ran into the Ocklawaha. In a few hours
we were in the woods, the trees of which were loaded with trailing
moss, which, however, was no new thing to us, as we had seen it in
Savannah, and all the way up the St. Johns. In places the shores were
submerged, but the channel of the river was clearly defined by the
shrubs and masses of vines, many of them covered with flowers of
various colors. The water was very clear, and not a breath of air
ruffled its surface. Everything above it was reflected as in a mirror,
and the young ladies were in ecstasies at the beauty of the forest, the
vines, and the water.

Occasionally the river widened out into a broad pool, with sandy
shores. In one of these we encountered a raft of lumber, on its way to
Jacksonville. The men on it were wiry, hatchet-faced fellows,
good-natured and easy-going. Just before sunset we came to Silver
Spring Run, into which the pilot turned the boat. If the water had been
clear before, it was perfectly transparent in this run, or stream
flowing from the spring. We could see the fish in the water, sixty feet
down. After dark we moored to a wharf for the night.

CHAPTER XXVII.

UP THE OCKLAWAHA TO LAKE GRIFFIN.

The spring in which we were moored was a pond covering several acres,
from which the run, nine miles in length, conveys its waters to the
Ocklawaha. It was so dark when we made fast the night before, that we
could not tell exactly in what sort of a place we were.

"This spring is said to be the Fountain of Youth, which Ponce de Leon
looked after," said Cornwood, as our passengers gathered on deck in
front of the pilot-house, after breakfast. "Out in the middle of this
pool, the water is eighty feet deep."

"I never saw so large a volume of clear water; and it is a great pity
that Ponce de Leon didn't find it, though it probably would not have
made the old gentleman any younger," added Colonel Shepard. "What sort
of a fish is it I see in this pond, with a long nose?"

"That is the gar-fish; but it is of no account. He is more like an
alligator than a common fish. There is an alligator-gar at the South.
But our best fish are not to be found to any great extent in these
waters, which are stirred up every day by steamers and rafts. In the
upper waters of the St. Johns you will find the best fish and game,
though there is plenty of both up this stream."

The party landed, and found on shore a village in the midst of the
forest, with stores and