OF NORTH CAROLINA. 209 



and so break the ware in pieces, being a very 

 strong creature. This animal, in these parts, 

 sometimes exceeds seventeen feet long. It is im- 

 possible to kill them with a gun, unless you chance 

 to hit them about the eyes, which is a much softer 

 place than the rest of their impenetrable armo-r. 

 They roar and make a hideous noise against bad 

 weather, and before they come' out of their dens 

 in the spring. I was pretty much frightened mth 

 one of these once, which happened thus : I had 

 built a house about half a mile from an Indian 

 town on the fork of ISTeus river, where I dwelt by 

 myself, excepting a young Indian fellow, and a 

 bull dog, that I had along with me. I had 

 not then been so long a sojourner in Ameri- 

 ca, as to be thoroughly acquainted with this 

 creature. One of them had got his nest directly 

 under my house, which stood on pretty high land 

 and by a creek side, in whose banks his entering 

 place was, his den reaching the ground directly 

 on which my house stood. I was sitting alone 

 by the fire-side, about nine o'clock at night, some- 

 time in March, the Indian fellow being gone to 

 the town to see his relations, so that there was no 

 body in the house but myself and my dog ; when, 

 all of a sudden, this ill-favored neighbor of mine 

 set up such a roariiig, that he made the house 

 shake about my ears, and so continued like a bit- 

 tern, but a hundred times louder if possible, for 

 four or iive times. The dog stared as if he was 

 frightened out of his senses ; nor indeed could I 



