526 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 9( 



said to be winged, have a gluten surrounding 

 them, which enables them to attach themselves 

 where they alight and at once to draw forth nou- 

 rishment as if fixed to a parent stem. The nullius 

 jilius of the forest, it is adopted by the first tree 

 to which it flies ibr protection and sustenance.* 



Sulphur springs are very abundant on the upper 

 parts of the St. John's, They bubble up like 

 jets (Teau. In passing up to Lake Monroe, there 

 is one a few miles below, which attracted, among 

 others, the notice of Bartram. An inlet on the 

 right bank is seen, nearly of the width of the 

 river, which at once attracts the eye, by the con- 

 trast between the color of its waters and that of 

 the river. Two pieces of lumber, placed at right 

 angles with each other, one of mahogany and the 

 other of yellow pine, could not be more dissimilar. 

 And the liquid line of separation is almost as dis- 

 tinct as it would be in the supposed case. The 

 St. John's has here, as elsewhere, its cofTee-Iike 

 hue, while the waters of the sulphureous inlet are 

 as transparent as the air, the fishes swimming in 

 them being nearly as discernible as the birds fly- 

 ing over their surface. The alligators, diving, as 

 usual, at the approach of a boat, when they hap- 

 pen to take refuge in this limpid inlet, continue to 

 struggle downwards in apprehension, as if they 

 felt that it did not afl^ord the usual refuge. 



Ascending this inlet several hundred yards, it is 

 found to terminate in a well head or basin, of some 

 thirty (tjet diameter, with hish banks, in the cen- 

 tre of which there is a permanent turmoil of the 

 waters, as if a fountain below threw up its con- 

 tents with much force. Rowing the boat upon 

 this agitated spot, ii was with diflicully kept there 

 in its position, against the efforts of the ebullition 

 to throw it off. A strong odor of sulphur fills the 

 air around, and the taste of the waters is equally 

 sulphureous. 



Above Lake Monroe, wide-spread savannas 

 become prevalent. They form the main body of 

 the section of country through which the St. 

 John's flows, and are so slightly inclined, that its 

 course is extremely tortuous, the bends having 

 more the shape of a horse shoe, than of a seg- 

 ment of a circle. The immediate banks in these 

 savannas are somewhat elevated above the level 

 of the waters, as the growth of a wild cane indi- 

 cates, but the greater portion of them bear a tall, 

 rank grass, which shows that it is often inundated, 

 and that the soil is constantly saturated with raois- 



* This is a mistake. The seeds of tfie mistletoe are 

 not winged, or capable of being conveyed to other trees 

 by the winds. But their diffusion and propagation are 

 as well secured by another curious and admirable pro- 

 vision of nature. The seeds are enclosed in berries, 

 filled principally with a glutinous pulp, and which 

 form food for certain birds. In eating the mistletoe 

 berries, the glutinous matter and the seeds contained, 

 which adhere to the outside of the bird's beak, are 

 wiped off, on any branch on which it afterwards perch- 

 es. By this operation, the seeds are stuck to any 

 other, and often to distant trees, where they sprout 

 and take root ; and the manner of the deposite is the 

 cause why the mistletoe more often than otherwise is 

 rooted in the lower side of the limb, as a bird most 

 conveniently wipes its beak on the lower side of the 

 branch on which it stands. — Ed. Far. Reg. 



ture. Lakes George, Monroe, Jesup, Harvey 

 and Poinsett, are fine sheets of clear water, of no 

 great depths, but generally free from aquatic ve- 

 getation. They all abound in fish and wild fowl. 



Fort Taylor, (a mere stockade like all the other 

 forts in Florida of recent origin,) which was built 

 a few miles above Lake Poinsett, three hundred 

 and fifty miles or more from the mouth of the St. 

 John's, is the highest point to which the array 

 boats ascended. Above that post, the river nar- 

 rowed and shoaled, so as to become useless for all 

 purposes of transportation. The army there took 

 its course southwardly, reaching the head waters 

 of the St. John's, some seventy or eighty miles 

 S. S. E. The source of this river has been in 

 question up to this time, having been supposed to 

 be connected either with the everglades or the sea. 

 Both of these suppositions are now at an end. 

 The strip of land between the coast and the St. 

 John's, as far south as Cape Florida, has been 

 sufficiently explored, to determine the fact, that it 

 has no channel connexion with the sea in that 

 quarter ; and it has been equally ascertained, by 

 various army movements, that it is also without a 

 like connexion with the everglades or the lakes, 

 to the west and south-west. In rainy seasons, 

 when the water overspreads nearly the whole 

 country, the St. John's may be connected in a dif- 

 fused way with both sides. Fall and spring rains, 

 when they come, elevate the river sometimes 

 many feet, as would appear by marks on the 

 banks. The last two or three seasons, the differ- 

 ence has been from two to three feet. The low 

 stages are, at midsummer and midwinter and 

 when the periodical rains happen to fall, or are 

 only moderate, the subsidence must be very great. 

 It has been remarked by the Indians, that all the 

 waters occasionally drain out. This may be an 

 exaggeration ; but such a result, nearly to the ex- 

 tent expressed by it, might easily be supposed to 

 follow a year of drought, the St. John's being evi- 

 dently dependent for its supply on the tides below 

 and the rains above. 



The interior of Florida, south of Lake Monroe, 

 was scarcely known, until the present war. It 

 was assigned by conjecture and common report, 

 to the " everglades," an indefinite and compre- 

 hensive term, which means neither land nor water, 

 but a mixture of both. These supposed ever- 

 glades, have been much circumscribed by late ex- 

 aiTiinations. They have lost, at least, one or two 

 degrees of latitude. Okachobee Lake, a body of 

 water of some forty miles in diameter, and of a 

 decided lake character, and the lands east and 

 west of it, can no longer be thus classed. The 

 lake south of this, reported to be still larger than 

 Okachobee, called by the Indians, Pai-hai-okee, 

 or grassy lake, may prove, on examination, the 

 true everglades. But it is now about as probable, 

 that even this, their last hold, will be found to 

 partake of the general character of that part of 

 the peninsula, and that land and water will then 

 have its usual divisions, so far as a sandy country 

 of unusual flatness permits. The name which 

 the Indians have given the lake, shows that it 

 must be generally so shallow as to allow grass to 

 predominate ; rendering it probable, that it has a 

 less decided lake character than the lakes above. 



It was until lately taken for granted, that the 

 interior of Florida was without any eminent parts, 

 , but the army movements have opened to obser- 



