Haw Creeh 



229 



at particular seasons of the year he had crossed the bar- 

 rens when they were covered with water fully knee-deep, 

 when, according to his expression, they * looked most 

 awful ; ' and I readily believed him, as we now and then 

 passed through muddy pools which reached the saddle- 

 girths of our horses. Here and there large tracts covered 

 with tall grasses, and resembling the prairies of the west- 

 ern wilds, opened to our view. Wherever the country 

 happened to be sunk a little beneath the general level, it 

 was covered with cypress-trees, whose spreading arms 

 were hung with a profusion of Spanish moss. The soil 

 in such cases consisted of black mud, and was densely 

 covered with bushes, chiefly of the magnolia family. We 

 crossed in succession the heads of three branches of Haw 

 Creek, of which the waters spread from a quarter to 

 half a mile in breadth, and through which we made our 

 way with extreme difficulty. While in the middle of one, 

 my companion told me that once, when in the very spot 

 where he then stood, his horse chanced to place his fore- 

 feet on the back of a large alligator, which, not well pleas- 

 ed at being disturbed in his repose, suddenly raised his 

 head, opened his monstrous jaws, and snapped off a part 

 of the lip of his affrighted pony. You may imagine the 

 terror of the poor beast, which, however, after a few plun- 

 ges, resumed its course, and succeeded in carrying its 

 rider through in safety. As a reward for this achievement 

 it was ever after honored with the appellation of ' Alliga- 

 tor.' 



" We had now travelled about twenty miles, and the 

 sun having reached the zenith, we dismounted to partake 

 of some refreshment. From a muddy pool we contrived 

 to obtain enough of tolerably clear water to mix with the 

 contents of a bottle, the like of which I would strongly 

 recommend to every traveller in these swampy regions. 

 Our horses, too, found something to grind among the herb- 



