46 FLORIDA.

of cheaply constructed buildings, all of plainest design, un-


painted and weather-beaten, closely huddled


together on


the narrow, short streets,


gives


appearance


much like the backwoods
Shamlets of Alabama, Geor-
gia, and the States of that
belt. The soil thereabout
is rolling pine and ham-
mock, and famous for its


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fertility.


We visited


sev-


eral gardens and groves,
and saw none better any-


where else


It is an


in the State.


excellent


oranges,


region


sugar cane,


and vegetables, and is ex-
ceptionally healthy. The
country is everything that
could be desired, but there
is an evident lack of taste
and enterprise among the


inhabitants.


It is the cen-


ter of a good trade, being
the most pretentious town
in that region, has a good
average school, and will,
no doubt, soon have rail-.
way connection with the


 St. John's at Sanford;
 Three miles from the
 town is Lake Apopka, a
superb body of water-an inland sea, about fifty miles in
circumference, surrounded by a large tract of hammock,
with a rolling black soil, densely covered with forests of