The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-05-14
FLORIDA sINK-HoLEs.


The Queer Way Streams Have of Dis
 apearing Into These Pits.
 The sinks in Florida are numerous,
 and one of the states most attractive
 features to strangers visiting this part
 of the country. Around Alachua Lake,
 three miles south of Gainesville, there
 are hundreds of sink-holes of various
 sizes and depth. It is apparent from the
 existence of so many sinks that the
 whole country is honey-combed with
 subterranean passages. Portions of the
 land in that region have been sinking
 for ages Many of the sinks have trees
 growing in them, the dimensions of
 which indicate that they must be cen
 turies old. There is no telling at what
 moment the earth may give way and a new sink be formed.
 Only few years ago, the ground un- der the track of the Florida Southern
 Railroad, near Aachua lake, gave
 way, and in the darkness of night train ran into a hole seventy of eighty feet deep. The train was completely wrecked, but fortunately all aboard
 escaped death.
 There are sinks in various parts of Alachua county, but they are more nu- merous in the viciniry of what the h. dians called Big Jug" or Alachua meaning the deep sink-hole through which the water in the lake at differ ent periods has run out, leaving an immense savanna, or many thousands of acres of prairie land Many years
 ago several acres of ground on the pub- lie road leading from the city to New
 mansville sank and formed lake, in which the tops of tall trees could be seen beneath the surface of the water This spot is known as the Blue Sink. Seven miles northwest of Gainesville is mammoth sink known as the Dev- ils Mill Hopper. It is a. great natural curiosity, and is a popular resort for
 picnic parties as well as for pleasure seekers, who, during the winter season. visit this part of Florida. One mile
 west of Gainesville is the Green Sink, containing considerable volume of water in which it has been the custom for many years of colored people to
 bathe, and many unfimely deaths have occurred in this sink by drowning. A notable sink is that in which Hogtown Creek empties, about five miles south west of the city. Hogtown Creek is quite
 a stream, which runs into this sink hole and gradually disappears through a subterranean outlet. At this point | quite a lake is formed. which is we'll filled with all species of fish known to inland Florida waters,
 The natural wells, which are numer- ous in the western part of Alachua county, are but sink holes reaching to | large underground passages, through which hundreds of thousands of acres of land are drained
 The natural bridge over the Santa Fe River, in the northeastern part of Alachua county, is one of Florida's
 unique and most interesting scenes, presenting the spectacle of large stream sinking from view for dis tance of several miles. All the streams
 in the San Felaska hammock, a large
 body of land few miles west of Gainesville, disappear into under
 ground passages. Most of the sinks are dry, but hundreds of them are well filled with water flowing from springs.
 The depth of the sink-holes varies all the way from twenty-five feet down to
 where no bottom can be found. The water in a sink-hole three miles west of Winter Park was measured a short time since and it was found to be $50 feet deep. The hole is 125 to 150
 yards from side to side and about 40 feet in depth to the surface of the wa
 ter at the bottom. From the top of the
 bank the water has the deep-blue tint
 Of the ocean. The banks are so steep
 as to render descent and ascent some
 what difticult.-From the Gainesville
 Sun.