The vicinity is a rolling, pine country, with limestone sub-soil. Plenty of marl is found, suitable for fertilizing. Cotton, corn, tobacco, and vines are cultivated with success. There is an agricultural association, of which Judge C. H. Dupont is president. Some caves and other natural curiosities are found in the vicinity.
Stages run from Quincy to Chatahoochee, tri-weekly; fare $5.00—twenty miles—an exhorbitant charge. The boarding house in Chatahoochee, $2.00 per day. The steamer from Columbus and Bainbridge, Ga., touch at Chatahoochee daily; fare to Apalachicola, $5.00.
TALLAHASSEE TO ST. MARKS.
By St. Marks Railroad—distance twenty-one miles; time, one hour and thirty minutes. There is no hotel at St. Marks, and but one boarding house, that of Mrs. Eliza Barber, $3.50 per day, $12.00 per week. There are excellent hunting and fishing in this vicinity, and boats can be hired at very reasonable prices, but horses are scarce. The town is an old Spanish settlement, and some remains of the ancient fortifications are still visible in the vicinity. It was first settled under the name of San Marcos de Apalache, in 1718, by Don Joseph Primo. At one time it was a port of some promise, but has now fallen into insignificance.
It is situated at the junction of the St. Marks and Wakulla rivers. The latter stream is ten miles in length, and takes its rise in the famous *Wakulla fountain. The name is the Creek word wankulla, (n-nasal) South. It is a remarkable curiosity, and should be visited by those who have the time. The most pleasant—and most expensive—means is to hire a carriage at Tallahassee, from which the spring is seventeen miles distant.
The country in the vicinity is low and flat, covered with dense groves of cypress, liveoak, &c. The spring is oval in shape, about thirty yards in diameter, and quite deep. On the eastern side is a rocky ledge, whence the stream issues. The water is cool, impregnated with lime, and of a marvellous clearness. Troops of fishes can be seen disporting themselves in the transparent depths.
Mr. Wise, of the Coast Survey, found bottom at eighty feet, the lead being plainly visible at that depth. In the same vicinity the Ocilla, Wacilla, and Spring Creek Springs are likewise subterranean streams, which boil up from great depths in fountains of perfect clearness.
NEWPORT,
A few miles from St. Marks, on the St. Marks river, was at one time a place of considerable summer resort, but is now but little visited. Near by is a natural bridge, over the river, which is esteemed sufficiently curious to attract occasional visitors.