Alabama, Georgia and Florida. 165 



These specimens are the more interesting as they seem to approx- 

 imate the formation from whenec they come, to the celebrated Maes- 

 tricht beds of the Alps ; while they at the same time evince its relation 

 to the cretaceous group now known, through the labors of Dr. Mor- 

 ton and others as one of our most extensive geological deposits. 



The same collection contained pieces of Hyalite, or silicious sinter, 

 whose appearance led me to conjecture that they were of compara- 

 tively recent origin, and even to imagine that the process of silicifica- 

 tion may not yet be wholly suspended in these waters : the thermal 

 character of the water discharged from this spring, as well as from 

 numerous 'others in the vicinity would favor the supposition : and I 

 confess when I reflect upon the specimens before me, and upon 

 these immense gushing fountains, distributed every where over the 

 Floridas, which never intermit in their discharge of water, and which 

 apparently comes from great depths below the surface, I cannot avoid 

 indulging the theory that the silicifying process of strata here and 

 there in numerous places from North Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico, 

 was the result of thermal fountains, whose activity has long since 

 ceased, and whose only remaining vestiges in the country are the 

 springs, like those of Suannee, above alluded to. 



A five days' journey through an almost uninhabited country during 

 the most unpropitious season of the year, alone prevented me from 

 visiting the Suannee spring, which is justly regarded as a great 

 curiosity in that country ; besides, being a place of considerable resort 

 in the summer, on account of its medicinal qualities. I was able 

 to obtain some information respecting it, from gentlemen at St. Mary's; 

 and in particular from Rev. Mr. Pratt, who had visited it during the 

 previous year. 



But before describing the spring, it may be interesting to give some 

 sketch of the Suannee, or Little St. John river, into which the foun- 

 tain in question discharges. The great characteristic of this stream 

 is its limpidity, on which account it is sometimes called the pellucid 

 river. It begins its course in the great swamp Oaquaphenogaw or 

 Okefonoco, near the source of the Great Satilla river, and pursues a 

 southerly direction, at last emptying itself, after a course of two hun- 

 dred miles, into the south-western point of Apalachie bay. Its breadth 

 through the greater part of the course varies between eighty and two 

 hundred yards, and its depth from ten to twenty feet. It is no where 

 fed by brooks or streams ; but appears to derive its waters wholly 

 from fountains breaking up from its bed and banks. By travellers, 



