everglade region no
human being has ever fully penetrated
and there are lagoons that no human eye
has ever seen that are much the same as
those of preglacial time. While there are
large stretches on which sail or rowboaIs
might be operated, there are hundreds OIL
intervening miry boys of ooze and sIlme
of unknown depth that bar the way
There Is no frost season here-no season
when a frozen surface may be traVerseu-.
and so this dismal area for thousands OF
years has been given over to such produG-
ton as was in keeping with such an e1y-
ronment. But it is now contemplated 70
penetrate this great marsh with canal'
like bitches, with view of so lowering
the general water line as to orlhs
this swampy mass into cultivation for JUG
products peculiar to this zone auu
for which the decaying vegetable ma1tgL
of the ages is supposed to be adnlraIg
fitted. Little or nothing is known OF yuo
geological substructure of this penlnsulaii
Termination, but that an immense CORA
formation is it's base Is altogether PROV
able. IL is safe TO predict that eHca.oI
tions through this material will reyeai1
many skeletons of creatures thai lounu
death in the treacherously yielding SUI
face. In a dry time this compost Deass
up fairly well, but when continued ralIs
are precipitated on it the entire area y
inundated, when the softened materlaL =
incapable of sustaining any of the laiB"
quadrupeds. .bis
These everglades are interesting IN InS
that they typify in manner the Ga tts
paleozoic conditions, when about ala vn
earth was water and marsh. VI couiII
there are no such creatures now as Wp hs
lowed in the lagoons and crunchea t sb
roots of the aquatic vegetation III M. vpi
earth's earlier time. and yet IN S 2lior.
way the present fauna of the great !V
ida swamp is typical Of their long
ancestors While the alligator .sg
nearly extinct in the regions OF CO..
access, the saurians Of the os,ed
glades have never been much Hoi sorce.
and have there attained n size ana l ltate
ness unknown to other parts OF the sg CaT1.
Strange cries are sometimes heaIu inoc.
ing from within the borders OF tnls. Ter
cessible domain, churning OF the "9 and
attests encounters between IarEe and
savage contestants while the flghlis 1p
terrified screaming of birds gives q 't hr,,te
that the instincts of the everglauo y. he.
are still as sanguinary as they "e. t
fore man had so evolved as to ool lI, The
over them and exterminate them irOln
earth.