FLORIDA.


below-a large pond of remarkably blue, sparkling water of
slightly sulphurous flavor, and full of large fish (here for
their health, probably (?) ). It is the port for Orange City


village, on the high lands two miles in t
 Eight miles above is We-ki-va, a mer
shanty on the cast shore just opposite
We-ki-va Creek, a dismal location. He
freights for Altamont and Apopka are
little craft that ascends to those enterp
miles above, passing through a broad,


belt-the first on the


river-the steamer


he interior.
'e solitary rude log
the mouth of the
re passengers and
transferred to the
rising towns. Six
level, open prairie
enters Lake Mon-


roe at its western end
in four miles more the
tance of one hundred
above Palatka, and one
Jacksonville.
 Lake Monroe is four


(the lake lies east and west), and
steamer is at Sanford, a total dis-
miles, by mail-line steamer route,
hundred and sixty-one miles above


and a half miles wide and ten miles


long, and well stocked with excellent fish. It is practically
the head of the middle St. John's River, and the lower ter-
minus of the upper St. John's ; and at Sanford, on the
south shore, freights and passengers for the interior of
Orange County (Maitland, Osceola, Interlaken, Orlando,
some portions of Altamont and Apopka) are transferred
to the South Florida Railroad at its fine wharf. Also goods
and passengers for far-off tropical Lake Worth, Indian
River, and the cattle-prairies of the south, are transferred
to the curious little steamers specially constructed for the
shallow, crooked channel of the upper St. John's.
 One mile east of Sanford is Mellonville, merely a pier,
an old hotel, and a few dwellings. Everything here was
once well constructed, and this was at one time the only


settlement on the lake, and quite an important place. It
was established in 1835 as a military post during the wars
with the Seminole Indians, the landing for the town and
garrison of Fort Reed, two miles in the interior, where is