THE INLAND PASSAGE. 55 



were separated by dykes, and being nearly rectangu- 

 lar, gave a novel appearance to the low, marshy 

 land. Had we known where to go, we could prob- 

 ably have had good English snipe shooting. But 

 we did not stop to give Mr. Green a chance to inter- 

 view any one to find out. AVe, however, saw num- 

 berless flocks of bay snipe on the lower part of the 

 South Edisto, where the wind left us one night, and 

 where Mr. Green killed a couple of dozen. On the 

 following day, that gentleman was so pleased with 

 the performance of the yacht in crossing St. Helena 

 Sound in a squall, that he insisted on our putting 

 to sea, upon the ground that he was tired of such 

 tame sailing. The rest of the party were nothing 

 loth, and the good little ship was soon across the 

 bar and on the broad bosom of old Mother Ocean, 

 a very step-mother as she can at times prove herself 

 to be. Unfortunately, the wind died out, and we 

 were becalmed or nearly so, and crawled slowly past 

 Fripp's Inlet. When we were just outside Port 

 Eoyal breakers, which we reached at sundown, there 

 was a dead calm, and we drifted backwards till we 

 came to anchor in some four fathoms of water. 



Our luck did not desert us, and before dark a 

 nice breeze sprang up, which carried us into the 

 harbor and up to the mouth of Skull Creek, where 

 we passed the night in perfect comfort. Next 

 morning the wind came out strong from the north- 

 east, blowing what sailors would call half a gale of 

 wind. We got under way as soon as we could, 

 and were soon slashing along at a good nine miles 



