THE DIVIDING LINE. 53 



bread bags. Though, as rough as the woods were, the soil was extremely 

 good all the way, being washed down from the neighbouring hills into the 

 plain country. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, the surveyors drove 

 on the line four miles and two hundred and five poles. 



In the mean time we were so unlucky as to meet with no sort of game 

 the whole day, so that the men were obliged to make a frugal distribution of 

 what little they left in the morning. We encamped upon a small rill, where 

 the horses came off as temperately as their masters. They were by this 

 time grown so thin, by hard travel and spare feeding, that henceforth, in pure 

 compassion, we chose to perform the greater part of the journey on foot. 

 And as our baggage was by this time grown much lighter, we divided it, 

 after the best manner, so that every horse's load might be proportioned to the 

 strength he had left. Though, after all the prudent measures we could take, 

 we perceived the hills began to rise upon us so fast in our front, that it would 

 be impossible for us to proceed much ferther. 



We saw very few squirrels in the upper parts, because the wild cats de- 

 vour them unmercifully. Of these there are four kinds : the fox squirrel, the 

 gray, the flj'ing, and the ground squirrel. These last resemble a rat in every 

 thing but the tail, and the black and russet streaks that run down the length 

 of their little bodies. 



26th. We found our way grow still more mountainous, after extending 

 the line three hundred poles farther. We came then to a rivulet that ran 

 with a swift current towards the south. This we fancied to be another 

 branch of the Irvin, though some of the men, who had been Indian traders, 

 judged it rather to be the head of Deep river, that discharges its stream into 

 that of Pee Dee; but this seemed a wild conjectui'e. The hills beyond that 

 river were exceedingly lofty, and not to be attempted by our jaded palfreys, 

 which could now hardly di^ag their legs after them upon level ground. Be- 

 sides, the bread began to grow scanty, and the winter season to advance 

 apace upon us. We had likewise reason to apprehend the" consequences of 

 being intercepted by deep snows, and the swelling of the many waters 

 between us and home. The first of these misfortunes would starve all our 

 horses, and the other ourselves, by cutting off our retreat, and obliging us to 

 winter in those desolate woods. These considerations determined us to stop 

 short here, and push our adventures no farther. The last tree we marked 

 was a red oak, growing on the bank of the river ; and to make the place 

 more remarkable, we blazed all the trees around it. 



We found the whole distance, from Coratuck inlet to the rivulet where we |^ 

 left off, to be, in a straight line, two hundred and forty-one miles and two 

 hundred and thirty poles. And from the place where the Carolina commis- 

 sioners deserted us, seventy-two miles and tnree hvmdred and two poles. 

 This last part of the journey was generally very hilly, or else grown up with 

 troublesome thickets and underwoods, all which our Carolina friends had the 

 discretion to avoid. We encamped in a dirty valley near the rivulet above- 

 mentioned, for the advantage of the canes, and so sacrificed our own conve- 

 nience to that of our horses. There was a small mountain half a mile to 

 the northward of us, which we had the curiosity to climb up in the afternoon, 

 in order to enlarge our prospect. From thence we were able to discover 

 where the two ledges of rnountains closed, as near as we could guess, about 

 thirty miles to the west of us, and lamented that our present circumstances 

 would not permit us to advance the line to that place, which the hand of Na- 

 ture had made so very remarkable. 



Not far from our quarters one of the men picked up a pair of elk's horns, 

 not very large, and discovered the track of the elk that had shed them. It 

 was rai'e to find . any tokens of those animals so far to the south, because 



