Okefenokee Primeval Prairies

An excerpt from Francis Harper’s 1913 paper “A Biological Reconnaissance of the Okefinokee Swamp”, published in The Auk, the official publication of the American Ornithological Society:

“In the eastern United States few, if any, areas of equal extent afford such exceptional opportunities for the study of animal life in a primeval state as does Okefinokee Swamp.  The ‘prairies’ of the Okefinokee are by no means prairies in the ordinary sense of the term. One prairie may differ considerably from another, but all are essentially flooded marshes, or shallow lakes filled to a great extent with aquatic vegetation. In wet seasons one may pole his boat almost at will over these expanses; during dry summers, however, the muck is exposed, and little water is left except in the deeper parts, such as ‘gator holes.'”