File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17976219369).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo18amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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686 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL were compelled to reduce our speed to a minimum, for the stout bronze shoe on the keel of the "Barbee" began to touch projecting rocks along the bot- tom of the canal, and for a distance of
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about forty miles we scraped rock after rock, causing as much friction on our nerves as on the shoe. Had it not been for the ingenuity of our captain we should have had to aban- don the cruise. He created a ballast by pulling our row- boat aboard, setting it across the bows of the "Barbee," and filling it with ■water. This weighed down the bows, and thus elevated the stern with the pro- peller high enough to allow the boat to float safely above the rocky bottom. In order to counter- balance the delays and the loss of time caused by the re- duced speed, we ran well into the night. Of course, plant collecting suffered neglect, but, fortu- nately, I had col- lected rather thor- oughly along the l)anks of this canal in the fall of 1913. After passing through the second lock, the sailing was smoother—at least The southern part of peninsular Florida, showing about 120 miles of Atlantic coast, the narrow strip of high land adjacent to this coast, the area of the "Big Cypress" on the west, and the "Ever- glades" and Lake Okeechobee between. — The Everglades represent a wet prairie, partly dry in winter, submerged in summer, treeless except for the higher hammocks, like islands, along or near tlie borders, and the dense hammock surrounding Okeechobee (25 ft. above sea level). The region is impenetrable to travel, with no natural channels for navigation; hence the canals, four water highways from the coast across to Lake Okeechobee. When the channel is opened westward from Three Mile Canal and Lake Hicpochee, the last link will be completed in a water route across this part of Florida. The expedition went to Lake Okeechobee from Miami by way of Fort Lauderdale, as the Miami Canal is not completed; but it found that North New River Canal needs to be deepened. The expedi- tion's boat was able to keep its propeller from scraping the rocky bottom only by means of a ballast on the bow. Return was attempted unsuccessfully by way of the West Palm Beach Canal. At least parts of the Everglade and Lake Okeechobee regions should be made state or federal reservations for the benefit of future generations of Americans. Florida is behind other states of the Union in not having reserved any of its forests or other natural features (except Royal Palm Hammock, together with some of tlie adjacent Everglades, called "Royal Palm State Park")

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