The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1885-12-10

TALLAHASSEE, November 9Th, 188 S.

NY iStuiH last evening aItcI q weeks eXDe
dition to the southwark. put me in possession Q
asplendid budget of home letters and papers
Tor which please accept my thanks. There wa
also one from Kate. Her husband will com
East just before the holidays. They want tc
spend part of his furlough in Florida hav,
suggested this place, and the fact that Joe's
folks and our girls will be down in January
|
have suffered no sort of harm from my out
OF door life on the coast, but ON the contrary
have kept up my steady Improvement The
salt air and the sea food both agreed admirably
with me, and l would not hesitate to recon-
mend them as likely to prove most generally
beneficial to quasi-invalids like myself
count it, indeed, not least among the NUN.
berless attractions of Tallahassee as a resort for
both sick and well, that the Gulf of Mexico is
80 readily accessible therefrom, and whether the
object be merely the pursuit of the beautiful. d
sniff OF the soft, warm, saline air, or the acqui.
sition of most excellent sport with rod and gun.
it can all be obtained In a few hours, either by
steam or horse conveyance, and forms cheap
and delightful source of change and amusement
| whenever desired.
| Driving in light barouche, with pair of
excellent horses, our party was just four hours.
over good road, to an old town called New
port on the ST. Marks river, stopping on the
way to inspect one of the battefields Oi the late
war, where we saw the shell scars still visible
on the forest trees.
At Newport we boarded a very staupch little
| vessel-said To have been built by lis enierpris-
| ing owner among the hills of the Tallahassee
country, and transported to the sea by rail % IN
Eads-and steamed down the ST. Marks river
out into the gulf, westward along the coast
among the Islands for forty or fifty miles,
and then back again.
To me the Gulf of Mexico is the most inter-
esting bit of the great ocean area OF the globe.
Ii suggests d great marine heart, the vital GEN.
ire OF wonderful system of aqueous circula
hon in whose currents flow the calorc that Car
rles life TO the whole north temperate region of
the Atlantic
sort of vice regent of the great solar SOW
erelgn'y OF the sky, this profound Goddess
wleids governing power over the western
world Pregnant with the quickening heat of
her imperial Sun God, she becomes life-womb
oepths d.''~st'"" hs'nisr.harn In th- Gacnnd
light, for ages, have toled The myriad little
stone-masons, laying in their coraline pyramids
and Babel towers, the corneT-st0nes of conti-
nents upon which the ebb and flow of life
laden tides nave reared the lands where perpet-
ual summer reigns. From these palm grown
shores, still arise the mysterious mounds and
tence alone they mark. From the sky-capped
Sierras, and the far plateaux of the north, the
melted SHOWS OF two continents make mighty
rivers into her warm bosom, where tempered
with her genial power. they flow thence again
to meet and overwhem in mid-ocean, the drift
ing ice mountains OF the north. From the
bOundless south seas, famed by everlasting
Trades, this generous foster-mother of the
tropics with sher warm creative breath, drives
back the encIoaching glacier, lends the Sham
rock its green on Erins shore and paints the
olive brown on the cheek of Andausian maid.
The exceeding picturesqueness of the wild
fOrest-lined shores of the lower ST. Marks can
scarcely be described. 1t is by far the most
tropcally suggestive bit of nature l have ever
seen, and impressed me with what must have
been the emotions century or two ago, Of
those adventurous, but superslitous voyagers,
who first peered from their narrow decks into
the mysterious labyrinths Of those palm arched
forest jungles.
Ascending one of these beautiful Florida
rivers, its limpid waters teeming with
glistening fishes, the air filled with birds of
gaudy feather, and natures luxuriance every
where basking in perpetual sunshine, can well
conceive of imaginati0ns such as theirs, while
fed with such seductive surroundings, having
little difficulty in mbibing a belief in foun-
tain of perpetual youth Under such influences
where almost every sense is so persuasively ap-
pealed TO, their credulity seems less wonderful
than their daring in facing the mysterious dan
gers of an inland search in syIoa incognita.
The captain of our little steamer proved to be
our genial host for the night, in q very comfort
able and peculiarly southern-like home prem
se amid a very wilderness Of uukept flowers
and shrubbery.
Our supper was served somewhat a Ia 6ir0uac
there being no presiding priestess in our good
ships company, oil most excellent oysters OF our
own catching during the days excursion.
Iulo fo fhp raj mi oh.
ere perfectly fresh, and broiled TO turn. in
tend to taste every other one meet with under
| like circumstances in fact, am likely to go out
of my way to fall In with Spanish mackerel
again. He is a toOths0me fellow assure you.
Fish row was another delicacy met with for
the first time. You may draw your own con-
cluslons of their merits from the half barrel
shipped you to-day. Send Aunt Martha some
| OF them, they will serve to take the place of her
everlasting Goldfish on Fridays.
There are some very fine sulphur springs ut
Newport; they are said to possess determined
curative properties for those afflicted with rheu-
matism. As that's rather pet ailment of yours,
you can test their virtues when you come down
not having all the details OF my funeral ar
ranged, took care TO keep out of them after
trying their temperature with the first two joints
ofmy finger.
From Newport we drove mex. day westward,
crossing the railway, through q forest of cab
bage palm trees. over y bridge spanning the
Wakulla river, and thence north to the famous
spring at the source OF that stream. l shall not
attempt description Of this wonderfully beau
tiful fountain; it simply surpasses anything the
imagination can picture from the most vivid de-
scrption, and bears about the same relation to
all other springs ever dreamed Of, that Ming
ara does to canal lock or n beaver dam. The
girls will grow ecstatic over its beauty, know.
have mapped out an expedition for them when
they come, that will gather much of its a.trac-
tiveness from n canoeing exploration OF these
watery wilds carved the initials Of all theiI
dear names on the smooth bark Of q stately old
Magnolia near the basin, and from our lunch
basket buried bottle Of wine, established 4
cache In anticipation Of their coming.
Wakuila Spring 10 credited with being the
identical we'll of rejuyenating waters that brave
old De Leon fambled about In search Of Il h
sincerely 70 be hnped, for the sake Of his higl
flung Castilisn stomach, that II the gallant cav
alier did stumble on 1t ia his wandering, he haG
with him in the breaae pocket of his dustss,
| ticker of aqua djeHts 10 mix with his draught
| To my prosy and unimaginative senses, . thim
BILE tull of the vcsilahle criltef possesses NOR
rejuvenescencs than barrel of thebe hmpil
waterA