BARTRAM'S INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE 147 



we know that he had read on in Bartram, for Bartram's chrystal 

 fountain too 



incessantly threw up, from dark, rocky caverns below, tons of water 

 every minute. . . . About twenty yards from the upper edge of the 

 bason ... is d continual and amazing ebullition, where the waters are 

 thrown up in such abundance and amazing force, as to jet and swell up 

 two or three feet above the common surface: white sand and small 

 particles of shells are thrown up with the waters (pp. 165-166). 



Moreover, Coleridge's sacred river ran " Five miles meander- 

 ing. . . . Through wood and dale " then " reached the caverns. 

 . . . And sank . . ." (11. 25-28) and the waters of Bartram's 

 fountain form a creek which " meanders six miles through green 

 meadows " and when these waters have " thrown up " they 

 " diverge from the center, subside with the expanding flood, 

 and gently sink again " (pp. 156-166) . 



Professor Lowes, Mr. E. H. Coleridge, and Dr. Bersch be- 

 lieve that into this reworking of Bartram's chrystal fountain 

 enter also descriptions of other fountains found in Bartram. 

 On pages 239-40 there appears an account a trader gave Bar- 

 tram of a visit to "" a very curious place, called the Alligator- 

 Hole " (p. 238) : 



he saw the earth overflowed by torrents of water . . . attended with a 

 terrific noise and tremor of the earth . . . he . . . soon came in sight of 

 the incomparable fountain, and saw, with amazement, the floods rush- 

 ing upwards many feet high, and the expanding waters. ... It con- 

 tinued to jet and flow in this manner for several days, forming a large 

 . . . river, descending and following the various . . . windings of the 

 valley, for the distance of seven or eight miles, emptying itself into a 

 vast savanna, where . . . was ... a sink which received ... its waters. 

 ... At places where ridges or a swelling bank . . . opposed its course 

 and fury, are vast heaps of fragments of rocks, white chalk, stones 

 and pebbles, which were . . . thrown into the lateral valleys. 



Just which of these descriptions, of the chrystal fountain or of 

 the Alligator-Hole, suggested Coleridge's fountain is not easy 

 to decide with absolute certainty; Professor Lowes's conclusion 

 that in Coleridge's dream the images from both descriptions 

 coalesced is a happy suggestion. But Bersch's addition of Bar- 

 tram's description of " the admirable Manate Spring " cannot 

 be overlooked: 



11 



