THE INSIDE ROUTE. 23 
and the mainland. As time was of little consequence to us, we 
concluded to take the latter. 
The people of the north, during the late war, were made ac- 
quainted with the fact that the Southern Atlantic States have 
their sea coast protected by a long succession of islands, between 
which and the main land steamers of light draft can safely pass 
along their whole extent, as far south as the mouth of the St. 
John’s in Florida. Batteries, torpedoes, shoals and tortuous 
and intricate channels protected this portion of the southern 
seaboard, so that our navy found it impossible to destroy or 
seriously cripple confederate communication by water along this 
portion of the coast. One needs to go through these inside chan- 
nels to fairly comprehend them. We think of the Connecticut 
coast shielded by Long Island, but along a portion of the coast 
of Georgia, instead of a Sound thirty miles wide, we have narrow 
and winding water-ways more like Mill river at the base of East 
Rock... We took the side-wheel steamer ‘‘ City of Bridgeton ” at 
Savannah for Jacksonville in Florida—a boat that brought to 
mind the steamers of the New York and New Haven line ‘‘long, 
long ago.” It has since been modernized and very greatly im- 
proved, so much so that we recognized this year very little of the 
old boat except its name, and even that gloried in a sort of new. 
birth. ; 
_Following the doublings and sharp curves of the inside route, 
aS we neared the river St. John’s the colored man at the 
wheel required and exercised constant vigilance and the greatest 
care. Much local knowledge and great practical skill were. 
brought into constant requisition, and only once was the bow 
of the boat run into the soft bank. The shores of the sedgy 
marshes were white with extensive beds of oyster shells, while 
countless beds of small oysters were everywhere to be seen as the 
tide receded. Occasionally we passed islands rich with tropical 
