YACHTING ON THE ST. JOHNS. 171 



the blackbirds that hovered about with incessant sharp 

 cries. A shot or two reduced these pests to comparative 

 silence, when a blue heron sailed up, poised for a mo 

 ment on a bare limb, and then fell lifeless into the pool 

 below. Hoping for other shots, we did not gather it in, 

 but it was not long before an alligator slowly swam to 

 ward the dead bird, and would probably have carried it 

 away but for the arrival of a Mead explosive ball in his 

 head. He churned the water for a moment like a pro 

 peller wheel, and then sought the bottom to die among 

 the weeds ; and again all was quiet. But we waited in 

 vain ; herons sailed about over the marshes, but none 

 came near, until, weary and sunburned, we poled back 

 to the yacht, glad to get claret and ice. 



Our plan was to go above Lake Monroe, but the 

 water was too low on the bar, and our boat could not get 

 over. We visited Mellonville, where shad were being 

 taken in enormous quantities ; and then anchored abreast 

 the site of the old Enterprise Hotel, and landed, to visit 

 once more, after several years absence, the Blue Spring, 

 than which none can be more beautiful. It has been 

 often described, but it is not easy to convey an idea of 

 the deep opaque tint of the water, nor of the picturesque 

 effect of the round pool, and its overhanging shade of 

 live-oak, palmettoes, and vines. It is about eighty feet in 

 diameter, and very deep. There is no motion to the 

 blue water, but a large stream flows away from it, show 

 ing the volume of the spring. The water leaves traces 

 of white sulphur along the brook, which falls some twenty 

 or thirty feet to the lake, affording a perfect place for 

 running water and shower baths. A small tent over the 

 stream was the only bathing convenience, but in time 

 this will undoubtedly be developed into one of the most 



