NORTH CAROLINA 103 



more oaks are all at once observable. The country 

 travelled through from Virginia, as well as that trav- 

 ersed before and what follows, must be imagined as a 

 continuous, measureless forest, an ocean of trees, in 

 which only here and there cultivated spots, what are 

 called plantations, of more or less extent are to be 

 seen. In the midst of the fields stands commonly a 

 house, better or worse ; the kitchen and other mean 

 out-buildings are at a distance. In Virginia, on the 

 tobacco-plantations, the shelters for hanging and dry- 

 ing the tobacco stand somewhat farther off from the 

 house, as in South Carolina those used in the prepara- 

 tion of indigo. Neither plant being raised as yet in 

 this part of North Carolina, one misses these sub- 

 sidiary buildings, and there is nothing to see but a 

 few cabins for negroes and store-houses, which in 

 outward appearance are seldom much inferior to the 

 dwelling-house of the master. One comes upon such 

 plantations scattered about in these woods at various 

 distances, 3-6 miles, and often as much as 10-15-20 

 miles apart. 



But it is the forests which supply the present in- 

 habitants of North Carolina not merely an occupation 

 and a support, but the means as well of an easier life 

 and often considerable estates. For the products of 

 these pine-woods as such, the convenience and small 

 expence of keeping numerous cattle in them, and the 

 pretty abundant stock of game even now, these have 

 for long formed the most important items in the ex- 

 port trade of the province, carried on chiefly with the 

 West Indies, where there is a near and ready market. 



Through such a lonesome country, then, had we to 

 go from Suffolk to Edenton, 68 miles, or from the 



