road had been cut through the dense growth of trees, and the
trees were covered with hanging mosses and air plants.

The ponds differed from the swamps only in being treeless. They are open
sheets of water surrounded by bands of greater or less width of tall
grasses. The third day, between 30 and 40 miles from Myers, we left the
pine tree lands and started across what are called in Southern Florida
the "prairies." These are wide stretches covered with grass and with
scrub palmetto and dotted at near intervals with what are called pine
"islands" or "hammocks" and cypress swamps. The pine island or hammock
is a slight elevation of the soil, rising a few inches above the dead
level. The cypress swamp, on the contrary, seems to have its origin only
in a slight depression in the plain. Where there is a ring of slight
depression, inclosing a slight elevation, there is generally a
combination of cypress and pine and oak growth. For perhaps 15 miles we
traveled that third day over this expanse of grass; most of the way we
were in water, among pine islands, skirting cypress swamps and saw-grass
marshes, and being jolted through thick clumps of scrub palmetto. Before
nightfall we reached the district occupied by the Indians, passing there
into what is called the "Bad Country," an immense expanse of submerged
land, with here and there islands rising from it, as from the drier
prairies. We had a weird ride that afternoon and night: Now we passed
through saw-grass 5 or 6 feet high and were in water 6 to 20 inches in
depth; then we encircled some impenetrable jungle of vines and trees,
and again we took our way out upon a vast expanse of water and grass. At
but one place in a distance of several miles was it dry enough for one
to step upon the ground without wetting the feet. We reached that place
at nightfall, but found no wood there for making a fire. We were 4 miles
then from any good camping ground. Captain Hendry asked our Indian
companion whether he could take us through the darkness to a place
called the "Buck Pens." Ko-nip-ha-tco said he could. Under his guidance
we started in the twilight, the sky covered with clouds. The night which
followed was starless, and soon we were splashing through a country
which, to my eyes, was trackless. There were visible to me no landmarks.
But our Indian, following a trail made by his own people, about nine
o'clock brought us to the object of our search. A black mass suddenly
appeared in the