The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1876-03-30
Pgrxtz HovzE, Pal44ks, ia.
March 2 1870

fsfAAA HotaEr IALAFkk, T Ia
hAfch 2, 1870
DEAn Mac I'll have jus. returned
from my fourth trip 70 The Silver
spring. by tie wobdrous weird. and
wInding 0eklawshA, l ara laughed al
~ many Tor my enthusiasm over The
scene i presents. bot It's sirahgeness
aud awe inspiring grandeur increases
With familiarity. Let me try to convey
some idea of il TO yeur mind About
twenty-five miles from this place we
enter the stfeam from the ST. Johns
River Our steamer is about sixteen
feet wide and perhaps lfty fe ct long
II draws. when loaded, two feet Of
water, and is propelled by a wheel at
the stern, which gives ihem the name
of wheelbarrow boats. On one OF
these boats iiiteen OF twenty persons,
besides the officers and crew, are &C,
oommodated night aud day with com.
fort, For nearly two hundred miles
their little craft winds and twists its
say through narrow aud exceedingly
crooked stream. Cypress and other
trees crowd each other close 10 the
edge Of the water. Palmettos are in.
.srspersed with them, and sometimes
predominant. They are Of uniform
size, straight, smooth and round as a
turned column; sometimes nearly one
hundred feet high. Their only leaves
or branches. the huge green mass at
the top. The cypress trees are enor.
nous and tall, as well rs namhelless
The stream is so narrow that ., e
branches Of trees on either side otter
reach across and become into. laced
with each other. Sometimes this i.
the case for considerable distance
Vines Of various kinds, nc urished by
lh.e water, have clamber,d high intc
these trees, and frequently constituted
an unbroken wall, through which tn,
vision has no power 10 penetrate
while the gray spanish moss complete
ly swathes the upper portions Of tb'
trees, and hangs from every limb il
strange iestoons, and long and waving
. streamers. Crocodiles abound in tn
river We saw twenty-eight in on
: afternoon, some Of them twelve 0
fourteen feet long. Imagine our littl
boat, pushed for twenty successive
o hours through tortuous archway. A
u night the whole scene is brilliantl
Illuminated by blazing pitchpin
J. torches, which are burned in larg
s. numbers on the roof Of the pilot house
Q The effect is indescribable. 1t seem
Z as II you were winding through som
" enormous cavern, or some vast an
J wondrous gothic hall. Eight night
% have sat, hour after hour, in the pile
d house and felt the irresistible fascinI
10 ton OF each turn of our serpentin
~ course. Last Friday young cir
= not yet in her teens, gazing in silenc
y for some time after the illuminate
u began, turned TO her mother and said
u al am not afraid, though it is so awiu
m 1t makes my blood curdle and all N
nerves crawl, just like some wild ar
e. awful poetry that have read" The
o. is no change in the scene from the S
sn Johns to the Silver Run. This at Il
n present time furnishes the Ocklawal
40 with four -6fLhs of its water. Can an
~ one present q satisfactory solutIon
y the phenomenon that it furnishes
ak Here is a stream with well de6n'
q banks, with no tributaries, about Of
ut hundred feet wide, from ten to for
&c feet deep flowing at the rate Of thr'
Id or four miles TO the hour. The wat
Il 10 20 wonderfully clear and transpare
p, that you seem to be floating in the a
W Every fish and object. at all depths,
ng az plainly seen as it would be at th
re distance through the atmosphere.
'ot source is the spring, which does n
lat cover an area Of an acre. Its volume
ter not in any way affected by the nc
10 prosracted drought or the most extt
Sd, siye foods. Where does it come fro
or and what keeps it at uniform tempt
his ature Of 75'. From the spring dro
'sh TO 0cala, the capital OF Marion Count
rit The road runs through the same ki
ito OF a pine forest that covers the lar
ey from the Potomac, and especially
ost james River 70 the gulf For six mi
a nothing is seen but the same mono
ed nous trees and the same white yield
eel road. The surface Of the country
The and near ocala Ia nndulating. and CT
ON siderable good soil is found. Here
zee lie called high hammock Hammc
Of means hardwood, and where I
grows 90 dry land the soil is 60
@ Most Of the hammocks or bard VIC
land Of The State is 10 swamps. Nj