--
Col. G. W. Morris, contractor for an important enterprise in
Florida, is visiting
Charleston on business, and is at the
Mills House.
The
St. Johns and Indian River Canal, which he is now executing, is a State work.
It is situated in
Volusia county, Florida, in latitude 28½.
It is an open drain, twelve and a half miles long, fourteen feet wide at the bottom, with slopes of about one to one.--The depth of cutting at the ends is about seven feet, with a gradual rise to the summit, where the depth of cutting will be about twenty-five feet.
It is intended to connect the waters of the St. Johns and Indian River, commencing on the
St. Johns at
Lake Harney or
Deep Creek, and running due east.
The first three miles is prairie, the balance is scattering
yellow pine, small saw palmetto, and prairie, alternately, without any undergrowth.
The canal crosses one cypress swamp, about three or four hundred yards across.
In this there is two or three feet of water; also two other patches of cypress, where the water stands during the wet season.
Test pits have been dug, which shows the nature of the materials to be mostly sand, or sandy loam.
All of which can be spaded with the greatest facility.
The bottom is dry, and very healthy.
Good water, and an abundance of provisions, very cheap.
A line of steamers runs from
Savannah, Ga., to
Palatka, on the
St. Johns river.
A railroad runs to
Jacksonville, connecting with another regular steamer running direct to Enterprise, which is fifteen miles by land to the canal.
Transient steamboats, keel boats, and sail boats, run direct to the canal from all points below on the
St. Johns river.
The work was commenced on the 18th September, and is making good progress.
It will immediately open to thorough cultivation a valuable region, and will furnish a base for additional and important improvements.--
Charleston Courier. 
