XIX. 

 STEAM- YACHTING ON THE ST. JOHNS. 



THERE is a combination of pleasure in boat life that 

 is unrivalled, and it is a matter of regret that, with 

 our magnificent inland waters, some among them attrac 

 tive at every season, so little effort has been made to 

 render more simple and economical the methods for 

 enjoying them. Our steamboats are perfection, and he 

 who will go by time card, and with half the population 

 of a city as companions, may be wafted along like a 

 prince, and find at hand every luxury of life ; but if he 

 will go or tarry at will, hasten or linger as tempted at 

 the moment, there is less chance to do it, with any pres 

 ent arrangements, than on the Nile or Amazon. 



Fleeing a year ago from the cold, your correspondent 

 found himself steaming rapidly away from one of the 

 long wharves of the lower St. Johns, on a small, impet 

 uous little yacht, one of the busy, bustling kind, imbued 

 with the restless spirit that small things usually possess 

 and exhibit, to show that, after all, size is not everything. 



It was a day for idling, and the rapid puff was not in 

 harmony ; so, leaning over the small bow deck, that just 

 held a bell and two easy chairs, the order was given to 

 old Paul, the well-known pilot, to slow up, and Paul 

 conveyed the same to the engineer, when the sharp rip 

 ple at the bow lost its rustle, the engine breathed more 



