(Tallahassee, and Pensacola & Georgia, and Florida, Atlanta & Gulf Central railways. Time 14 hours, one train daily.)
The train leaves Jacksonville following the old military road, and soon enters open pine woods. The first station is White House (eleven miles). The next (eight miles) is Baldwin, (Florida House, M. Colding Proprietor). Here the Florida railway connects for Fernandina, Cedar Keys, Gainesville, and other points in East Florida.
Beyond Baldwin the train passes over a swampy country intersected by numerous creeks flowing northward into the St. Mary’s river, which near here makes its South Prong far to the south. Sanderson, (eighteen miles) is an insignificant station. Olustee (ten miles) is a rising village in the midst of a wide level tract, (no hotel; board at private houses $1.50 to $2.00 a day.) Ocean Pond, half a mile from the road (right hand side), is a handsome sheet of water, nearly circular, about four miles in diameter. It is deep, and offers excellent fishing.
LAKE CITY
(twelve miles; two tolerable hotels, $3.00 per day, $15. per week; newspaper, Lake City Press; telegraph office) is a promising place of several hundred inhabitants. Three miles south of the city is Alligator Lake, a body of water without any visible outlet. In the wet season it is three or four miles across, but in winter it retires into a deep sink hole, and the former bottom is transformed into a grassy meadow.
Welborn
Is the next stopping place (twelve miles. The Griffin House, and several boarding houses; $1.50 per day, $6.00 per week). It is a prosperous village of 150 inhabitants. The water is good, and the neighborhood healthy. Its height above tide water is 200 feet.
Stages leave Welborn daily for the *White Sulphur Springs, on the Suwannee river, eight miles north of the station (fare $2.00). These springs are a favorite resort for persons suffering from rheumatism and skin diseases. They have been estimated to discharge about three hundred hogsheads a minute. The *hotel, ($3.00 per day, $12.00 per week, $40.00 per month,) accommodating seventy-five guests, stands within a few yards of the Suwannee river, there a pretty stream about fifty yards wide. There is also a private boarding house near by. Dr. A. W. Knight, of Maine, resides at the hotel, and will be found an intelligent physician. There is good fishing in the river, and as the county is but sparsely settled, small game is abundant. Horses can be had for $2.00. The basin of the spring is ten feet deep, and 30 feet in diameter; the stream runs about a hundred yards and then empties into the river.
Leaving Welborn, the train passes Houston, (five miles), and reaches Live Oak (six miles.) Here the morning train stops for dinner. A good table is set by Mr. Conner, who keeps the hotel ($3 per day, $12.50 per week, $30.00 per month. Boarding, Mrs. M. A. McCleran, $25.00 per month, Mrs. Goodbread, $1.00 per day, $20.00 per month; Newspaper, Live Oak Advertizer; Churches, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist.) At this point a connecting railway diverges north to Lawton, Ga., on the main line of the Atlantic and Gulf R. R. Live Oak to Savannah, $9.00. Live Oak has at present about 250 inhabitants, and is a growing place. The country in the vicinity is the usual limestone soil of Middle Florida, covered with pine. Peaches flourish very well, and the soil is reasonably productive.
The Lower Spring, on the banks of the Suwannee river, eight miles north of Live Oak, is reached by trains twice daily on the road to Lawton. Its waters are sulphurous, and it is a favorite resort for certain classes of invalids. The accommodations are passable.