136 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



miles away. The Neus, as well as the other rivers of 

 this country yield throughout the year an abundance 

 of fish, of one kind or another. Mullets (Mugil 

 Albula L.) come in the autumn with the first cold 

 nights, going up the river in great schools from the 

 sea to spawn. At that time many boats and shalops 

 are to be seen about the mouths of the rivers ; with 

 little trouble they take a quantity of these fish, salt 

 them, and convey them to the West Indies. Mullets 

 are in the rivers throughout the winter. With them 

 come numerous schools of a sort of trouts, which are 

 a more delicate fish, for no sooner does a fresh north- 

 wester blow than they go quite numb, and may be 

 taken almost dead from the water. 



A chain of small, low islands lies close in to the 

 main-land, along North and South Carolina, forming 

 a narrow, navigable sound. The soil immediately on 

 the coast is not altogether bad, in many places better 

 than that more inland, and many people are tempted 

 to live there, where in addition to farming they may 

 get a support and money by fishing. The shore, it 

 is said, is pretty well settled already ; and it was 

 astonishing, after we had come the whole way from 

 New-Bern without meeting a soul, to be assured here 

 that by a few musket-shots and in an hour's time, 200 

 men might be brought together from the adjacent 

 country. 



The alligator or American crocodile begins to be 

 more frequent in this region. But at this time of the 

 year none were to be seen, for they keep hidden in 

 their holes during the three winter months ; only on 

 very warm days, it is said, are their tracks to be found 

 on the sand. There is ascribed to them a strong odor 



