312 



FARIMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5 



o;ry state of elmllilion, and hut for the discoloriiifr 

 of the water, changing from the deep green ol' the 

 eea to the maddy rnixlare of tlie interior riverp, it 

 would have heen dilHcuh.to have ascrihed the agita- 

 ted state of the ocean to ar.y other cau.se than ihe 

 rocky projectiong and ,«hoals so visihie in that lati- 

 tude. The origin of these springs has been a sub- 

 ject of some speculations to the wriler of this ar- 

 ticle: The cause seems simple; explaining at 

 once their existence, as well as their occasional 

 intermission: The eastern section, indeed, the in- 

 terior of easlern Florida, generally, wiih the ex- 

 ception of soine spurs, or projecting high lands on 

 the western boundary, as low down as the bay of 

 Tampa, is exceedingly depressed. Its surlace is 

 elevated but a very few ieet, if any, above the 

 higest water of the tides. Indeed, in speculating, 

 in my wanderings, on the origin of that jiortion of' 

 the territory, I have thought that (he whole region 

 ■was at one time a bank, similar to the Bathama, 

 submerged in tiie deep, spotted with sand, coral, 

 and madrepore keys, and which have either been 

 elevated by the sands thrown on its surlace from 

 the innumerai)le currents and counter-currents 

 coming in conHict in that quarter, or ii'om the ocean 

 itself receding. Once dry, and acquirin<r a growth 

 of marsh, grass, weeds, and brush wood, in succes- 

 sion, its elevation in the interior has been annually 

 increased ; while the winds prevailing lor many 

 months from the same quarter on the sea shore, 

 sea sand ridges, and of smgular regular formation, 

 (more like the parapets of a fort, shaped with the 

 eye of an engineer,) have been formed, present- 

 ing barriers to the encroachments of the ocean. 

 It is easy to conceive that a country thus formed, 

 hollow in the interior, like a basin, and the recep- 

 tacle, at certain seasons of the 3'ear, of the waters of 

 nearly three months' incessant rain, must find some 

 vent for these inundations. The first is by the 

 hollow*, or more depressed spots in the countr}', 

 which are the lakes, for which Florida is remark- 

 able, the beds of which, being lower than the lev- 

 ie of the sea, always retain their waters at that 

 level, parting with the surplus only, which rises 

 above. 



The second is by the rivers formed by these ac- 

 cumulated floods, and which, in contributing their 

 supply, force their way through the sand hills to 

 the great reservoir— the ocean. It is a subject (or 

 interesting, if not instructive speculation, to wit- 

 ness the war waged between the waters of these 

 rivers, and the winds and the leaves, and the sands 

 of the sea, struggling to obstruct them. In the 

 seasons of the nngjity flood, the rivers become 

 stronger, and force and deepen their way into the 

 ocean, the flood subsiding: the unwearied surf 

 which beats wiih tlie eastern breeze on that coast ; 

 the winds blowing lor nearly six months, and al- 

 most uniformly liom the same quarter, and the 

 moveable sand heaps under their control, again 

 conspire, and close up the channel ways, which 

 the rivers, now too week to resist, are compelled to 

 eubmit to. In some instances the ocean coalition 

 have completely triumphed. Jupiter inlet, though 

 at one time admitting of a depth of 7 or 8 feet wa- 

 ter, has been entirely closed, and the accumulated 

 waters of that river have been forced to form a 

 junction with the Indian, creating, in all its charac- 

 teristics, another St. John's ; draining the southern 

 everglades, and coursing parallel with the ocean 

 for many nules, before it mingles, in a higher 



northern latitude, its waters with it. Further 

 south, the bar of the liio Seen (wliicli means Dry 

 Jiiver) has likewise been closed, and lorced to dis- 

 charge into a chain of lakes, which, if not ah'eudy 

 united, will one day find an outlet by New river, 

 which, running south, mouths al)out twenty miles 

 north of the Cape. The contest waging in this 

 quarter, between the sea and the river, is des- 

 tined, atno distantday, to fierce that river to seek a 

 -f:)rofection under the lee of Key Biscayne. Its 

 present mouth is now six miles south of what it 

 was ten years ago, when visited by the under- 

 signed. In a country so peculiar, and based, as it 

 is, in many parts on calcareous mid po/ous rocks, 

 and madrepore (brniations, in addition to its surface 

 drainings, it must often use subterraneous canals 

 for discharging its suddenly accumulated waters. 

 Florida is not only renvirkable lor these subterra- 

 nean streams, but, in many instances, her visible 

 rivers disappear, and preftM' a conceafed channel 

 for the venting of" their waters. Tliese phenome- 

 na would seem to explain, and in a very simple 

 manner, those marine s|)rings seen on ihe coast of 

 Florida. As the floods descend, and the waters 

 in the basin become more elevated than those oti 

 the ocean, they begin to discharge by all the out- 

 lets aflbrded by nature. Where surface rivers 

 fail, the subterraneous passages are suiistituled and 

 if we were to examine we woukl probably find that 

 at all the points in the sea where these springs 

 have been discovered, the basis of the country ad- 

 jacent was either rock or madrepore Ibrmalion. 

 I know this to be the fact in relation to the spring off 

 Jupiterinlet — and that described byCaptain Sisson 

 is abreast of St. Anastasia island, the whole base 

 of which is of that shelly formation of which the 

 fort and principal buildings of St. Augustine are 

 constructed. Whether the waters, in passing 

 through the subterranean caverns of rocks, imbibe 

 mineral properties, or whether the mineral springs 

 themselves, of which Florida abounds, of suffi- 

 cient elevation at their sourse, thus find a subterra- 

 neous connexion with, and pour their overflowings 

 into the sea, are facts, if beyond our ken, very sim- 

 ply explained by most plausible conjectures. That 

 these springs exist- — that they appear and disap- 

 pear, with the rise and the liill of the springs and 

 floods of the interior, are facts notorious to many. 

 Whether the solution of the origin and intermis- 

 sion are satisliicfory, is lor those to speculate 

 on who are fond of looking into and tracing the 

 causes of tlie supposed phenomena in the natural 

 world. 



Respectfully, yours, 



James Gadsden. 



From tde Cultivator. 



The grain worm. 



We are sorry to learn, has committed great rav' 

 ages upon the wheat crop, and extended itsell| as 

 we predicted, into Dutchess county, on the south, as 

 fiir as Fishkill; and there are reasons to believe, 

 that it may be found west, nearly or quite to the 

 Genesee valley. In a circle of 20 miles around 

 this city, it is estimated, that the product of the 

 wheat crop will be di:niiiished two-thirds by them; 

 and we are told that in some cases the wheat fields 

 have been opened to the farm slock, not being 

 considered worth preserving. The worm is also 



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