THE OCKLA WAHA RIVER. 127

ble to improve for himan use and will always remain wild
and unmolested, a paradise for all the strange reptiles, in-
sects, birds, and fish that seek its innermost recesses. To
the pleasure-seeking tourist and the sportsman it affords an
inexhaustible field of interest, but to the invalid, health-
seeker, or practical settler it offers no attractions. As the
steamer follows the vaguely defined course of the channel,
there are frequent landings, localities where points of the
mainland extend like a peninsula into this watery jungle,
affording access and outlets to the more profitable and
healthy regions lying inland all along the route.
 The writer, as has already been explained, accompanied
the Grant party on their tour through Florida in January,
1880. Returning from a visit to the upper St. John's, at
Welaka, we changed steamers, and were soon snugly quar-
tered on the strange little steamer Osceola, which started
off at once for a night-journey up the Ocklawaha.
 The steamers that thread the very narrow and wonder-
fully crooked waters of that stream are each an aquatic
curiosity. Built especially for the route, they are alto-
gether unique ; there are none others anywhere like them.
They are particularly curious in that they have an appear-
ance of having been placed in service just before comple-
tion. Constructed with two decks-quite low between-a
snug little square-shaped wheel-house high up forward, and
a tiny little lobby deck aft, with the row of three or four
little state-rooms ranged between, they are unexcelled for
the accommodations which they afford in the scanty space
at command; and are a much more comfortable and ser-
viceable craft than their appearance would indicate.*
 Upon the roof of the wheel-house of our special steamer
was a large iron box where a bonfire of pitch-pine knots
lighted up the scenery by night. A huge stern-wheel fur-
 For specific information about steamers, hours of departure, fares, etc.,
see chapter on Routes to and through Florida."