294 NATURAL HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA, 



and especially by the road side. Persimmons were in plenty. 

 I saw few birds : one or two scarlet cardinals, a few blue-birds, 

 a shrike, a species of heron, a large flock of cow-buntings, 

 a flight of meadow-larks, some sparrows, and one Carolina 

 wren. 



Colombia is the capital of this state, and were it not for the 

 miserable sandy barren soil, would be pleasantly situated ; it 

 has a college, court-house, state-house, and a church or so. 

 Columbia, Cheraw, and Camden, are great places for the ship- 

 ping of cotton, down the rivers to Charleston, &c. ; but now, 

 the streams being very low, they are compelled to send the 

 cotton to Charleston in waggons. The legislature were sitting, 

 so we went to see them, and were surprised to see the Speaker 

 of the Lower House in a blue silk robe, trimmed with ermine. 

 The streets of Colombia are about a foot deep in loose sand ; 

 they are planted with rows of Catalpa, and China-tree, Melia : 

 one wide street has a road down the middle, as well as by the 

 foot-paths. In the afternoon we walked by the bank of the 

 rivers, and saw some butterflies still out. I also saw a large 

 black and white moth, Bombijx Proserpina of Abbott ; it is ap- 

 parently a Twcilocampa: I could not catch it. Here we first 

 saw Cacti wild on the sands : Tillandsia was in plenty on the 

 trees. The river here is very beautiful, running over a very 

 rocky bed, and being fringed with fine swamp oaks, pines, 

 persimmons, sweet gums, &;c. interwoven with various species 

 of Smilax, Bif/nonia radicans, wild vines, &c. One species 

 of Yucca grows to the height of ten or twelve feet in the 

 gardens here. 



From Colombia to Branchville there was but little to interest 

 us. Branchville is merely a small town on the Charleston and 

 Augusta rail-road. We here took the rail, and after travel- 

 ling about sixty miles through swamps and pine-barrens, 

 reached this city. There are some splendid live oaks close 

 by the city, clothed with a drapery of grey Tillandsia, giving 

 them a most singular and beautiful appearance. I do admire 

 this plant, although it indicates a fever country : from the 

 branches of the tall pine trees, or the twisted limbs of the live 

 oaks, its long grey tassels hung from two to four feet in length, 

 sometimes in a large mass, sometimes in long slender waving 

 tresses, contrasting beautifully with the dark green leaves, 



December 4. — And now for the city of Charleston, a city of 



