298 NATURAL HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA, 



grandiflora, Styraciflua liquidambar, hickory, and the various 

 Lauri. The swamps contain a great variety of Andromedce, 

 with Erythrina, Wisteria speciosa^ &c. : the trees are chiefly 

 deciduous cypresses. The river varies in width from one to 

 four, and, in one instance, nearly six miles. Some of the 

 bluffs present the finest situations for houses I ever saw. 

 Think of a little village in a dense grove of live oaks, festooned 

 with TiUandsia, with a garden filled with orange, lemon, and 

 citron trees, and enclosed in an impervious fence of Magnolia', 

 palmettoes, yuccas, &c. ; the river in front being as clear and 

 smooth as glass. 



Mandarin is a small village, consisting of about eight bouses, 

 situated on one side of a long point, projecting nearly half way 

 across the river. There are some fine orange-gardens growing 

 up, but in February 1835 all these were destroyed by frost; 

 now the old stumps have sent up suckers, two, three, and four 

 from a root ; these are already so large that I can span but few 

 of them at four feet from the ground ; they are about fourteen 

 feet high, and bearing fruit, yet they did not shoot at all for 

 six months after the frost. This will give you some idea of 

 the climate; yet the soil seems little else than pure sand. 



From Mandarin we went to a place, about twelve miles up 

 the river, belonging to Dr. W. ; but it was dark, and having 

 performed the object of our voyage, we commenced our return. 

 At Mandarin the wind entirely left us, so we lay there all 

 night. Five of us were stowed away in a little cabin six feet 

 long, ditto wide, and five feet high. Next morning I went on 

 shore after a pair of bald eagles, but could not get them : their 

 flight is very singular, when they turn not at all graceful, at 

 other times particularly so. They already have a nest further 

 up the river. A day or two back I saw an osprey drop like a 

 stone into the water, and drag out a fish ; I followed him to 

 where he alighted, but the palmettoes rustled so with my 

 pushing through them that he was frightened and flew off". 



January 8, 1838. — I have just returned from St. Augustine. 

 I was rowed up the river as far as Picolata, a military post and 

 hospital ; being unable to procure a conveyance further, I slung 

 a few things, as a shirt, &c. at my back, a shot-belt under one 

 arm, a powder-flask under the other, and a gun in my hand, and 

 started for St. Augustine, a distance of about eighteen n)iles, 

 on foot. I sauntered along through the pine-barrens, looking 



