NORTH CAROLINA 127 



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met us, and we saw but few dwellings; and quite as 

 lonesome were the 40 miles from Washington to New- 

 Bern. We passed Batchelor's Creek and Neuse River, 

 and for the last 18 miles saw not one house, but sheep, 

 swine, and black cattle enough, which roam the forest. 

 Beasts of prey have free booty among these herds: 

 multiplying fast and costing nothing, nobody has an 

 eye to them. 



It is an advantage that now at mid-winter one has 

 almost the same prospect as that to be had in summer. 

 That is to say, the sparse, thin grass which grows 

 under the pines and on the dry sand turns as wilted 

 and brown from the heat as it is now yellow and sap- 

 less from the cool winter nights. Everywhere the 

 Stipa avenacea L. appeared to have the upper hand 

 here ; a rough grass which is eaten by cattle only in the 

 spring while it is quite tender. On the dryer tracts 

 there is absolutely no undergrowth or bush among the 

 lofty pines, and the trees standing by no means close, 

 one can see far between them. But at every brook, 

 or at any rather moister spot, there appear forthwith 

 beautiful thickets of evergreen bush, called indis- 

 criminately laurels, and such places consequently are 

 known as laurel-swamps. 



The Yucca filament osa L. was now often to be seen 

 in the woods. Its leaves can be cut into threads, thin 

 and strong, of which the people make use for various 

 household purposes. 



The red bird and the blue bird (Loxia Cardinalis 

 and caerulea L.) frequently appeared hereabouts, and 

 other birds which winter in this region and only in 

 summer migrate to Pensylvania and New York. 

 Swallows come hither from the south the last of 



