Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1894-07-12
A GREAT MARSH.
The Everglades of Florida Extend NINETY
by One Hundred Miles.

The Everglades of Florida Extend NINETY
by One Hundred Miles.
The southern extremity of the
peninsula Of Florida Is one huge
marsh known as the Everglades, saws
the Pittsburg Dispatch. This i'm.
penetrable wilderness, or rather jun.
gle. is made up Of about all of the
large county Of Dade, almost all Of
Monroe, the greater part Of Dee,
much of De Soto and most Of Bre.
ward. At the north end Of this sin.
gular formation is Lake Okeechobee,
into which the Kissimmee and other
rivers discharge their waters, and
which are largely responsible for the
vast swamp. This great stretch of
tangle growth is in some places ninety
miles wide, extending from the At.
lantic across to the Gulf, and from
its southern extremity northward is
considerably over 100 miles. There
are great stretches Of cypress swamps,
wildernesses of vines, lakelets Of
open water, immense regions OF mo-
rass, with comparatively dry spots,
in this desert OF untraVersable and
bewildering intermingling Of semi
trOpical fora, with a fauna OF ALI
gators, snakes, bears, wildcats and
other carnivora, while geese, ducks,
sea birds and other aquatic fowl dot
the water, and myriads Of the other
feathered tribes make the somoer
cypress forests vocal. Florida is not
much above the level OF the sea, and
this dismal waste is scarcely more
than a dozen feet higher than tide
water.
Through this everglade region no
human being has ever yet fully pen
etrated, and there are lagoons that
no human eye has ever seen that are
much the same as those of pre2lacial
time. While there are large stretches
on which sail or rowboats might be
operated, there are hundreds of in
teryening boys Of ooze and slime of
unknown depth that bar the way
There is no frost season, no season
when a frozen surface may be tray
ersed, and, SO this dismal area
for thousands of years has been
given over to such production as
was in keeping with such an en-
vironmenb. But it is now contem-
plated to penetrate this great marsh
with canal-like bitches, with a view
of SO lowering the general water line
so as to bring this swampy mass into
cultivation for the products peculiar
to this zone, and for which the de-
caying vegetable matter of the ages
is supposed to be admirably fitted.
Little or nothing is known of the
geological substructure of this pen
insular termination, but that an i'm
mense coral formation is its base is
altogether probable. 1t is safe to
predict that excavations through this
material will reveal many skeletons
of creatures that found death in the
treacherously yielding surface. In
dry time this compost bears up fairly
we'll, but when continued rains are
precipitated on it the entire area Is
inundated, when the softened mate
rial is incapable Of sustaining any Of
the larger Quadrupeds.
These everglades are interesting in
this, that they typify in a manner
the early paleozoic conditions, when
about all the earth was water and
marsh. or course, there are no such
creatures now as wallowed lin the
lagoons, and crunched the roots Of
the aquatic vegetation in the earth's
earlier time, and yet in small way
the present fauna of the great Florida
swamp are typical of their long-ago
ancestor. While the alligator is
nearly extinct in the regions of easy
access the saurians of the everglades
have never been much molested, and
have there attained a size and fierce
ness unknown to other parts of the
State. Strange cries are sometimes
heard coming from within the boz ders
of this inaccessible domain, churn-
in Of the water attests encounters
between large and savage contest
ants, while the flight and terrified
screaming Of birds give evidence
that the instincts Of the everglades
brute are still as sanguinary as they
were before man had so evolved as
to dominate over them, and eXtermin-
ate them from the earth.
The Basis of the Dance.
The basis Of the dance, and, there