IX. 



UP THE ST. JOHNS RIVER. 



FOUR winters ago the writer was one of a merry 

 dozen who, on pleasure bent, helped swell the 

 overwhelming stream of tourists who, fleeing from the 

 Northern cold, sought shelter in the Sunny South. 

 After various incidents of travel we found ourselves in the 

 crowded parlors of the St. James at Jacksonville, and 

 planned our trip. Two years have wrought great 

 changes since then, even in that sleepy land, and I am 

 pleased that this winter s flock of tourists will find better 

 hotel accommodations everywhere than fell to our lot on 

 that day. Even as it was Tocoi railroad and all 

 that trip is one to be remembered a life-time ; and all 

 who can make it should do so. 



We left Jacksonville on a bright warm morning, in 

 the Florence, a comfortable boat, with courteous and 

 obliging officers ; and comfortably seated on deck en 

 joyed the trip exceedingly from Jacksonville to Tocoi. 

 Every mile carried us farther from the frosty North. 

 The St. John is a magnificent stream. Originating 

 among the Everglades in the south of Florida, it flows 

 northward nearly three hundred miles, when it bends 

 sharply to the east, and empties into the ocean twenty- 

 three miles from Jacksonville, which is at the bend. 

 For over one hundred miles from its mouth it will aver- 



