Floating Islands of Trembling Earth

Excerpt from the 1875 Okefenokee Exploration by The Atlanta Constitution​:

“​There are dense thickets of small shrubs, almost impenetrable, except to wildcats and bears who have made their trails; and beyond these thickets, which sometimes give place to a perfect mat of bamboo briars, then feet high, many of them are an inch in diameter and armed with thorns which stick like daggers, we find an open marsh filled with long rushes and water lilies, whose thick roots afford the only support for the feet in wading through the soft ooze and mud, which yields to the weight of a man so that he sinks to the arm pits in many places. Many small islands and clumps of trees dot these “prairies,” as they are called, and these are generally surrounded by a flood of moss, which is sometimes firm enough to hold one’s weight, and again forms a floating surface over the water, and while it does not break through beneath the feet, one can see it sink and rise for ten or twenty feet around every steop, hence its name, Oke-fe-no-kee, or Trembling Earth.”  —  M.T. Singleton recounting the 1875 Constitution Expedition, The Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta, Georgia. February 2, 1890.

​In 1875, The Atlanta Constitution published the dramatic headline: “We now announce to our readers, and the people of Georgia, that we are fitting up an expedition for a complete and thorough exploration of Okefinokee. The full details of the plan and expedition will be published soon – if they come out alive.” Over the next months, the paper released many exciting stories from the Okefenokee Swamp.

iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/65478336