NORTH AND SOUTH. 375 



the clearing of tte country this last is undoubtedly the most 

 favorable method of holding territorial rights. 



The southern portion of New Jersey presents a unique area in 

 the Middle Atlantic States. In all its essential features topo- 

 graphical, geological, and also in certain biological aspects it is 

 related to the region farther south, being the northward extension 

 of the Atlantic coast plain. The most characteristic feature is 

 the " pine-barren " region that reaches from the foot of the higher 

 country to the maritime marshes and beaches that immediately 

 fringe the coast. The tourist journeying to the seaside resorts 

 south of Long Branch has the monotonous sandy waste of the 

 pine barrens for a landscape. Here and there the white, loamy 

 soil gives place to loose beds of yellow gravel. Sluggish streams 

 of water, stained dark brown from the leachings of the cedar 

 stumps, meander through swampy jungles. The landscape varies 

 somewhat with the character of the trees in different places. In 

 some sections the tall pitch pine forms vast stretches of forest, 

 while in others a low and scanty woodland growth of the " Jer- 

 sey " or scrub pine and several species of scrub oak prevails. The 

 cedar swamps that lie scattered in the course of the numerous 

 streams form a remarkable feature of this interesting region. 

 Dense jungles of white cedar growing out of the dark water and 

 surrounded by an impenetrable undergrowth of tangled vines 

 and brier thickets form a harbor for many wild animals and 

 birds. The tropical effect of these cedar swamps is heightened 

 by broad-leaved magnolias and the long festoons of graybeard 

 moss that fringe the branches. In these dark recesses, and 

 through the pine barrens generally, the botanist finds many 

 plants which belong to a more southern flora. Indeed, all the 

 way along the coast from New Jersey to Maine, in favorable situ- 

 ations, representatives of distinctively southern forms may be 

 found which in these higher latitudes do not occur inland. The 

 mockingbird, which is highly characteristic of the Louisianian 

 fauna, has been met with as a straggler during the breeding 

 season in the New Jersey pine barrens ; and in the cedar swamps 

 near Cape May the hooded warbler, a typical Carolinian species, 

 breeds regularly. In times long past the rare and curious Caro- 

 lina parroquet, now known only from the Gulf region, was an 

 occasional visitor as far north as the lower Delaware and its 

 tributaries. 



River valleys are topographical features of great importance 

 in determining the distribution of living beings. The conditions 

 of greater humidity and higher average temperature that prevail 

 in the bottom lands along a river's course, as compared with the 

 higher ground of the upland districts which forms its watershed, 

 is strikingly illustrated in the case of Carolinian birds. Certain 



