for the occasion, and being the handiwork of the ladies
themselves, were highly appreciated by the recipient. When these
graceful tributes had been received, each lady and child present
deposited a bouquet of flowers, grown in the gardens of St. Mary's, in
my little craft, till it contained about four hundred of these refined
expressions of the good-will of these kind people. Not only did the
native population of the town vie with each other to accord the lonely
voyager a true southern welcome, but Mr. A. Curtis, an English
gentleman, who, becoming fascinated with the fine climate of this part
of Georgia, had settled here, did all he could to show his appreciation
of canoe-travelling, and superintended the marine display and flag corps
of the procession.

I left St. Mary's with a strange longing to return to its interesting
environs, and to study here the climatology of southern Georgia, for,
strange to say, cases of local "fever and chills" have never
originated in the city. It is reached from Savannah by the inside
steamboat route, or by rail, to Fernandina, with which it is connected
by a steamboat ferry eight miles in length. Speculation not having yet
affected the low valuation placed upon property around St. Mary's,
northern men can obtain winter homes in this attractive town at a very
low cost. This city is a port of entry. Mr. Joseph Shepard, a most
faithful government officer, has filled the position of collector of
customs for several years.

As vessels of considerable tonnage can ascend the St. Mary's River from
the sea on a full tide to the wharves of the city, its citizens prophesy
a future growth and development for the place when a river and canal
route across the peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of
Mexico shall have been completed. For many years Colonel Raiford has
been elaborating his plan "for elongating the western and southern
inland system of navigation to harbors of the Atlantic Ocean." He
proposes to unite the natural watercourses of the coast of the Gulf of
Mexico by short canals, so that barges drawing seven feet of water, and
freighted with the produce of the Mississippi River and its tributaries,
may pass from New Orleans eastward to the southern ports of the Atlantic
States. The great peninsula of Florida would be crossed by these vessels
from the Suwanee to the St. Mary's River by means of a canal cut through
the Okefenokee Swamp, and this route would save several hundred