Year: 1877

wonderful spring of Wakulla;


4. The greatest attraction of Middle Flor
ida, and that which draws most tourists
to Tallahassee, is wonderful spring,


which forms at one outburst q river that


flows into the gulf. 1t is sixteen. miles


south of the capital, and is reached by an


abominably sandy road, lying through a
wilderness of scrub oak and pine most


wearisome to the eye. After descending


from the breezy bills about the city you


lose all glimpses of beauty until you ap-


proGch, through a narrow path, densely


fenced by thickets, the Wakulla spring.


A dusky boatman awaited me there, and


was soon reveling in the wonders of a


scene which do not think is less beauti-
full than the dreams of Aladdin. The


most poetical description could not do it


justice.


| The spring, or small "loch," as it


might properly be called, is about 500
| yards wide, and its banks are crowded


with expresses, bays, magnclias ana oaks
in splendid luxuriance of verpal attire
| If on the Wacissa river l had felt as if


l were suspended between two heavens,
the neither one being the more limpid, l


have perhaps robbed myself Of the super
| lative of expression which should only


have been employed here. The water is
perfectly colorless, but the reflection of


sky and foEest mingled with the rays of
the sun unite to produce the effect OF
greenish blue tinge more exquisite than
dyer ever conceived. The sand below


and the rocks, which are really white,


partake of the illusion. The brilliant


Crystalline transparency of the medium


on which foated caused thrill to pass


through me which was something very


like trepidation. 1 locked timidly over


the side of the boat, and it seemed like


peering through the diamond-paned roof
of a fairy place. But the fanciful delusion


gave way to the most absorbing Won
der at the reality. In the southern


portion of the spring great shelf can be
distinctly seen, over which the water as
it rises flows southward-a river. 1t looks
but couple of yards below the boat, but
is in fact more than ninety feet. The
rock abruptly breaks off here, and is the
verge of a veritable abyss, the bottom of
which has never been fathomed. It ex-
tends far under the ragged shelf, and out
of that black and mysterious vestibule of
other mermaid halls, still deeper in the
vast crypts Of the earth, slowly boils q
huge volume Of water. The eye fails to
pierce that dark and dismal profundity,
but ever and anon great fish will be seen
to rise into the lighter regions and wheel
about as if dazed by forced and rapid
voyage just completed through places
alien to the sun. The bubbles rise, rise,
rise like fountain of infnitessimal dia-
monds.


A little beyond the edge of the sub
merged cliff was Just able to see the bot
tom by the sparkle of the sand. The old
boatman told me that the depth there is
200 feet, and believed him, for fishes
which were far above the bottom seemed
still further from me. Patriarchal trout
such as seldom grace the cuisine, moved
majestically through their element some
times even preserving a kind of order like
line of battle, their black shadows cast
upon the bottom seeming SO many other
fnny monsters. More numerous than
they, even, were the mullet, whose scales
in the singular light which fell through
the watery lens looked like chips of opal. |
They seemed to be taking their constitu- |
tionsl exercise and enjoying the glory of |
the sun in the lambent depths of their
crystal palace. dare venture that they
would scorn General Pleasonton and his
blue glass in the greater blessing which |
Providence has given them. Where the |
river flows out of the spring I saw other
of the tribe repeatedly darting from the |
water III play at least four feet |
above the surface. The hues of I
the spring changed with the rip |
pies made by our paddles from sapphire
to emerald, from emerald to diamond and /
from diamond to opal.


While gazsd into the enchanted world /
the boatman related certain incidents
which had heard before in connection |
with the spring. One was theioss of two
dozen bottles Of the best French brandy
there fifteen years ago. What a splendid |
cellar for it to attain delicious maturity /
in! Many attempts have been made to
recover it, but in vain. No diver could |
reach the bottom. A party of young
''massas" had started at the spring to go
down the Wakulla river in boat; they
were quito tipsy and were capsized. Their
provisions and two guns are said still to
repose many fathoms deep. I tried in
vain to discover them, not, l confess,
without some curiosity as to the present
mel llowness of the brandy. was success
ful, however, in descrying two huge frag-
ments of the skeleton of a mastodon. the
principal portion Of which is now in the
possession of the Smithsonian Institution.
When the other bones were obtained it
was for some reason impracticable to get
these, and there they remain.


From floating over such lovely scene
landed with sigh and felt as if awaking
from dream.


Il