Alabama, Georgia and Florida. 171 



■"The ebullition is astonishing, and continual, though its oreatest 

 force of fury intermits, regularly, for the space of thirty seconds of 

 time : the waters appear of a lucid sea green color, in some measure 

 owing to the reflection of the leaves above : the ebullition is perpen- 

 dicular upwards, from a vast ragged orifice through a bed of rocks, a 

 great depth below the common surface of the basin, throwing up small 

 particles or pieces of white shells, which subside with the waters at 

 the moment of intermission, gently settling down round about the ori- 

 fice, forming a vast funnel. At those moments, when the waters rush 

 upwards, the surface of the basin immediately over the orifice is 

 greatly swollen or raised a considerable height ; and then it is impos- 

 sible to keep the boat or any other floating vessel over the fountain ; 

 but the ebullition quickly subsides ; yet, before the surface becomes 

 quite even, the fountain vomits up the waters again, and so on per- 

 petually. The basin is generally circular,' about fifty yards over ; and 

 the perpetual stream from it into the river is twelve or fifteen yards 

 wide, and ten or twelve feet in depth ; the basin and stream contin- 

 ually peopled with prodigious numbers and variety of fish and other 

 animals; as the alligator, and the manate or sea cow, in the winter 

 season." p. 229. 



A very remarkable spring was described to me by Major Smith, 

 of the U. S. Army, as existing upon the Ocklewaha river, thirty or 

 forty miles from the St. John, and distant seventy miles in a line from 

 St. Augustine, or one hundred and forty-five, by the way of Jack- 

 sonville. The spring is forty feet deep, and three hundred wide; and 

 gives rise to a rapid creek fifteen or twenty yards wide, and twenty- 

 five feet deep. The waters of this fountain are described as equalling 

 in transparency those above alluded to. 



The Sulphur springs upon the St. John, in the neighborhood of 

 Lake George, are distinguished for their sulphuretted impregnations. 

 A thermometer plunged into these waters when the temperature of 

 the air was 34°, stood at from 56° to 60°. 



Besides these boiling fountains, there exist many inland lakes or 

 ponds, the depths of whose waters, in many instances, has not been 

 ascertained, and which are regarded by the inhabitants as unfathom- 

 able ; they are all equally remarkable for their transparency. Indeed 

 the same feeling is produced in the minds of the inexperienced when 

 sailing upon them as is described to have been felt by sailors in the 

 clear waters of the northern seas — the sensation of being suspended 

 in mid-air, rather than of floating upon the surface of water. 



