FRESH-WATER SPRING IN THE ATLANTIC.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6582, 23 May 1882, Page 4

FRESH-WATER SPRING IN THE ATLANTIC.

. One of the most remarkable displays of nature may be seen on the Atlantic coast, eighteen miles south of St. Augustine. Off Matanzas Inlet, and-three miles from shore, a mammoth fresh-water spring gurgles up from the depth of the ocean with such force and volume as to attract the attention of all who come in its immediate vicinity. This fountain is large, bold, and turbulent. It is noticeable to fishermen and others passing in small boats along near the shore. For many years this wonderful and mysterious freak of nature has been known to the people of St. Augustine and those living along near the shore, and some of the superstitious ones have been taught to regard it with a kind of reverential awe, or holy horror as the abode of supernatural influences. When the waters of the ocean in its vicinity are otherwise calm and tranquil, the upheaving and troubled appearance of the water shows unmistakable , evidences of internal commotions. An area of about half an acre shows this troubled appearance—something similar to the boiling of a washer-woman’s kettle. Six or eight years ago* Commodore Hitchcock, of the United States Coast Survey was passing this place, and his attention "was directed to the springs by the upheaving of the water, which threw his ship from , her course as she entered the spring. His curiosity becoming excited by this circumstance, he set to work to examine the surroundings, and found six fathoms of water everywhere in the vicinity, while the spring itself was almost fathomless.