a hotel. In the vicinity were cotton and sugar
plantations, with many Northern settlers engaged in orange-growing and
raising early vegetables for the Northern markets. At the landing,
crates of green peas and cucumbers were ready for the steamer, which in
less than twenty-four hours could land them in Jacksonville. But we
were not much interested in examining the commercial features of the
place, and after we had looked over a few orange-groves and fields of
bananas, we returned on board. A steamer had just arrived from below,
and it was a busy scene at the landing.

"That steamer must have come up in the night," said Mr. Tiffany, as we
went on board of the Wetumpka.

"O, yes; steamers run in the night up the Ocklawaha," replied Cornwood.

"But they can see nothing, even in a moonlight night, under the trees
that shade the stream in so many places," added the English gentleman.

"On the forward part of the boat they have fires of light wood, which
illuminate their course for some distance ahead. They don't all get up
here so easy as we did, for they are generally heavily loaded and draw
a foot more water, which makes a difference in the navigation. During a
considerable portion of the year, Silver Springs is the head of
navigation on this river; but freight is brought down from Leesburg in
barges, which Yankees call scows."

"But how do they move the scows?"

"With setting-poles, assisted by the current of the river. This place
is only five miles from Ocala, to which a railroad has been laid out,
though it may be years before it is built," replied Cornwood. "We are
in the very heart of Florida now. It is not more than thirty-five miles
to Gainesville, to which a stage runs from Ocala three times a week;
and that place is on the railroad to Cedar Keys. We are forty-five
miles from the Gulf of Mexico, and sixty from the Atlantic. It is
thirty miles in a straight line to the St. Johns River, at the southern
point of Lake George."

Steam was up on the Wetumpka, and we cast off the fasts from the
landing-pier. All the party were on the main deck, looking down into
the deep, clear water. The young ladies screamed forth their delight at
the reflected objects in the water, and at the fish on the bottom,
eighty feet down. We entered the run, and in another hour we were
stemming the gentle tide of the Ocklawaha again. The stream was
somewhat narrower than below the spring, from which it receives a large
volume of water.