The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1871-11-16

From Lippincott's Magazine. ]

| tllC iltIilt ttS illttIlU1, II mas lis OWf r
way-is different from every other"
With the exception Of some few rivers
that flow into the Arctic Ocean, the Nile
and the St. Johns are the only rivers on
the earth's surface whose waters run due
north. In this respect, as well as in
many others, it is peculiar. For more
than one hundred and fifty miles from its
mouth it is from two to three miles wide.
and in some places spreads out to twelve
or fifteen. 1t is, in fact, merely a chain
of lakes, and some of these lakes are only
shallow basins not more than twelve feet
deep.
1t is some four hundred miles in length,
and is supposed to rise in the extensive
swamps OF South Florida. | say suppos-
ed, for, strange to say, although this riv-
er is the first in this country on which the
white man ever hoated ship, the very
first on whose banks he ever settled and
although it has ever since that time been
known and visited. its head-waters are
still unknown. As it is in scenery and
climate an African river, a true American
Nile or Niger, think it would be good
plan, as soon as DR. Livingstone turns ND
alive, to catch him and start him in a
canoe up this river. He would be sure,
~ o4iS Soulti, tlutl IL Inc uOStullOCS
did not devour him, to come out at the
little end Of it. Congress should make
an appropriation for this purpose Who
| knows what he might not discover if let
loose upon its waters
Its current runs at the rate of only a
mile an hour; and so gradual is the fall
that at one hundred and fifty miles from
| IFS mouth the level is only three feet six
| inabns aIo,o ,F r..
have been originally only a long salt
water lagoon. Before the war it was
| brackish TO very great distance from
its mouth, since the war, its waters have
| become fresh, and the natives attribute
| this schange to political convulsions A
series of heavy rains for several summers,
and the opening up for navigation Of
various streams leading from large lakes,
have turned q great body of fresh water
| into its sluggish current, and caused this
result
Many of the Florida waters drain off
southwark, through the Everglades, into
| the Gulf of Mexico BY clearing out the
distinctions between this region and the
St. Johns, a still larger body Of water
| might be poured into this river, which
would thus become the great outlet for
the waters of all southern Florida. 1t
might be made q navigable stream
throughout, draining while it opened up
a rich country, and allowing boats to
pass to the southernmost part OF the pc
ninsull
1t is grand river, not in its scenery,
but in the wide expansa of its waters;
the banks are flat, and would be uninter-
esting were it not for the tropical charac-
ter of the vegetation. A few years ago
the river was a great solitary highway,
leading to nothing; there were few set
Elements and Nature reigned undisturb-
ed, its silence only occasionally broken
by the axe of the lnmberman and the
whiz Of few saw-mills The low,
swampy shores, the tall tufted palms nod
ding i'll the breeze, the sturdy live-oak,
covered with long trailing Spanish moss,
and the alligator basking in the mud,
gave an Oriental. or rather African aspect
to the scene. Now all is changed since
the war, a large stream of emigration has
poured in the river banks are thickly
strewn with settlements, and marks of
cultivation are seen. An increasing
crowd of Northern immigrants, energetic
and restless, are planting fruit-farms and
raising vegetables for the great cities of
the seaboard They settle on the banks
because the land is higher, and access to
market easy, the continually passing
steamers atlording ready transportation.
The shore is filling up, and land upon the
river already brings {. hundred dollars an
acre-much Of it hundred and fifty dol
lars. it is estimated that some four mil
lions of orange trees have been set out in
the last four years Nothing is more
EnaItifl11 !, +bo,
grove; and when these groves attain size
and are in full bearing, this river will
have beauty added to its present charms
Of novelty and variety.
| never spoke with any one in Florida
about buying lands who did not offer to
sell me the very land he lived on. This
looked as if something was wrong; and
when q man, yellow as Il pumpkin, and
shaking with ague, swore that his place
was perfectly healthy, and that the mos
qultoes lived on the other side, while he
was Yet exceedingly anxious to sell out
and 90 elsewhere, | felt "dubus" In
one such case | noticed that the river was
washing the sandy bank away very rapid
ly. | learned, on inquiry, that the cur
rent had changed its course in the last
three or four years-probably deranged
by the war-and was washing away the
farm offered for sale. The estate was
in fact, undergoing process of liquida-
ton.
In other respects, also, land-titles are
insecure in this part of the world There
were first the old Spanish grants previous
to 100; then the English grants; then
the new Spanish grants then the terrific
rial United States grants; and now mod
lap and interfere with each other. Be
| sides these. add the war claims, with
| property sold for unpaid taxes, covering
everything else, and you can imagine
| what Florids title to land must be. In
short, Florida estate implies lawsuit
| | came by sea to Pilatka, one hundred
and fifty miles above the mouth of the St.
Johns, and taking q small steamboat
ha. This means, in indian language,
The Boggy River; and it we'll deserves
the name, for 1t is merely a narrow wind
ing canal through cypress swamp.
No more singular journey can be i'm
boat, fitted up with steam-engine, nine
ty feet long by twenty wide, and drawing
only two feet of water. A wheel at the
| 1Cdl, Will d IuuueT Ou citCIl Slue VI IL,
propelled us four miles an hour.
We literally forced ourselves through
the trees. The smokestack was flush
with the deck; higher it would not have
been safe the overhanging limbs would
have swept it off. Indeed. the sides of
the boat were actually Scared by the
f1boughs of trees, and when on deck you
had to stoop and dodge to avoid being
swept off by them. l was awakened
early by the crashing sound they made on
the side of the boat, against which my
bed lay. When the day broke and step
ped out, found was in an entirely new
world. The river was gone, and we
were toiling through swamp of immense
cypress trees. Land there was none in
sight; only swamp on both sides as far as
the eye could penetrate among the trees
rising out of the water, and stretching
their tall trunks and branches some sew