NORTH CAROLINA 119 



supply of patience if they are not to be outdone at ex- 

 treme carelessness which may often mean hindrance 

 and loss to them, for there is no means of prevention 

 or of compensation. To be sure, we were informed 

 that we could bring action against the owner of the 

 ferry for the loss of time and the expence involved, and 

 might be certain of getting judgment; but we should 

 have had to wait for a court-day, which was not worth 

 the trouble. 



In two hours we crossed the Sound, into which fall 

 many larger and smaller streams, of which the most 

 considerable are, the Roanoke, Chowan or Gouana 

 (3 miles broad at the mouth, but not of a long course 

 inland), Maherren, Blackwater, Nottoway, and others 

 of less consequence, which all contribute to render the 

 water of the Sound almost sweet. The Sound is con- 

 nected with the ocean by divers inlets, but the mouths 

 of these being all choked by bars * are navigable 

 either not at all or for very small craft. Chief among 

 the fore-mentioned streams is the Roanoke. It rises in 

 the Blue Mountains in latitude 37, having several 

 sources (the heads of Roanoke), and keeps a south- 

 easterly direction. It is in that region that the Blue 

 Mountains begin to be markedly lower, and at only a 

 few miles' distance from the head-springs of the 

 Roanoke, another stream, the New River, takes its 

 rise, which has a course quite opposite to that of the 

 Roanoke, flowing north-west and falling into the Ohio 

 as the great Kanhawa. The Roanoke, at its entrance 



* These sand-banks change position from time to time ; the 

 channel is often quite filled in so as to be crossed a-foot, but 

 opens again after a space and gives free passage to larger or 

 smaller vessels. 



