A DAY ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN'S 

 RIVER. 



" Rivers are the constant lure, when they flow by our doors, to distant 

 enterprise and adventure. * * * * They are the natural highways of 

 all nations, not only leveling the ground and removing obstacles from 

 the path of the traveler, quenching his thirst and bearing him on Iheir 

 bosoms, but conducting him through the most interesting scenery, * * ''' 

 and where the animal and vegetable kingdoms attain their greatest per- 

 fection ." Thoreau. 



' The St. John's stands unique among the rivers of 

 America in that its headwaters are on a level but 

 about six feet above that of the Atlantic whose coast 

 it parallels. Again, its general course is northerly, 

 so that in ascending the river one is traveling south- 

 ward. It drains the eastern portion of the northern 

 half of Florida, traversing a low, sandy region, but 

 following a very winding course so that its extreme 

 length is about 300 miles. In its upper third, or from 

 its mouth to Palatka, where I boarded the steamer for 

 my trip along its upper course, the appearance of the 

 river is that of a wide inlet from the sea. It is here 

 a tide-water stream, in places two or three miles in 

 width, and with straight stretches of sufficient length 

 to give a water horizon. Above Palatka it gradually 

 narrows, until at the outlet of Lake Monroe its 

 breadth is reduced to one hundred and fiftv feet. 



(196) 



