Flight, &fc. of Pigeons. 135 



by the roots. The branches of others are broken off, leaving only 

 the naked stem. From dusk until an hour or more after dark, im- 

 mense flocks continually arrive, from every quarter of the heavens, 

 and it requires the greatest care, on the part of those who visit the 

 camp to kill or to capture the pigeons, to avoid the fall of the limbs 

 and branches of the trees, which are continually dropping through the 

 whole night. When, as the flocks arrive, a branch or a tree is filled, 

 the pigeons still continue to accumulate upon the backs of each other, 

 until the branch or the whole tree gives way, when they seek a new 

 spot, to repeat the same thing. In the night, a great many are taken 

 by hand from the low bushes, on which they alight, when forced from 

 the higher trees. The earth is covered with their excrements to the 

 depth of three or four inches, which would be, if within their reach, 

 a source of wealth to the melon growers of Egypt ; as they use the 

 dung of doves, in preparing the earth for their finest melons. The 

 encamping ground, being several miles from any setdement, wolves 

 and foxes, visiting the spot to feast on the disabled and wounded 

 pigeons, are very numerous here. I have the above facts from a 

 man who visited the place at night, and, in a few hours, killed and 

 brought away three hundred pigeons. In the morning, they leave 

 the camp about sunrise — the rustling of their wings, as they depart, 

 roaring like thunder, and filling the auditors with awe and astonish- 

 ment. It is nearly three months since they began roosting in this 

 place, and for the last two, the spot has been visited nearly every 

 night, by the inhabitants for many miles around, and thousands of the 

 pigeons have been killed. The abundance of nuts has caused them 

 to be very fat, and excellent food. The situation is hilly, wild and se- 

 questered, full of laurel thickets, and high projecting cliffs of sandstone 

 rocks, under which the hunters kindle fires and spend the night, af- 

 fording a^'icturesque scene for the pen of a Cooper or a Scott. 

 Marietta, Feb. 1, 1833. 



P. S. Strata connected with the salt of the West, named in the 

 table in Dr. Hildreth's paper, p. 57.— By a letter received from 

 Dr. Hildreth, since the printing of his paper on the salt formation of 

 the West, we learn, that the strata are composed chiefly of sand- 

 stone, schistus, and indurated clay of different colors ; and that the 

 argillite is called by the workmen soapstone. 



Quere. — Are not the indurated saponaceous clays and similar slaty 

 clays, called, in the popular language — soapstone .'* — Ed. 



