SAV's LETTER. 37 



end i we were to be forwarded from this point by railroad. What } — A 

 railroad too in the mountain ? Nothing more sure. There stood the 

 car before us, viz. a sort of long wooden horse that we had to mount, 

 one behind the other in true equestrian style, and there stood a couple 

 of sturdy fellows, one at the head and another at the tail, prepared for 

 locomotion. The wheels ran in grooved logs, and as there was a grad- 

 ual descent, we did not need much motive power. The men trotted 

 along briskly down the narrow, damp and dripping shaft, but it seemed 

 interminable. The lights had, all but one, been extinguished by the 

 watei that dropped from the ceiling of the shaft ; we were completely 

 chilled by sitting so still in that cold moist atmosphere, and the monot- 

 onous trip-trap of the porters was becoming intolerably irksome when, 

 all of a sudden, we found ourselves in the open air and the moon shi- 

 ning sweetly down upon us. We had been just two hours and a half 

 in the mountain. 



A LETTER OF THE DISTINGUISHED NATURALIST, THOMAS SAY, 

 TO REV. J. F. MELSHEIMER. 



Dear Sir — After a considerable interval occasioned by absence from 

 this country, I once more have the pleasure to address my friend, in 

 my last letter I informed you that I was about setting off upon a jour- 

 ney into Florida, in pursuit of objects of Natural History. This has 

 been accomplished. I accompanied the president of our Academy, Mr. 

 Wm. Maclure, (a gentleman well known in Europe and America for 

 science and beneficence,) in his carriage, by easy journies as far as 

 Charleston ; we there took the steamboat to Savannah, and sent on the 

 carriage by land. At Savannah we met our companions Messrs. Ord 

 and Peale, who had arrived a day or two before us from Philadelphia by 

 sea. Here the carriage and horses were sold, and we chartered a sloop 

 of about thirty tons burden, and after laying in our stores and necessa- 

 ries we commenced our voyage toward the promised land. We stopped 

 at each of the Sea Islands in order to examine their productions and the 

 sea coast for Crustacea, MoUusca, ijcc, took in another supply of provi- 

 sions, kc. at St. Mary's, and then continued our voyage to the St. Juan. 

 This noble river we ascended as far as Picolata, an old Spanish fortress 

 now in ruins, about 100 miles from its mouth, stopping occasionally at 

 such places as presented an inviting aspect, and making short excursions 

 into the country on each side of the river. From Picolata we crossed 

 the country on foot to St. Augustine in order to present our passports to 

 the Governor of the Province, and lo obtain from him such information 



