Ingraham Expedition: March 30, Wednesday

Project HomeCreditsIndexMap
X (Close panel) Project Information

Ingraham Expedition: March 30, Wednesday

Original Source

Encoded texts are derived from three typescript accounts of the 1892 Everglades Exploration Expedition found in the James E. Ingraham Papers and the Chase Collection in the Special and Area Studies Collections Department of the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries. Digital reproductions of the typescripts are available at:

Moses, W.R., Record of the Everglade Exploration Expedition

Ingraham, J.E., Diary

Church, A., A Dash Through the Everglades

Contents

Electronic Publication Details:

Text encoding by John R. Nemmers

Published by John R. Nemmers.

George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

2015

Licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.

These manuscripts are available from this site for education purposes only.

Encoding Principles

The three accounts of the 1892 Ingraham Everglades Exploration Expedition have been transcribed and are represented in Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) P5 XML encoding.

Line and page breaks have not been preserved in the encoded manuscripts.

X (Close panel)Text:
[CAMP NO. 14, Wednesday, March 30th.]

Very heavy dew. So far we have been very fortunate in having but little rain to incommode us.

Left island No. 29, Camp No. 14 about 8 A.M. Surveyors, chaining for an island to the S. E., but the chainmen giving out occasioned by physical exhaustion going through the high saw grass and limited food, chaining had to be given up for the present and Mr. Newman triangulated for an island nearer and more to the eastward.

From Island 29 there are 6 or 7 islands in sight.

Saw grass almost continuously towards Island No. 30 and we had a hard time reaching it but finally succeeded about dark. Distance from Island 29, 3 miles and 3,000 feet.

Rock today about 5 feet from surface of water or mud.

Saw smokes to the S. E. during day and near enough to see the blaze after arriving in camp.

Men very tired and irritable, but felt better after supper.

Island No. 30 is a patch of perhaps 1/4 of an acre in midst of saw grass, covered by a growth of stunted willows and principally inhabited by buzzards. Very odorous, but better than mud alone. We will all appreciate the ability of walking on non-resisting substance.

3 or 4 islands in sight to the south and east.
March 30th. Broke camp 8 A.M. for island about 4 miles S.50 E. Rock bottom 6 feet; mud 5 feet; water 1 foot. Found rock everywhere below surface from 5 to 7 feet. Saw grass gets stronger as we approach the east. Think we must have crossed the ridge on Sunday, as water now flows in a S.E. direction quite perceptibly.

Very hard day; surveyors gave out at noon on account heavy saw grass chaining, and Newman triangulated to an island 3 miles, 300 feet from yesterday's camp. So we went into camp at 6:30 at Willow Island #30, camp #15. Glades seem to run more southerly than previously. Saw grass beds again.
Next day, Wednesday, 30th, we struck a very fair channel, running however, rather too much to the south, which we followed till noon; we then had to make haul after haul across the saw grass until we were ready to drop from exhaustion. At sundown we were still a mile from our island and no channel that we could see leading up to it. Mr. Newman, Mr. Sydney and myself went forward to explore, and in the gathering darkness the boats became separated, took different channels and for a time went backwards instead of forwards. We shouted, fired our guns, and lit the saw grass to mark their channel, and when we reached the island, (which turned out to be a buzzard roost), we made a bright fire to guide them in. Some time after dark the boats came up and we made our camp in the saw grass as best we could; next morning we found two stumps under our blankets, but we were so weary that not even stumps, redbugs and mosquitos could have kept us from sleeping.
X (Close panel)Text:
[CAMP NO. 14, Wednesday, March 30th.]

Very heavy dew. So far we have been very fortunate in having but little rain to incommode us.

Left island No. 29, Camp No. 14 about 8 A.M. Surveyors, chaining for an island to the S. E., but the chainmen giving out occasioned by physical exhaustion going through the high saw grass and limited food, chaining had to be given up for the present and Mr. Newman triangulated for an island nearer and more to the eastward.

From Island 29 there are 6 or 7 islands in sight.

Saw grass almost continuously towards Island No. 30 and we had a hard time reaching it but finally succeeded about dark. Distance from Island 29, 3 miles and 3,000 feet.

Rock today about 5 feet from surface of water or mud.

Saw smokes to the S. E. during day and near enough to see the blaze after arriving in camp.

