CHAPTER XXIII
DOWN THE ST. JOHNS
The everglades, which on the later maps of
Florida are concentrated in the southern tip of
the peninsula, there hardly conceded to extend as
far north as Lake Okeechobee, as a matter of
fact do flow in certain favored localities much
farther north, well into the middle of the State.
Up through St. Lucie and Osceola counties run
one "slough" after another, wide depressions
which in any but the driest weather are shallow,
sand-bottomed lakes filled with numerous and
beautiful wooded islands.
In the driest of weather these are deserts of white sand with tiny ponds innumerable all about in them, alive with concentrated schools of fish. It takes long drought to make this condition. A single good rain will set the fish free to roam clear water for mile on mile, and where before the rain the alligator hunter walked dry shod, afterward he must wade, knee deep or waist deep as the case may be. In the height of the rainy season, say in
