6 5 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The best places on the river are Magnolia and Green Cove Spring, 

 twenty-eight and thirty miles south of Jacksonville, and Palatka, 

 seventy-five miles from there, each of which possesses superior hotel 

 accommodations, and is subject but little, if at all, to malaria during 

 the winter season. 



Gainesville, some forty miles west of Palatka on the line of the 

 Transit Railway, is one of the best locations in the State. It is situ- 

 ated on comparatively high land for Florida, is surrounded by pine- 

 woods, and free from malaria but, other than as a health resort, has 

 no attractions. 



Jacksonville, the center of trade activity, eighteen miles from the 

 mouth of the St. John's, is a city of considerable enterprise. The com- 

 forts and conveniences of a Northern city can be obtained there in 

 greater degree than anywhere else in the State. It has, however, 

 in addition, some of the injurious influences which pertain to large 

 cities. There is more danger of typho-malarial diseases and intestinal 

 troubles. 



St. Augustine twenty-five miles south of the mouth of the St. 

 John's, on the coast that old Spanish town which rests so tranquilly 

 by the sea, looking out over the broad waves of the Atlantic, which 

 roll across from the mother-land, is a most interesting place to the 

 voyager. Its quaint houses, built in the Spanish fashion, from the 

 coquina or imperfectly-formed limestone which is quarried on the 

 beach ; its narrow and winding streets, which one may almost cross 

 with a single stride ; its old fort, dating from 169G, when Spanish power 

 still ruled a large portion of the world, and Florida was one of the 

 least of its possessions these, and the many legends which linger 

 around the only moss-covered ruins in America, are the attractions of 

 the place. Long before Jacksonville or any settlement on the St. 

 John's River existed, St. Augustine was noted for its salubrious cli- 

 mate. It is now known, however, that its exposed position on the 

 coast, subjecting it to the whims of every wild northeaster, make it 

 unfitted for very sensitive invalids, though still a favorite resort for 

 several wealthy New York gentlemen of yachting proclivities, who 

 have villas there and also for those of youthful fervor who cling 

 to romance and sentiment. 



-<*>*~ 



A SOUTH AFRICAN ARCADIA* 



By C. G. BUTTNEE. 



THE traveler, coming fresh from Europe into Damaraland, is struck 

 by the complete communistic freedom with which every man ap- 

 propriates the land and its natural products. Roads have been worn 



* Translated for "The Popular Science Monthly " from " Das Ausland." 