Men very tired and irritable, but felt better after supper.

Island No. 30 is a patch of perhaps 1/4 of an acre in midst of saw grass, covered by a growth of stunted willows and principally inhabited by buzzards. Very odorous, but better than mud alone. We will all appreciate the ability of walking on non-resisting substance.

3 or 4 islands in sight to the south and east.
March 30th. Broke camp 8 A.M. for island about 4 miles S.50 E. Rock bottom 6 feet; mud 5 feet; water 1 foot. Found rock everywhere below surface from 5 to 7 feet. Saw grass gets stronger as we approach the east. Think we must have crossed the ridge on Sunday, as water now flows in a S.E. direction quite perceptibly.

Very hard day; surveyors gave out at noon on account heavy saw grass chaining, and Newman triangulated to an island 3 miles, 300 feet from yesterday's camp. So we went into camp at 6:30 at Willow Island #30, camp #15. Glades seem to run more southerly than previously. Saw grass beds again.
Next day, Wednesday, 30th, we struck a very fair channel, running however, rather too much to the south, which we followed till noon; we then had to make haul after haul across the saw grass until we were ready to drop from exhaustion. At sundown we were still a mile from our island and no channel that we could see leading up to it. Mr. Newman, Mr. Sydney and myself went forward to explore, and in the gathering darkness the boats became separated, took different channels and for a time went backwards instead of forwards. We shouted, fired our guns, and lit the saw grass to mark their channel, and when we reached the island, (which turned out to be a buzzard roost), we made a bright fire to guide them in. Some time after dark the boats came up and we made our camp in the saw grass as best we could; next morning we found two stumps under our blankets, but we were so weary that not even stumps, redbugs and mosquitos could have kept us from sleeping.
X (Close panel)Text:
[CAMP NO. 14, Wednesday, March 30th.]

Very heavy dew. So far we have been very fortunate in having but little rain to incommode us.

Left island No. 29, Camp No. 14 about 8 A.M. Surveyors, chaining for an island to the S. E., but the chainmen giving out occasioned by physical exhaustion going through the high saw grass and limited food, chaining had to be given up for the present and Mr. Newman triangulated for an island nearer and more to the eastward.

From Island 29 there are 6 or 7 islands in sight.

Saw grass almost continuously towards Island No. 30 and we had a hard time reaching it but finally succeeded about dark. Distance from Island 29, 3 miles and 3,000 feet.

Rock today about 5 feet from surface of water or mud.

Saw smokes to the S. E. during day and near enough to see the blaze after arriving in camp.

Men very tired and irritable, but felt better after supper.

Island No. 30 is a patch of perhaps 1/4 of an acre in midst of saw grass, covered by a growth of stunted willows and principally inhabited by buzzards. Very odorous, but better than mud alone. We will all appreciate the ability of walking on non-resisting substance.

3 or 4 islands in sight to the south and east.
March 30th. Broke camp 8 A.M. for island about 4 miles S.50 E. Rock bottom 6 feet; mud 5 feet; water 1 foot. Found rock everywhere below surface from 5 to 7 feet. Saw grass gets stronger as we approach the east. Think we must have crossed the ridge on Sunday, as water now flows in a S.E. direction quite perceptibly.

Very hard day; surveyors gave out at noon on account heavy saw grass chaining, and Newman triangulated to an island 3 miles, 300 feet from yesterday's camp. So we went into camp at 6:30 at Willow Island #30, camp #15. Glades seem to run more southerly than previously. Saw grass beds again.
Next day, Wednesday, 30th, we struck a very fair channel, running however, rather too much to the south, which we followed till noon; we then had to make haul after haul across the saw grass until we were ready to drop from exhaustion. At sundown we were still a mile from our island and no channel that we could see leading up to it. Mr. Newman, Mr. Sydney and myself went forward to explore, and in the gathering darkness the boats became separated, took different channels and for a time went backwards instead of forwards. We shouted, fired our guns, and lit the saw grass to mark their channel, and when we reached the island, (which turned out to be a buzzard roost), we made a bright fire to guide them in. Some time after dark the boats came up and we made our camp in the saw grass as best we could; next morning we found two stumps under our blankets, but we were so weary that not even stumps, redbugs and mosquitos could have kept us from sleeping.