Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1870-05-21
WHOLE NO. e,ivy.
WHAT FLORIDA ~.

'
This Is an old yet still strange and
wild country, that has been settled
for three hundred years, and IL moi
yet inhabited q land ofshifting sand
and of deep mud--a land of noble
rivers that rise In swamps and con-
sist merely ef chains and shallow
lakes, some Of twenty miles long ard
twelve miles across, and only twelve
feet deep--of wide, sandy plains CIV
cred will, solemn-sOunding pines-of
spots OF barren thst nothing can he
made to grow upon them, and vet
with a soil 80 fertile that "if Won
tickle 1t with hoe 10 will laugh with
an abundant harvest of sugar. cot-
ton. rice and fruit--a land of oranVes,
lemons, .pomegranates, pine-apples,
ftYs and bananas, whose rivers teeni
with fsh, Its forests with game. and
Its very mir with fowl; where every-
thing will grow except wheat and
apples; where everything can be
found except ice yet where the peo-
PIE, with productive soil, q mild
climate and bountiful nature, affords
ing every table luxury, live on COZ n
grits, sweet potatoes and molasses !;
where many men possessing forty
thousand head Of cattle never saw q
glass Of milk In their lives, using
only the imported article when used
at all where the very effort 10 milk
cow would probably scare her TO
death, as well as frighten a whole
neighborho0d by the unheard-of phe-
nomenon where cabbage grows on
the tops Of trees, and YOU NAV dig
bread out Of the ground; where. he.
low the frost line, the oastor.oil plant
becomes large tree of several Year,
growth, and pumpkin or bean vine
VIII take root from its trailing
branches, and thus spread and live
year after year; where cattle do NOT
know what hay is, and refuse Il When
offered, so that the purchase Of a
yoke of oxen is not considered valid
II the animal will not eat In q stable |;
and where In the mild winter, when
the land grass Is dried up, and horses
and cattle may be seen wading and
swimming In the ponds and strea ms,
plunging their heads deep under the
surface to bite the water grasses and
moss; where many lakes have holes
In the bottom and underground COM
munication, SO that they will some
times shrink away to mere cupf,,l,
leaving many square miles of sur.
face uncovered, and then again fill
up from below and spread out over
their former area; where some of
them have outlets In the ocean far
from shore, bursting up q perpetual
spring Of fresh water I'm the very
midst Of the briny saltness. OF the
sea; where In times Of low water,
during a long, exhaustive dry season,
men have gone underground IN one
Of these subterranean rivers nom
lake to lake distance of eight miles;
where the ground will Sometimes
sink and the cavity All with water,
until tall trees, that had stood and
sunk upright, will have their tor
most branches deeply covered ,
where rivers will disappear IN the
earth and rise again, thus forming
natural bridges, some 0f them a mile
In breadth; where instead of spring,
summer, autumn, and winter, there
are two Seasons only -eight months
summer and four months warm
weather; where the winter il the dry
season, and tho summer almost q
daily rain; where In order to take a
walk you first wade through a light
sand ankle.tleep, and then get into
mud-puddle, and some Of these mud
puddles cover whole county; where
no clay Is found fit for brick making.
and people build houses without
chimneys; where agues would pre-.
vail II the people would take trouble
to shake; where large orange tree
will bear seven thousand oranges
leaves, buds, blossoms, half-grown
and fhll-grown fruit all at 0nce-and
every twenty. five feet square of sand
will sustain such n tree where In
many parts cold weather il an i'm
possibility and perpetual verdure
reigns; where the everglades are
found, covering many large counties
with water from one to six feet deep,
with u bottom undiscovered, yet un-
derneatll solid and firm, from which
grasses grow up to the surface, "A sea
Of green, and with islands large and
small scattered over the surface, COW
cred with live-oaks and dense vege-
tation; where alligators, or gators,
as they are called In Florida parlance,
possess undoubted aboriginal rights
of citizenship, and mosquitoes pay
constant visits, and are intrusive ami
even penetrating In their attention
to strangers. All these and more
may he met with In Florida.
iucOtPs Md0asiue.