FLORIDA.


vindictively. Anything that
agreeable to people fed on
engines are great civilizers o
beats anything as a civilizer
its beneficial effects among t
West.
 Resuming our journey, tl
afternoon differed somewhat


involves a change must be
such wretched diet. Steam-
f nations, but good cooking
of individuals. I have seen
he very worst Indians of the


ie region passed over in the
from that of the forenoon,


being more hilly, and involving a constant going up and
down of more or less steep inclines. We were now out
of the stony belt, and the hammocks were more frequent.
No settlers were seen, and game was very abundant. Late
in the afternoon large tracts of cleared land began to be
seen, mostly neglected; and at supper-time we reached
Brooksville. Standing on the broad, level top of a high
bill, in the midst of many hills-the largest hills we saw
in any part of the State-Brooksville is one of the most
prettily located towns or settlements we saw in Florida,
being equaled only by Tallahassee. It is, in fact, the
most un-Florida-appearing place imaginable, with excel-
lent, rich, dark-brown soils, occasional stones and gravel,
first-class hard country roads in all directions; forests
of oaks, maple, beech, hickory, and all such hard-wood
growths, rail-fences, and far-viewing hills. All was like
Ohio, Wisconsin, New York'-the western part on the Erie
Railway-in fact, anywhere in a hilly but not rocky re-
gion. Even the houses, the old and the few (very few)
new ones, somehow do not look Florida-like.
 This is one of the most desirable sections of the State.
Although not at all tropical in appearance, yet all the
products of the tropical as well as of the northern cli-
mates grow here. Cotton, cane, wheat, oats, bananas,
oranges, peaches, corn, guavas, figs, all thrive as well as in
any of their special regions. Here also we found grass,
a good sod, that seemed refreshing to walk on. Prior to