OF THE UNITED STATES 
385 
Indies or South America, or, choosing smaller craft, find end- 
less summer. He ma}^ go with the sponger, who plies his trade 
on the great S})onge reef in the Gulf ; may ply the open waters 
for tlie silver king of the sea, the tarpon, or may find in the 
interior whatever his heart desires in the chase for deer and 
bear, or in that ‘supreme idleness to which the climate induces. 
Dividing the middle region of the lakes from the east coast is 
the St. Johns river. This river enters the Atlantic at Mayport, 
in a broad, open sweep of water. Running parallel with the 
Atlantic coast, it is navigable southward as far as Sanford. At 
some points narrow and crooked, it elsewhere widens into sheets 
like lake George, 5 miles wide and 15 miles long. Never more 
than 30 miles from the ocean, its headwaters are not 10 miles 
from the great lagoon in Halpatiokee swamp, a saw-grass region 
not unlike the Everglades. The sceneiy of this great river 
changes continually. Banks that are green with cypress and 
fragrant with magnolia and hone 3 ^suckle give place to orange 
groves and gardens, or widen out into a prairie fringed with low 
palmettos, over whose tops high jiiues appear. The chief tribu- 
taiy of the St. Johns is the Oklawaha, whose windings through 
intricate masses of vegetation, by floating islands and bayous 
haunted by alligators, afford a vo^^^age of rare beauty. 
The east coast proper is formed Ijy the coquina ledge, which 
is found all the way from Anastasia island to the southern limit 
of Palm beach. This ledge for vaiying distance along its western 
border incloses the great lagoon. This lagoon is known h}" vari- 
ous names ; in its extreme northern development it is the North 
river, then the INIatanzas. Plere the ledge shuts off the sea until 
it reaches Smiths and Mala Compra creeks. Beyond this the 
estuary has its own way, forming the Hillsboro, Halilax, Banana, 
Indian, and Jupiter rivers and lake Worth. The southern end 
of the lagoon is in lake Worth, unless it should liereafter he dis- 
covered that the coquina ledge continues to ca[>e Florida, in 
which case Boca Raton, New River inlet, and r)uml)foundling 
hay will he included. The lagoon is sometimes a broad, deoj) 
stream, sometimes a shallow bayou or lake of brackish water. 
It is flaidced on either side by the characteristic l)clts of tlic* 
coast. First comes the white sand beach, which is succeeded hv 
sand-dunes covered with beach grass, sea oats, wild niorning- 
gloiy, and saw-i)ahnetto, changing to red ha_ys and cedars. This 
is often succeeded h\'’ a half-hammock of tall trc(;s and vines. 
Inside the lagoon is the very fertile l)clt of the high liaminock, 
