Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-01-22
The Mysterious:
Everglades
BY Frederic Haskin

/ MIAMI. Fla, Jan. lO-The oldest map
/ of the western world shows nothing of
the continent of North America except
the southern portion of the peninsula
of Florida then believed to be a great
island. The state of Florida was settled
| by Europeans long before any other
| state of tine union. 1t is strange that
| southern Florida, known longer than any
other section OF the country should to-
/ day contain the largest tract of unex-
plored terrftory in the United States-the
Everglades.
| A region of mystery, 1T has tempted
many explorers to plunge into its vast
| expanse, but none OF them have mapped
| its paths, catalogued its wealth or solved
| its secrets. Men have crossed 1t from east
to west and from north to SOUTH yet
those very men would not again venture
an attempt to follow their own paths. 1t
was only seventeen years ago that an
expedition crossing the Everglades from
| the west to the east, exploded the theory,
| long entertained by biologists and grave
| ly set down in Biographies, that IN the
center of the Everglades there was a
high plateau or q large body of open
water. Five years later another expedi-
LlOn LHdue a CuISOTyf VI lDC
strange and largely unknown fora and
fauna of this terra incognita. And yet,
practically everything that is now known
about the Everglades was set down in
the narrative Of Escalente de Fontenada,
a Spanish sailor who was wrecked on
the Florida coast some three centuries
ago. and who lived for thirty years
among the Indians.
Until a year ago, when the extension
of the Florida East Coast railroad was
opened for passenger traffic to Knights
Key, it was impossible to see the Ever
glades without an explorers outfit and
the risks attendant upon the venture of
penetrating into unknown lands Now the
railroad traverses twelve miles of the
southeast corner of this region of mys-
terry" and one may see 1t from the win
dows of Pullman car.
80 80
Not one man IN a thousand will see
the Everglades for the first time without
an exclamation of surprise. The name
suggests to the minds of most persons a
hazy idea OF tangled tropical swamp,
a jungle concealing alligators and pois-
onous reptiles, breeding place for in
sect pests, an immense stagnant pool
with miasmatic and death-dealing
breath. tji fna 's7f.
Expecting such a picture, what a sur
prise it is to come suddenly into a great
open space, for all the world just like
an Iowa prairie, and to be told: This
is the Evefglades!"s7 The everglades is
not land. It Is not water. 1t is not
swamp and it is not prairies. 1t is just
the everglades.
To the eye, from the vantage OF the
rear end of a Pullman, the region has
the appearance of western plain with
an unusually liberal sprinkling of
clumps Of trees. The grass is golden
brown in the sunlight, suggesting rip
ening wheat field. Further to the north
the grass is Of different variety-the
terrible saw-grass, which grows to be
ten feet high. LAS a. matter OF fact, the
everglades b a vast fresh-water lake,
studded with a million islands varying
in size from yard in diameter to sew
eral hundred acres I'm area The region
is 100 miles long, from north to south,
and seventy miles wide from east to
west. SO 3J6@oo $3.50 ~ GVfs'ss 70 & 4
1t is an immense iimestoua basin, very
shallow, and Of amazing regularity of
conformation. It is entirely surrounded,
so far as II has been explored, by a
ndTIOW TIH llLlCblOnCB SlludlCQ NllICC
to twelve miles from the ocean on the
east, and at an average distance of fifty
miles from the gulf coast on the west.
The rim is twelve feet above mean low
tide in the Bay OF Biscayne on the east
and little less above the level of the
Gulf of Mexico 1t Is cut through at
various places by the rivers which drain
the everglades. ''@
-l 1''a T.
This great rim is the wall of the ever
glades basin. The basin is shallow, vary
ing from one to six feet in depth, and in
rare instances, is as deep as ten feet.
The floor of the basin is OF solid lime
stone. which gives out hard, ringing
sound when struck by oar or boat pole.
This floor is covered over with SILT sand,
decayed vegetable matter and muck. In
this soil covered with from four inches
to eight feet of water, grows the saw
grass.
But there is water everywhere. There
are paths through the saw-grass, but
should be there. Sometimes there is a,
swift current moving through the grass
free channel, sometimes the current ira
verses the channel laterally. These
paths or leads as they are termed, are
very deceptive. They often end in an
impossible barrier OF saw-grass, after
having tempted the maDdn the canoe for
many weary and fruitless miles which
must be retraoed.
-
These leads are tortuous in their
windings. In one expedition the first
canoe was three miles ahead of the sec
ond by water, but was in sight and only
a few yards away in actual distance. The
expedition of 1892, led by James E. Ingra-
ham, now third vice-president of the
Florida East Coast railroad. was the
only one that has ever attempted to drive
straight line from one edge of the ev-
erglades to the other. For many days
the expedition was in great peril and
for time 1t was almost beyond the
power of hope to see any escape from
the saw-grass Businesses.
-..,--s--+-..-afr $50
Saw-grass is terrible thing. Its stems
are as strong as bamboo, and their tri-
angular blades have serrated, saw-like
edges that cut through almost any ordi-
nary protection man can wear. The
wound inflicted by the saw-grass is a
xya~, 1,yIxy. nm alarm