You cannot keep more than one end of yourself under water at once, but you soon learn how to wrestle with its novelties, and then it becomes a thing of beauty and a joy for any summer day.  The water is delightful to the skin, every sensation is exhilarating, and one cannot help feeling in it like a gilded cork adrift in a jewel-rimmed bowl of champagne punch.  In the sense of luxurious ease with which it envelops the bather, it is unrivaled on earth.  The only approximation to it is in the phosphorescent waters of the Mosquito Indian coast.

The water does not freeze until the thermometric mercury tumbles down to eighteen degrees above zero, or fourteen below the ordinary freezing point.  It is clear as crystal, with a bottom of snow-white sand, and small objects can be distinctly seen at a depth of twenty feet.  There is not a fish or any other living thing in all the 2,500 to 3,000 square miles of beautiful and mysterious waters, except the yearly increasing swarms of summer bathers.  Not a shark, or a stingaree, to scare the timid swimmer or floater; not a minnow, or a frog, a tadpole, or a pollywog—­nothing that lives, moves, swims, crawls or wiggles.  It is the ideal sea-bathing place of the world.

CHAPTER VI.

THE INVASION OF OKLAHOMA.

A History of the Indian Nation—­Early Struggles of Oklahoma Boomer—­Fight between Home-Seekers and Soldiers—­Scenes at the Opening of Oklahoma Proper—­A Miserable Night on the Prairie—­A Race for Homes—­Lawlessness in the Old Indian Territory.

Oklahoma, the youngest of our Territories, is in many respects also the most interesting.  Many people confound Oklahoma Territory with the Indian Territory, but the two are separate and distinct, the former enjoying Territorial Government, while the latter, unfortunately, is in a very anomalous condition, so far as the making and enforcing of laws is concerned.

Up to within a few years Oklahoma was a part of what was then the “Indian Territory.”  Now it has been separated from what may be described as its original parent, and is entirely distinct.  It contains nearly 40,000 square miles, and has a population of about a quarter of a million, exclusive of about 18,000 Indians.  It contains more than twice as many people to the square mile as many of the Western States and Territories, and is in a condition of thriving prosperity, which is extraordinary, when its extreme youth as a Territory is considered.

In 1888, Oklahoma was the largest single body of unimproved land capable of cultivation in the Southwest.  It was nominally farmed by Indian tribes, but the natural productiveness of the soil, and the immense amount of land at their disposal, cultivated habits of indolence, and there was a grievous and even sinful waste of fertility.  To the south was Texas, and on the north, Kansas, both rich, powerful and wealthy States.  The Indian possessions lying between disturbed the natural growth and trend of empire.