NORTH AMERICA. 1 43 
mouth ; it is about thirty miles over land from this 
farm. 
My friend rode with me, about four miles diftance 
from the houfe/to fhow me a vaft fountain of warm, 
or rather hot mineral water, which iflfued from a 
high ridge or bank on the river, in a great cove or 
bay, a few miles above the mouth of the creek 
which I afcended to the lake ; it boils up with great 
force, forming immediately a vaft circular bafon, ca- 
pacious enough for feveral fhallops to ride in, and 
runs with rapidity into the river three or four hun- 
dred yards diftance. This creek, which is formed 
inftantly by this admirable fountain, is wide and 
deep enough for a Hoop to fail up into the bafon. 
The water is perfectly diaphanous, and here are 
continually a prodigious number and variety of flflij 
they appear as plain as though lying on a table be- 
fore your eyes, although many feet deep in the wa- 
ter. This tepid water has a moft difagreeable tafte, 
brafiy and vitriolic, and very ofrenfive to the fmeli, 
much like bilge water or the walkings of a gun-bar- 
rel, and is fmelt at a great diftance. A pale bluifh 
or pearl coloured coagulum covers every inanimate 
fubftance that lies in the water, as logs, limbs of 
trees, &c. Alligators and gar were numerous in the 
bafon, even at the apertures where the ebullition 
emerges through the rocks ; as alfo many other tribes 
of fifh. In the winter feafon feveral kinds of fiih 
and aquatic animals migrate to thefe warm foun- 
tains. The forbidding tafte and fmell of thefe waters 
feems to be owing to vitriolic and fulphureous fumes 
or vapours; and thefe being condenfed, form this 
coagulum, which reprefents flakes of pearly clouds 
in the clear cerulean waters in the bafon. A charm- 
ing orange grove, with magnolias, oaks, and palms. 
