20 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



they crossed that stream on the ice, it is probable, for 

 they are said not to swim. In a similar manner these 

 animals, intended originally for the warmer provinces 

 only, might find their way still farther north, where it 

 is true they would miss even more their favorite food, 

 the fruit of the Persimon (Diospyros virginiana L.). 

 It is commonly believed in America that the false bag 

 of the female is a matrix as well, although there is 

 ample proof to the contrary. It is the fact, however, 

 that the young are produced very small and unformed, 

 and sustain themselves in the bag through the nipples 

 there found. It is claimed that the young of the opas- 

 sum have been observed as small as a large bean.* 



When the greatest heat of the day was over, we set 

 out towards evening on the road to Brunswick. Five 

 miles from Elizabethtown we came to Bridgetown, a 

 neat little place on the Rariton river, where I visited 

 the father of one of my American friends. He, as one 

 of the King's party, had been obliged to leave his 

 former residence in Jersey and come to Bridgetown 

 because he expected and found more quiet in a place 

 inhabited chiefly by Quakers, who seek to do good to 

 every man or at the least make no use of opportunities 

 to do evil. The Rariton at Bridgetown is still an 

 inconsiderable stream, but large enough to float un- 

 laden vessels, built in the neighborhood, of ten to thirty 

 tons. The shipwrights do not restrict themselves to 

 the banks of the stream but set up the framework be- 

 fore their dwellings, perhaps a mile or two from the 

 river, and bring the finished skeleton to the waterside 



* This fact among others was stated to me by Mr. Forster, 

 a skilful anatomist and surgeon in the English army. 



