Alabama, Georgia and Florida. 167 



raneous rivers, which wander in darkness beneath the surface of the 

 earth, by innumerable doublings, windings, and secret labyrinths ; no 

 doubt in some places forming vast reservoirs and subterranean lakes, 

 inhabited by multitudes of fish and aquatic animals : and possibly 

 when collected into large rapid brooks, meeting irresistible obstruc- 

 tions in their course, they suddenly break through these perforated 

 fluted rocks, in high perpendicular jets, nearly to their former level, 

 flooding large districts of land. Thus by means of those subterranean 

 courses, the waters are purified and finally carried to the banks of 

 great rivers, where they emerge and present themselves to open day- 

 light, with their troops of finny inhabitants, in those surprising vast 

 fountains near the banks of this river." 



The clearness of the water appears to me capable of farther elu- 

 cidation ; and the explanation here suggested, if correct will apply 

 to all the fountains and lakes in that country. The samples taken 

 from the Suannee spring, as has already been remarked, are bronzed 

 over with a coating of sulphuret of iron, thus evincing the presence 

 of sulphuretted hydrogen. Indeed the odor of this gas is often spo- 

 ken of as being very perceptible at the surface of these springs. 

 The waters before, or as they approach the surface of the ground in 

 their course, become more or less impregnated with salts of iron, which 

 are constantly decomposed by the sulphuretted hydrogen, — the sul- 

 phuret of iron subsiding to the bottom, coating whatever substances it 

 may meet, and leaving the supernatant fluid perfectly colorless. 

 Thus its waters are freed from all metallic traces, whose presence in 

 water invariably produces along with the vegetable infusions inci- 

 dental to small rivers and lakes, a dark, reddish-brown color. 



But to give a short description of the Suannee spring : — The banks 

 of the river are about thirty feet high in the immediate neighborhood 

 of the spring. Between the river and the spring, however, when the 

 stream is not unusually swollen, is a natural bridge, thirty or thirty- 

 five feet wide, under which the water discharged finds its way to the 

 river. The surface of the spring is fifty feet over, and the usual 

 depth fourteen feet. The water comes to the surface under an an- 

 gle of 60° ; and the quantity discharged is variously estimated at, 

 from twenty, to one hundred hogsheads per minute. In order to pre- 

 vent persons, bathing or diving in the spring, from being carried through 

 the tunnel into the river, a lattice of timbers is placed across its 

 mouth. In consequence of the nearly vertical discharge of the wa- 

 ter, it is a favorite amusement to dive into the fountain in the direc- 



