between those points being about forty miles. The canal is forty feet wide, chartered to be eight feet deep, fresh water, the color of dark brandy or strong breakfast tea (the color caused by the juniper sap and other vegetable qualities), but clear and palatable, and singularly wholesome. The banks, where we could see the cutting under the foliage, were composed of fine yellow sand mixed with broken shells. A profusion of wild-rose bushes, myrtle, sweet bay, towering laurel, white blackberry blossoms, and honeysuckle leaned over the water and made a most lovely border.
The afternoon was pleasant, with a cool wind in our favor, and, though Mr. Moseley had bailing enough to do, we reached Roper's enormous sawmill and factory, at Deep Creek, in about an hour. The yards of the factory swarmed with colored workmen, and the works covered a large area. There were immense piles of railroad ties, cypress shingles, laths, and juniper saw-logs on the side of the canal, which here widened out like a harbor. The violent rising scream of the saws sounded everywhere, something like "p-sh-shsh-sh—haiai-AI-AI!" the last note an ear-splitting squeal, like a pig in direful pain.
Mr. John L. Roper, the owner of this saw-mill, leases the timber land of almost the entire swamp
