Clarksville Chronicle

LETTER FROM FLORIDA.
PALATKA, FLA., Feb. 11, 1871.
EDITORS CHRONICLE: - Having
just returned from a trip to Enterprise, I will give you a sketch of the
St. John's river. Left this place on
the steamer "Starlight," about 5
o'clock in the evening--remained at
Mellonville until 3 o'clock Saturday
morning and arrived here at 1 o'clock
the same day. The distance to Enterprise
is about one hundred and
twenty five miles.

THE UPPER ST. JOHN'S.

The character of the river above
this place is in striking contrast with
that of the portions below. A few
miles above here the river contracts
rapidly its banks, and discloses those
peculiar features which make this
peerless river of the South the admiration
of every lover of the picturesque
and beautiful. The water is
clear, and the banks present a richer
and more luxuriant growth of semi
tropical vegetation, and then there is
no longer that uniform and monotonous
landscape, as below, while each
bend of the river presents its new beauties
in delightful and endless variety.

Seven miles above Palatka, and we
come to the outlet of Dunn's Lake,
lying a few miles to the south-east.-
Ten miles above this point is the
mouth of the Ocklawaha. At this
point is the old town of Welaka, once
the site of an Indian village, and afterwards
a flourishing Spanish settlement
-now scarce a vestige of either
of these populations survives to tell of
their existence, so completely has
time leveled everything. The next
object of interest is

LAKE GEORGE

which we reached after a few miles
run of the steamer "Starlight." This
lake is some sixteen miles long and
more than half that distance across.
On entering it, several islands are
seen, and one of considerable size,
called Rembrandt's that contains
near 2,000 acres, on which an orange
grove stands, and a two story frame
house, which is rather a novelty, since
few houses of any sort are seen on
the river, so much of a wilderness is
it-even the shore of this lake is
scarce broken in its entire circumference
by any settlement.

The St. John's is separated from
the ocean its entire length by a comparatively
narrow strips of land not
over forty miles in average width. Its
banks are mostly low very apt to be
swampy, and are densely covered
with the primeval forest-live oaks,
bay-gum, and magnolia, hung with
the long waving drapery of solemn
moss, while the beautiful palm with
its crested crown sentinels its shores--
beneath and interwoven among these
are the jessamine and creeping vines
lacing the undergrowth over with an
unbroken verdure, and rising from
the water to the tree-tops. Then a
dell appears, festooned with climbing
and o'er-arching growths, gracefully
curtaining its entrance, and tempting
its beholder within the half-hidden
sylvan retreat; farther on, and a
broad expanse, or savanna is seen,
bounded by the distant forest, with
here and there a solitary palmetto
standing alone like a plume.

The river here and there closes to
within a hundred feet, and is constantly
turning the sharpest of angles,
running back beside itself. fascinated
with its own beauty as it were
then whisking suddenly about, as if
on a wager to outdo itself. On either
hand. glimpses are had of bays and
mineral waters,'whose surface and
shores seem likely never to have
waked to other echoes than those
of the wild birds that inhabit them.
Again the river seems lost in a bewildering
perspective of silver streamlets,
separated only by some narrow
knife blade of meadow-land and flowers;
but up them they are all verdure-banked
and moss-hung and vine-curtained-the
very picture of tropical
profusion and loveliness.-the swelling
waves from the passing steamers
lift and move away islands that just
now were, but a moment after are
seen drifting with the current and
breeze in fragmentary sections.

Along the banks, and at the more
elevated portions, crops out just under
the soil a crust of a foot in thickness,
of snail shell formation; and
also the coquina, a species of shell.
rock, was seen. The river is but a
chain of lakes-groves of wild oranges
are frequently seen on the banks of
the river, laden with the yellow fruit.
After twelve hours run we reach

LAKE MOORE,

which stands at the head of regular
steam-boat navigation on the St.
John's. Entering this handsome
sheet of water, of about five miles in
diameter and nearly circular, we are
able to discern its two principal points
of interest. The first is Mellonville,
on the western shore, formerly the site
of Fort Mellon. The town contains
about one dozen buildings, and looks
desolate. On the eastern shore is the
town of Enterprise, consisting of a
hotel and half a dozen buildings. A
mile southward from this place is the
celebrated Green Spring. It is circular
in form, and nearly eighty feet in
diameter; and its surface is as smooth
and unrippling as if congealed. The
water is of a delicate green and quite
transparent. Its depth is said to be
full a hundred feet. It is simply a
curiosity, and is visited as such.

Wild game and alligators were seen
all along the river, and the passengers
lost no opportunity of shooting at
them. Several large alligators were
wounded, but none killed

We are enjoying, what we would
term in Tennessee, regular spring
weather. Trees are budding out and
flowers in full bloom. Vegetables
have been in market for weeks.

My next trip will be up the Ocklawaha
river

The CHRONICLE comes regularly to
hand.
C.L.T