272 REMARKS ON THE 



flies {Americe, "devil's darning-needles") were there in swarms 

 in April and May. Frogs, too, there was no lack of, and 

 noise enough they made in April, May and June. I used to 

 think of a story 1 heard on ship-board. A fellow w^as boast- 

 ing of the fertility of his lands on the Savannah river, they 

 were so rich that they produced three hundred bushels to the 

 acre. A bystander reminded him they were all a swamp ; 

 " True," says the boaster, " and they'll produce you three 

 hundred bushels of frogs to the acre, and alligators enough 

 to make a rail fence round them." As to frogs, this pond was 

 quite as productive. Beyond this pond all was one long 

 space of open pine-barren, for I know^ not how far south. 

 Occasionally swamps are to be met with, and one long line 

 of swamp is known as the Tw^elve-mile Swamp, a name, the 

 origin of which I do not know ; it can have no relation to 

 its length, for it reaches to within six miles of the bluff", and 

 in walking through the pine-barrens thirty miles further 

 south between Picolata and Augustine, I had to cross it, and 

 observed that it continued much further south. There are 

 several large and small ponds in the pine-barrens, one, I 

 should think covering above a hundred acres. The banks of 

 this are full of holes of the large tortoise or Gopher ( Testudo 

 Carolina), looking like rabbit burrows. These pine-barrens 

 are generally covered with dwarf palmettoes, Chamaerops 

 serrulata, and a low growth of Quercus pumila, and some 

 other shrubs, amongst which Ceratiola ericoides is very con- 

 spicuous from its heath-like appearance ; in fact, were it not 

 that it is rarely to be seen without many of its two-seeded 

 berries still adhering to the last year's shoots, it might easily 

 be mistaken for a heath. There are a good many flowers 

 scattered through these pine-barrens, the larger portion being 

 Composited ; but the custom of annually burning the grass 

 destroys these as vrell as the insects, the seeds of the annuals 

 being, in a great measure, burnt, and the growth of all others 

 of course is injured. 



Westward from our dwelling, but separated by a little 

 creek and a narrow strip of marsh, was a large plantation 

 known as the Ship-yard, from a part of it having been once 

 used for that purpose. The soil and general appearance of 

 the surface was the same as at the bluff", the former varying 

 from all sand to a mixture of one part of vegetable mould 

 with one of sand. Large tracts had been cleared here and 

 neglected, and now were overrun with bushes of the Chick- 

 asaw plum, dew-berries {Ruhus trivialis), whose pleasant 

 fruit ripens in April, wild vines, various species of Smilax 

 and Cactus Opuntia, or an allied species (for certainly here 



