Between Two Oceans; Or, Sketches of American Travel baixar o livro de graça

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884. Excerpt: ... 327 A GLIMPSE OF FLORIDA. I.--JACKSONVILLE. 'Ladies, you are now in Florida! That bridge was the boundary of Georgia!' announces the conductor. We look out of the car-window with an unreasonable expectation of seeing some decided tropical change in the landscape. Of course there is none. There are the eternal pine-trees; the yellow pines of the South, unlike their Northern brethren, tall, slim, and straight, with their light, feathery foliage. They look so fragile, and stand up so erect, we wonder how those tall, slight stems can support even that light and graceful leafy crown. There are groves of baby cypresses, of fresher and tenderer green; but pervading and possessing the whole landscape are the everlasting pines, now ranged in close and serried ranks, moving past us swift and steady, like an army on the march, now scattered as if the enemy had mown them down; here a gap where nothing is left but blackened stumps; there a solitary tree on fire, one flickering wreath of golden flame entwining it from the root even to the topmost twig, clinging so closely in its glowing embrace that scarcely a spark flies out to the neighbouring trees. We are getting out of the regions of swamp into the regions of sand now; white banks and stretches of sand glare like snow in the fierce afternoon sun. The fine sand contributes liberally to the dust that flies into the car, with the sunbeams and the smoke from the engine, until all about us that should be white is black, and all that should be black is white. 'Daisy darling, where have you put the pistols?' inquires the young man, who is evidently on his honeymoon. 'Here they are, dear, along with the quinine, and the brandy, and the camphor, ' replies the bride, lifting the lid of a basket whose contents cause us to gla...