San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-09-21
A Graphic Picture Of the san
Marcos Springs. The 6ior'e"
ot aheiv sub. Aqueous Depths,

Bishop Doggett Of tho Methodist
church South, visited San Mar
COS in the Spring Of 1877, and wrote
Il letter to the Richmond Va. CHRIS
tan Advocate descriptive Of a boat
trip he made to the head Of the river,
from which VIC make the following ex-
tracts:
IL witnessedat the ford where We
crossed, u curious scene, reminding me
OF the habits OF the hippopotamus. A
number of cattle were feeding III tile
stream above US, wading nearly to their
backs, plungiug their heads entirely
under the water, and gathering the
grass which grows ut the bottom. l
was not aware that horned animals
ever INDUCED in this species OF grazing
After angling with moderate luck
in one OF the bayous, in which, on ac-
count of singular transparency, the hsll
and the fishermen were perfectly vlsl-
bic to each other, we assembled the rlv-
or in a skiff, to its fountain. head. 1t
has no preliminary or tributary streams,
1t bursts Immediately from the lime
stone ledge, at the bottom OF the ridge
ant boils up with immense volume,
like vast cauldron underneath the
surface, with violence which agltates
the mass of water, for a considerable
distance, and which threw the boat
from the ascending column. Its aver
age depth, for the distance specified is
fifteen or twenty feet. and its width
about fifty yards. Above the point Of
emergence, is neither chasm nor de-
preston. The earth is level, aud cul-
tivated up to the mountain out OF
which it bursts, laterally and perpendic'
ularly. Its temperature Is uniform
winter and summer, at about GO0 Fab
renheit 1t is as transparent as the
atmosphere, and one could apparently
read an ordinary newspaper at the bot
tom. Every object is perfectly dis
tinct, as in an aquarium
The marvel OF this wonderful river,
however, is not its abrupt origin or its
crystal elearness, but the wealth of sub.
aquatic vegetation. Its margin is not
onTy lined with overhangiug shrubs
and clustering heaps Of wild crosses
and its surface, in many places: float
ing with wavy tresses of long and silke1
grass, springing from its depths and
floating in the current off for twenty OF
or thirty feet but its entire bottom is
covered with an almost unbroken tbs.
sue of delicately tinted and beautifully
variegated vegetation blooming be-
meath the surface. under whose pic
turesaue foliage the 1.-the and agile
fishes perform their graceful motions
and whose crystal caves the imaglna-
tive Greek would have peopled with
laughing water-nymphs. | doubt II
any water seeneof the same extent,
abounds with more transcendent beau
~, 1t is a genuine. original green
house 1t is natures own conserva
tory where her rarest productions are
preserved in amaranthine freshness
rncased 10 framework of rustic gran
,eur, and seen through surfaces of per.
petual purity. Could the San Marcos
natural museum be reproduced in the
Eastern States and in u higher latitude
it would attract the attention Of the
fashionable world and arouse the en-
,husiasm of rival artists. One must
bs incurably obtuse to look into this
mirror of nature. and not be transport.
IA with its exquisite imagery.