140 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



coast, however, even where the cattle cannot get to 

 salt-water, they are not so lickerish ; and no salt is 

 given them, the people believing (but mistakenly) that 

 the air itself and the falling dews are laden with salt 

 evaporated from the sea. 



Sweet water is found almost everywhere along the 

 coast at a slight depth. Even near the shore, if a pit 

 is dug with the hands in the sand, it soon fills with 

 water tolerably fresh. A few miles from the sea, 

 water is found in the clay-bed under the sand at a 

 depth of 2-4-6 feet. Also there are very good and 

 fresh natural springs in this low country ; in the midst 

 of the swamps strong, pure springs are found, for 

 which commonly a way is opened by trees rotting out 

 and leaving holes. 



That the greatest and most important part of the 

 immense forests of this fore-country consists of pine, I 

 have already several times mentioned. But it is pre- 

 cisely this wood that so much advantages the inhab- 

 itants, in which lies the compensation for their gen- 

 erally sterile soil ; it is this that supplies them with 

 excellent timber for building and other purposes, and 

 with the opportunity for considerable gain from tur- 

 pentine, tar, pitch, resin, and turpentine-oil. There- 

 fore the pitch-pine is for North Carolina the tree most 

 important and profitable. 



Turpentine, as is well known, is obtained by cut- 

 ting into the trunk. These cuts, which they call 

 ' boxes ' here, are made at first quite low, only 1 or 2 

 feet above the ground ; in the following years they are 

 extended upwards, new ones being made above the 

 first; but there are no cuts made higher than 5-6 feet 

 above the ground, although it would be practicable to 



