176 FORESTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



The most extensive bodies of such swamp lie in the vicinity of 

 the coast in the great Dismal Swamp ; in the counties of Dare and 

 Hyde; and the Pamlico peninsula, where the cedar occurs in 

 small groups in a morass, the growth in which varies a great deal 

 as the amount of moisture in the soil becomes greater or less. 

 There are other large bays in Pamlico county, and on the iiats 

 surrounding and contiguous to Lake Waccamaw. Smaller bodies 

 are scattered along the sandy bottoms of the Chowan river, and 

 occupy small bays in Jones and Bladen counties, and the shallow 

 flats bordering the clear- water streams, in Bladen, Cumberland, 

 Richmond, Harnett and Moore counties. On the State's northern 

 border white cedar occurs at an altitude of 100 feet above sea 

 level; in Moore and Richmond counties, at twice that elevation. 

 Its further distribution to the westward is checked by unfavorable 

 soil-conditions. The total area of white cedar swamp does not 

 exceed 200,000 acres. 



The white cedar is confined to sandy or peaty soils. In the 

 maritime counties it occurs chiefly on peaty soils, often underlaid 

 by marls ; in the more inland and southern counties it is found 

 along the sandy beds of small streams or the contiguous sandy 

 flats subject to frequent overflow; or it occupies small depressions 

 in the sandy soils of the long-leaf pine forests forming the juniper 

 bays. It shuns the heavy alluvial soils. 



CONDITION OF UNLUMBERED WHITE CEDAR SWAMPS. 



On the peaty soils of the best character, especially where lying 

 above beds of loam or marl, white cedar is associated with yellow 

 poplar, the gums t and bays, wherever the amount of moisture and 

 the undecomposed organic constituents become too great for the 

 growth of the oaks. On somewhat better soils it forms dense 

 clumps of nearly pure growth where openings' occur in the cover 

 of the dominant story of yellow poplars and gums. In the depres- 

 sions in the pine barren sections in the white cedar or juniper 

 bays it constitutes, with the white bay and the red bay, the greater 

 portion of the growth, forming a dense wood 60 to 70 feet in 

 height, the crowns of the trees closely interlocking above, their 

 trunks thick, straight and slender ; beneath them, and in their 



