ings, which is
the end of our journey. This is a small lake so transparent that we can
see down to the very bottom of it, and watch the turtles and fishes as
they swim about. A silver coin or any small object thrown into the water
may be distinctly seen lying on the white sand far beneath us. The land
is high and dry about Silver Springs, and the passengers generally go on
shore and stroll through the woods for an hour or two. Then we reembark
and return to St. Augustine as we came.

It must not be supposed that St. Augustine contains nothing but
buildings of the olden time. Although many parts of the town are the
same as they were in the old Spanish days, and although we may even find
the descendants of the Minorcans who were once its principal citizens,
the city now contains many handsome modern dwellings and hotels, some of
which are exceptionally large and grand. Hundreds of people from the
North have come down to this city of orange-scented air, eternal
verdure, and invigorating sea-breezes, and have built handsome houses;
and during the winter there is a great deal of bustle and life in the
narrow streets, in the Plaza, and on the sunny front of the town. Many
of the shops are of a kind only to be found in semi-tropical towns by
the sea, and have for sale bright-colored sea-beans, ornaments made of
fish-scales of every variety of hue, corals, dried sea-ferns, and ever
so many curiosities of the kind. We may even buy, if we choose, some
little black alligators, alive and brisk and about a foot long. As to
fruit, we can get here the best oranges in the world, which come from
the Indian River in the southern part of Florida, and many sorts of
tropical fruits that are seldom brought to Northern cities.

If St. Augustine were like most American cities, and had been built by
us or by our immediate ancestors, and presented an air of newness and
progress and business prosperity, its delightful climate and its natural
beauties would make it a most charming place to visit. But if we add to
these attractions the fact that here alone we can see a bit of the old
world without leaving our young Republic, and that in two or three days
from the newness and busy din of New York or Chicago we may sit upon the
ramparts of a medieval fort, and study the history of those olden days
when the history of Spain, England, and France was also the history of
this portion of our own land,--we cannot fail to admit that this little
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