170 Geological Observations upon 



ture of the fish is the same as if they were in Lake George or the 

 river; but here the water or element in which they live and move, is 

 so perfectly clear and transparent, it places them all on an equality 

 with regard to their ability to injure or escape from another; (as all 

 river fish of prey, or such as feed upon each other, as well as the un- 

 wieldy crocodile, take their prey by surprise ; secreting themselves, 

 under covert or in ambush, until an opportunity offers, when they rush 

 suddenly upon them :) but here is no covert, no ambush ; here the 

 trout freely passes by the very nose of the alligator, and laughs in his- 

 face, and the bream by the trout. 



"But what is really surprising is, that the consciousness of each 

 other's safety, or some other latent cause, should so absolutely alter 

 their conduct, for here is not the least attempt made to injure or dis- 

 turb one another." p. 166. 



The same author describes another spring about one hundred miles 

 higher up the St. John, and about thirty miles from New Smyrna, 



" Which issued from a high ridge or bank on the river, in a great 

 cove or bay, a few miles above the mouth of the creek M'hich I as- 

 cended to the lake; it boils up with great force, forming immediately 

 a vast circular basin, capacious enough for several shallops to ride in, 

 and runs with rapidity into the river three or four hundred yards dis- 

 tance. This creek, which is formed instantly by this admirable foun- 

 tain, is wide and deep enough for a sloop to sail up into the basin. 

 The water is perfectly diaphanous, and here are continually a prodi- 

 gious number and variety of fish ; they appear as plain as though ly- 

 ing on a table before your eyes, although many feet deep in the water. 

 This tepid water has a most disagreeable taste, brassy and vitriolic, and 

 very offensive to the smell, much like bilge water or the washings of 

 a gun-barrel, and is smelt at a great distance. A pale bluish or pearl 

 colored coagulum covers every inanimate substance that lies in the 

 water, as logs, limbs of trees, &c. Alligators and gar were numerous 

 in the basin, even at the apertures where the ebullition emerges through 

 the rocks ; as also many other tribes of fish. In the winter season 

 several kinds of fish and aquatic animals migrate to these warm foun- 

 tains. The forbidding taste and smell of these waters seems to be ow- 

 ing to vitriolic and sulphureous fumes or vapors ; and these being 

 condensed, form this coagulum, which represents flakes of pearly 

 clouds in the clear cerulean waters in th€ basin." p. 143. 



I cannot omit Bartram's description of the Mannate spring," situated 

 four miles from Tallahassee. 



