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National Geographic : 1974 Feb
Contents
a giant waterbed. Hence the name Okefe nokee, from two Indian words meaning "trembling earth." It is no stagnant mire. The earth moves, the air moves, even the water moves, with a barely perceptible southward current. Once the Atlantic covered most of Florida and southeastern Georgia. When the land rose and the ocean receded, a sandbar impounded salt water in the shallow depression that was to become Okefenokee. Over millenniums rains sweetened the waters, aquatic plants in vaded and prospered, and decaying vegeta tion became peat, which today covers the entire floor of the swamp. Stained tea color by the tannic acid in the peat and trees-but, in my experience, per fectly pleasant and healthful to drink-the swamp water drifts lazily toward two outlets: the small St. Marys River, which drains into the Atlantic, and the larger Suwannee River, immortalized by Stephen Foster, which flows southwest to the Gulf of Mexico. "As soon as they hear that Okefenokee is connected to the gulf," Clay said with his characteristic wry smile, "the tourists want to know where all the sharks are!" ABOUT NOON we reached the Red Trail - one of several canoe trails that form a 96-mile network. Maintained by the National Wildlife Refuge, these runs are un obtrusively marked with mileage signs. There were many advantages, I found my self thinking, to this canoe mode of travel: the silence of our progress, the sense of belonging in the swamp rather than intruding-belong ing as had the Seminole Indians when they found refuge here more than a century ago and the good feeling of using muscles too long underemployed. We made good time; it was only early afternoon when, having turned off the Red Trail onto a side trail, we reached our first day's goal, Bird Lake. A crude roofed platform had been built on the western shore of the small circular pond. With the paucity of dry land in the swamp, such platforms offer practically the only places where one can camp. Although there are about 70 pine-clad islands occupying some 25,000 acres in the swamp, where the mineral soil rises above the waterline, most of them are inaccessible by boat trail. Clay set up two pup tents, which shielded us from an icy north wind. A gorgeous sun set faded into a lovely quiet night, with Instinctively alert, this white-tailed deer knows many escape routes in the swamp though it has few enemies there. But as supermarket meat prices have risen, so have appetites for venison, increasing the danger from poachers. In an alligator-eat-alligator world, even a hatchling (facing page) must hunt from birth. If he survives the appetites of mam mals, birds, and his own kind-perhaps his own kin-he could grow into 14 feet and 500 pounds of rapacity. Easy game for those after his valuable hide, the alligator finds relative sanctuary in Okefenokee. Only tall tales have it that you can't drown in the swamp because a gator will swallow you first. He would rather run than attack. America's Wilderness: Okefenokee 173
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