A sliver of the Everglades

As we return to our car, though, and get back on the road -- where canals act as a constant reminder of what the Everglades once was -- I have this sinking feeling we're chasing an idea.

The Everglades used to be a great incubator. When seasonal rains came, this fabled ''river of grass" flowed sluggishly southward across South Florida, spreading 50 miles wide, though only a few inches deep, moving less than a mile each day. One hundred miles later, it spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. Fish populations boomed. Alligators and crocodiles were plentiful. Flocks of wading birds were so thick they blocked out the sun when they took flight.

Now, 1,400 miles of canals run through the Everglades. In the last century, this vast wetlands has been reduced by half. Human settlement and agricultural development have changed much of the landscape irrevocably. Water has been diverted into canals, held back by earthen dikes and dams, polluted. Now the Everglades is home to one of the country's largest concentrations of threatened and endangered species. Wading-bird populations are down 90 percent and acres of sawgrass die each day. According to literature put out by the National Park Service, Everglades National Park is on ''life support." The Everglades we were exploring, though grand in places, was just thready remnants of what was once a rich tapestry of plant and wildlife.

The Everglades contains the largest federally designated wilderness area east of the Rockies. It is home to the coral snake, the most venomous snake in North America. Some salamanders in here grow to be three feet long. Some birds here have reflexes so fast they can catch a fish in 25 milliseconds, faster than any other vertebrate. It's the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles live side by side. On hundreds of small islands here, mangrove roots are so thick you cannot walk on them. Blades of tall native grass can be so sharp they slice through flesh. There are biting bugs, poison ivy, and even a manchineel tree that has poisonous fruit and which, if burned, allegedly can be fatal for those who inhale its smoke.