The peninsula on which the city stands is said to have been originally a “shell hammock.” The soil consists of shell and sand, with an intermixture of vegetable mould. The surface has but a slight elevation above the level of the surrounding water. Both these circumstances are favorable. In wet weather, the texture of the soil is favorable to a rapid extraction of the super-abundant moisture from the surface; and in dry weather, the slight elevation of the land above the sea, enables it to withstand drought,--the waters percolating through the soil, refresh vegetation. These things conspire to promote the health of the city, inclosed as it is by the arms of the sea, to whose salubrious and refreshing breezes it is entirely open. DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY. The city of St. Augustine is built in the style of an ancient Spanish military town. The plan of the city is a parallelogram, traversed longitudinally by two principal streets the whole length. These are intersected at right angles, transversely, by several cross streets, which divide the city into squares. Though not larger than many of our New England villages, the city is nevertheless regularly laid out, as it was intended to be compactly built, each square having more or less space, once occupied with groves of the orange, which a few years since were the glory and wealth of the place. Indeed, it was once a forest of sturdy orange trees, in whose rich foliage of deep green, variegated with golden fruit, the buildings of the city were embosomed; and whose fragrance filled the body of the surrounding atmosphere so as to attract the notice of passers by on the sea; and whose delicious fruit was the great staple of export. The harbor fronts on the east, and is furnished with good wharves. The sandy beach of the St. Sebastian brings up the rear on the west, affording space for a delightful drive around the city; while a once thrifty but now ruinous suburb--the bubble of speculation in “morus multicaulus” times--called the North City, fills the background on the north. BUILDINGS. The coquina rock, a concretion of sand and shell formed on the neighboring sea-beach on the south side of the bar and on the island--the upper extremity of which opens in sheets, ready for quarrying, and on which quarries are now extensively worked--is the principal building material. The streets are excessively narrow, and are furnished with neither side-walks nor pavements. The houses are usually two-story buildings, generally crowded into the streets; and are built without much regard to architectural style or ornamental beauties. Not unfrequently a piazza projects from the base of the second story, which in some cases is inclosed with movable Venetian shutters, so as to control the draft of air, and increase or abate it at pleasure.