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Show 214 Early Western Travels [ Vol. 26 waters impart the power of producing sweet sounds to the voices of those who partake of them. It was near evening, when, emerging from the shades of the barrens, which, like everything else, however beautiful, had, by continuous succession, begun to become somewhat monotonous, my path issued rather unexpectedly upon the margin of a wide, undulating prairie. I was struck, as is every traveller at first view of these vast plains, with the grandeur, and novelty, and loveliness of the scene before me. For some moments I remained stationary, looking out upon the boundless landscape before me. The tall grass-tops waving in the billowy beauty in the breeze; the narrow pathway winding off like a serpent over the rolling surface, disappearing and reappearing till lost in the luxuriant herb-age; the shadowy, cloud- like aspect of the far- off trees, looming up, here and there, in isolated masses along the horizon, like the pyramidal canvass of ships at sea; the deep- green groves besprinkled among the vegetation, like islets in the waters; the crimson- died prairie- flower flashing in the sun - these features of inanimate nature seemed strangely beautiful to one born and bred amid the bold mountain scenery of the North, and who now gazed upon them " for the first." " The prairies! I behold them for the first, And my heart swells, while the dilated sight Takes in the endzding vastness." a Fort Gaines was at one time located at Gainesville, Alachua County, Florida. The town is now the seat of East Florida Seminary, a military school. Among the numerous lakes in the vicinity, Alachua, the largest, occupies what was formerly Payne's Prairie. Through this prairie a stream issuing from Newman's Lake flowed to a point near the middle of the district, where it suddenly fell into an unfathomed abyss named by the Indians Alachua ( the bottomless pit). The whites gave this name to the county, and called the abyss " Big Sink." This place became a favorite pleasure resort until 1875, when the sink refused longer to receive the water, and Payne's Prairie, formerly a rich grazing land* was turned into a lake. Numerous tales connected with Big Sink were circulated, and it seems probable that Flagg is referring to this locality.- ED. |
