The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1873-07-19

Ouests did ample Justice to their meals,
Ealing 10 right and lefl in a most compile
n1enfsTv manner. In fact, although we
stSTtej on fhI6 expedition feeling rather
D5oSiv and with q very faint appetite, we
Socane upcriticai dev0urcrs oil whatever
20 set beiore u.s. meralY from living all
dsy in The fine open air that blew across
Tho boats deck. ssN
Our voyage Enthusiastically may be
thus narrated:
From the pier in Mandarin, as aiOrc.
mentioned, we stepped aboard, about
eleven o'clock in the forenoon Of Thurs
day. Our little, slow aIern-wheel boat
made the best OF her way upward, and
reached PAlatka Just about seven o'clock.
The boat lay there an hour or two, then
all took 10 our berths, opened our little
aides of windows for the river breeze 10
blow through, Snd;a resigned ourselves
peacefully TO sleep. Th'fhe middle Of the
night We were walked W the scraping Of
branches agGtnst our little boat, ind
looked drcamily out to see that We were
gliding through palmetto forests and
Wleftl grOttoes, LIT up with blazing pine
torches. Il seemed part Of 9 fantastic
dream as our weary eyes closed and the
boat rippled on ~ ~
Fhday morning WerwTe GRakeds by
the singing Of birds in the branches, 70
find ourselves still gliding through the
arches OF an unbroken forest. We sat on
a little platform in front Of the pllot.housc,
and glided along, seeing into the very
heart OF the tropical mysteries.
Sometimes the whole way seemed given
up to palmetto gTOves-risiDg In every
conceivable shape and Variety-growlng
with luxuriance and grace inuescriba'
BILE. The trunk OF the palm sometimes
seems a regular and exact pillar Of basket
work, built up twenty or thirty feet. In
the creVices Of the bssket.Work large
ferns and air plants take root, so that the
tree is often pillar Of various foliage
and flowers, 3. ~ z ri :.
Here aud there the palm leans aslant
over the water; they throw themselves
forward and meet In arches overhead;
they lie creeping in scaly folds on the
ground; they wave sixty or seventy feet
high in air. The Oldest palms have shed
the scAly basket-like enclosure, and are
round and smooth like columns, the latest
scales only remaining high up In air, and
the ferns and vines waving from them like
streamers. But by lar the greater part Of
the way, the palmetto was gracefully in
termixed with other trees. The cypress,
with its gllstening white trunk and shape.
ly pillars, rises 70 an immense height; its
snowy columns reflected far down In the
smooth CLASSY water. The palms some
times seemed embraced in the white arms
OF cypress, leaning their plumy heads
against its branches, their dusky hue con-
trastiug with the vivid yellow green Of
the cypress feathers. The other trees were
tho water ash, tho loblolly boy, the mag
nOlia glauca, certain varieties ofEed maple
and water oaks, and few Of the magnO-
liz CrandiNOra. Growth seemed TO have
run riot here, to have broken into strange
goblin forms, such as Dore might have
chosen for his weird imaginings. Here,
where iOraged nature has been lett alone,
where the fiery heats and the moist soil
have conspired together, there Is netting
and cGnvOluting, a twisting and weaving
and INTERVENING Of all sorts Of growths;
and one might fancy It an enchanted for
est, where the trees were going to change
into something new and unheard oil.
The alligator seems 10 belong most nat.
urally in these shades. The loDg.necked
water.turkey sits pcrched gravely on the
bOughs overhead, or dives IN the waters
below. The limkin, with It's long neck
and legs and It's wild plaintlVe cry, the
white crane and blue crane, the pink and
white CurleW these seem the fit Inhabitants
for whom these forest sOlitudes are made.
The dreamy, wildness, the perfect strange.
ness oil all this, It's utter unlIkeness TO any
thing one has ever seen, inclines one to
aimless reyerie. The stories Of Tick and
TOuruuet seem quite possible here.
The boat glides on from hour to hour,
rs the river winds and turns and doubles
upon itself, with still the same iioWery sol:
itudes rcverberating with the same wild
cries Of birds, glittGring with slantlng sun
beams, festOoned with waving garlands
that hang from tree TO tree.
At intervals the steam.whistle slartles
the birds and makes the forest echoes ring
tits sign that we arc coming TO land
ing s .5.,g- 80,
an elevated tract that hes back OF the riv-
or, and these lsndingssre breathing holes;
vistas opening from the interminsble for!
est mystery into human abodcs. Generally
ut one OF these landings a letter'box is
nailed up cOnspicuously on the Uunk Of
some cypress or other large tree, Where
letters and papers are leit Tor the hmlics
whose invisible homes lie beyond. "
Sometimes a group ot"tWo or thgec
smart hunters in high peaked hats, "
tired in homespun garments, with knives
in their boots, stood leaning on their guns
waiting the approach Of the boat They
seemed d grave, taCitarn, unsmiling race,
long. haired, bearded, and roughly at.
tired, with tho sallow complexion and
dark eyes that gave intinatiOns Of Minor.
can blood. They reminded Us Of the
shepherds of the Campsgna. Occasion