mountains of the Andes during the earthquake of
Chili in 1646—vanish entirely from the surface
of the earth?

All over the country I found, when in that
sinking State, sinks of all sizes forms and ages.
Some are slight saucer-like depressions, others,
still deeper, like basins, of from twenty to eighty
yards across; or only uneven slopes and hollows,
which would pass unnoticed were one
not informed that the land just there had
been " sinking" since such a time; or that an
old inhabitant remembered a dead level where,
now, there are various dells, crowded with
vegetation.

Sometimes—and these are the most remarkable—
the sinks are round and even, like wells,
which, indeed, one might suppose them to be,
so regular and perpendicular are their walls.
Some of these are formed suddenly, during or
after heavy rains, and are the result of one
storm. They are sunk perhaps in an hour, in a
night, without sign or warning; in the middle
of the road, of a garden, or it may be a cattle
pen. On one plantation I know of several such
sinks. One is about thirty feet deep, and eight
or nine across; another is twenty feet deep, and
about four across the mouth. Sometimes it is
not possible to distinguish the real bottom of
the sink, for after the soil has been washed down
to a certain distance, leaving a smooth, regular
hole, jagged rocks are laid bare, and the opening
to a subterranean passage, it may be of vast
length and depth, is exposed.

Many accidents, as will be imagined, have
occurred from the opening of these sudden cavities
when persons have been travelling on dark
nights, and passing, as they supposed, over an
even and well-known path. Generally, however,
a significant crack in the ground appears as an
admonitory warning, and it is not unusual to
hear a person say, in pointing to a certain spot,
"There will be a sink there soon." Wonderful
caves are by these means being frequently
discovered, and they abound most in Western
Florida.

Some of the sinks occupy an indefinite time
iu process of formation, and become larger and
deeper during every rainy season. When
rambling in a rocky dell, or climbing up the gorge
of a deep ravine, whose sides are clothed with
the richest vegetation, and from whose base the
lofty magnolia overtops the neighbouring oaks
and hickories that root upon its summit, it is
strange to be told that, one is down a sink, and
that all this picturesque beauty, this fruitful
area of some hundred yards across, is the result
of twenty or thirty years' growth. The narrow,
well-like sinks have here enlarged into ravines,
or dells, or gorges, according to the nature of
the ground. Occasionally a spring bursts into
existence, and soon a rich deposit of earth
produces an abundant growth of shrubs and flowers,
which, under those almost tropical skies, will in
one season clothe the rugged walls with beauty.
On the same plantation before mentioned there
is a spring which flows in a stream under the
ground, and expands into a subterranean lake of
above an acre in extent. The entrance is at
first a very narrow aperture in the rocks, which
has been exposed by a sink, and through which
a man can with difficulty squeeze himself.
Thence a descent of several feet into another
well, or sink, discloses a second opening, through,
which a vast area is discovered. Close to this
is another subterranean well, which must be of
remarkable depth, for if a stone be thrown into
it, a minute elapses before it is heard splashing
into the water below. Tradition says that these
two wells were sunk by the Indians in searching
for lead, but the story is too improbable to
deserve credit, particularly as many such wonderful
caves and wells are in constant process of
formation before our eyes.

It is true that lead is found in those parts, as
is also the plant Amorpha canescens, which is
said to be an indication of its presence. The
owner of the plantation assured me that several
specimens of the loadstone, or a mineral locally
called the " lead-stone," one certainly possessing
highly magnetic properties, have been found in
that spot.

An intelligent American traveller, who wrote
of Florida in 1822, when it was the recently
acquired territory of the United States,
mentioned that some of the lagoons, or "clear
water ponds," of which the St. John's river
appears to be almost a succession, were "said to
be unfathomable," adding, "it has been
conjectured that a subterranean communication
exists between them," and that "it is asserted
that a spring of fresh water rises in the ocean
to the south of Anastatia Island, a few miles
from the coast." The writer goes on to state
that he " had conversed with persons who averred
that they had seen this fountain, and drank fresh
water from it." The subsequent discoveries of
the caves in Western Florida, and the progress
of the science of geology, induce a more willing
faith in this assertion, at the present day, than
seems to have been yielded at the time in which
that traveller wrote. As we have also learned
that the submarine inequalities of the Gulf of
Mexico are greater than those on its northern
coast—for there are no real hills in Florida—
that there are submarine hills sixty miles south
of Mobile, Pensacola, and Cape Blas, of from
four hundred to six hundred feet in height, and
as these numerous sinks bring to light a substratum
of rugged rocks wherever they occur—
our imagination may wander back to the ages
long past, and picture to ourselves the forma-
tion of a country, this fertile Florida, from
the débris of the Gulf, upon its unequal
surface of rocks; among which subterranean
springs are for ever wearing for themselves
a passage, and down through whose inequalities
the loose sand and soft alluvial soil are often
sinking, and thus producing an ever-changing
surface.

An example of the underground course of a
river occurs in Western Florida, at a place
called the Natural Bridge, where the Chipola
suddenly disappears. It flows away without
any perceptible rush of current, under no visible