Alabama, Georgia and Florida. 169 
* Behold, for instance, a vast circular expanse before you, the wa- 
ters of which are so extremely clear as to be absolutely diaphanous 
or transparent as the ether; the margin of the basin ornamented with 
a great variety of fruitful and floriferous trees, shrubs and plants, the 
pendant golden orange, dancing on the surface of the pellucid waters, 
the balmy air, vibrating with the melody of the merry birds, tenants 
of the encircling aromatic grove. 
“At the same instant innumerable bands of fish are seen, some 
clothed in the most brilliant colors; the voracious crocodile stretched 
along at full length, as the great trunk of a tree in size; the devour- 
‘ing garfish, inimical trout, and all the varieties of gilded painted 
bream; the barbed catfish, dreaded sting-ray, skate, and flounder, 
‘spotted bass, sheeps head and ominous drum; all in their separate 
bands and communities, with free and unsuspicious intercouse per- 
forming their evolutions ; there are no signs of enmity, no attempt to 
devour each other; the different bands seem peaceably and complai- 
santly to move a little —_— as it were to coop room for others to 
pase.py- 
** But behold yet Be far more admirable, see whole armies 
descending into an abyss, into the mouth of the bubbling fountain: 
they disappear! are they gone forever? is it real? I raise my eyes 
with terror and astonishment; I look down again to the fountain with 
anxiety, when behold them as it were emerging from the blue ether of 
another world, apparently at a vast distance; at their first appearance, 
no bigger than flies or minnows ;' now gradually enlarging: their bril- 
liant colors begin to paint the fluid. 
“‘Now they come forward rapidly, and instantly emerge, with the 
elastic expanding column of crystalline waters, into the circular basin 
or funnel: see now how gently they rise, some upright, others ob- 
liquely, or seem to lie as it were on their sides, suffering themselves to 
_ be gently lified or borne up by the expanding fluid towards the sur- 
ce, sailing or floating like butterflies in the cerulean ether; then 
again they as gently descend, diverge and move off; when they rally, 
form again, and rejoin their kindred tribes. 
“This amazing and delightful scene, though real, appears at first 
but as a piece of excellent painting; there seems no medium; you 
imagine the picture to be within a few inches of your eyes, and that 
you may without the least difficulty touch any one of the fish, or put 
your finger upon the crocodile’s eye, when it really is twenty or thirty 
feet under water. 
* And although this paradise of fish may seem to exhibit a just’ rep- 
resentation of the peaceable and happy state of nature which existed 
before the fall, yet in reality it is a mere pepretenta torn for the na- 
Vou. XXV.—No. 1. 22 
