NORTH CAROLINA 107 



rather sourish taste. Horses do not eat it willingly; 

 horned cattle tolerate it in winter, from hunger and lack 

 of something better ; and in order to supply the cattle 

 keeping in .the woods with this nourishment, the peo- 

 ple fell here and there such trees as are most abun- 

 dantly laden. 



In the swamps, on the banks of the rivers, and in 

 other low spots that are overflowed, there flourish 

 everywhere an exceeding great quantity of canes or 

 reeds. The younger leaves and tender shoots of these 

 supply the cattle let run in the woods with the chief 

 part of their winter food. Thus the raising of cattle 

 is made extraordinarily easy to the planter, who has 

 little to spend on their keep until they are ready for 

 fattening. These canes are hardly found north of the 

 James and York rivers, but to the west, even beyond 

 the mountains, they are everywhere plentiful in such 

 places. They shoot up in close thickets, the canes 

 sending up sprigs or joints 8-10 inches long, and 

 measuring 1-2 inches through near the ground. Gen- 

 erally they are from 3 to 12 feet high, but now and 

 then much higher. I have seen no blooms, and there- 

 fore do not venture to say to what species * they be- 

 long. 



Most of the North American indigenous wild ani- 

 mals are still to be found in these extensive and thinly 

 settled woods of the fore-country of North Carolina. 

 Wolves, bears, wild cats, the brown tyger or cuguar, 

 as well as the bison and the original, are often met 

 with in North and South Carolina even far to the east 

 of the mountains, whither they have been frightened 



* Probably Zizania aquatica L. 



