﻿1848. ■ LEVEL BOGGY LAND. 249 



have never, either in this climate or in any other, 

 seen a more disagreeable atmosphere, and we all 

 predicted a coming storm. At night, the wind 

 heading us, so that we could not fetch the eastern- 

 most hummock in sight, we ran under a sand-bank, 

 and anchored in a foot and a half of water about a 

 quarter of a mile from the shore. On the tide 

 ebbing, the boats were left dry. 



The perfectly flat land here is covered, to 

 the depth of four or five feet, with a moorish or 

 peaty soil, wdiich is much cracked, and in many 

 places treacherously soft and boggy. Small lakes 

 and ponds intersect it in all directions, mostly filled 

 with brackish water, but some of them containing 

 water fresh enough for cooking, though by no 

 means good. The irregular ponds and marshy 

 places make the course to any particular point 

 exceedingly devious, and I had a long walk to 

 reach one of the eminences, though its direct 

 distance from the beach was little more than a 

 mile. This hill rose from the boggy ground, in 

 a conical form, to the height of about one hundred 

 feet, its base having a diameter about equal to its 

 height. A ditch, fifteen or twenty feet wide, which 

 surrounded it, was passable only at two points ; and, 

 on ascending the hill, I found that hollow, like 

 the crater of a volcano ; in which, about fifteen feet 

 below its brim, stood an apparently deep lake of very 



