28S 



VERTEBRATA. 



THE GREAT WHITE HEKOX OF AMERICA. (SeC p. 290.) 



is," says Wilson, " a constant inhabitant of the Atlantic coast, from New York to Florida ; m 

 deep snows and severe weather, seekinpj the open springs of the cedar and cypress swamps, and 

 the muddy inlets occasionally covered by the tides. On the higher inland parts of the coun- 

 try, beyond the mountains, they are less numerous, and one which was shot in the upper parts 

 of New Hampshire was described to me as a great curiosity. Many of their breeding places occur 

 in both Carolinas, chiefly in the vicinity of the sea. In the lower parts of New Jersey they have 

 also their favorite places for building and rearing their young. These are generally in the gloomy 

 solitudes of the tallest cedar swamps, where, if unmolested, they continue annually to breed for 

 many years. These swamps are from half a mile to a mile in breadth, and sometimes five or six 

 in length, and appear as if they occupied the former channel of some choked up river, stream, 

 lake, or arm of the sea. The appearance they present to a stranger is singular — a front of tall 

 and perfectly straight trunks, rising to the height of fifty or sixty feet, without a limb, and crowded 

 in every direction, their tops so closely woven together as to shut out the day, spreading the 

 gloom of a perpetual twilight below. On a nearer approach, they are found to rise out of the 

 water, which, from the impregnation of the fallen leaves and roots of the cedars, is of the color 

 of brandy. Amid this bottom of congregated springs the ruins of the former forest lie piled in 

 every state of confusion. The roots, prostrate logs, and, in many places, the water, are covered 

 with green, mantling moss, while an undergrowth of laurel, fifteen or twenty feet high, intersects 

 every opening so completely as to render a passage through, laborious and harassing beyond de- 

 scription ; at every step you either sink to the knees, clamber over fallen timber, squeeze yourself 

 through between the stubborn laurels, or plunge to the middle in ponds made by the uprooting 

 of large trees, which the green moss concealed from observation. In calm weather the silence 

 of death reigns in these dreary regions ; a few interrupted ravs of light shoot across the gloom '- 



