Down the Pocomoke 



BY GEORGE SPENCER MORRIS 



Willards lies halfway down the peninsula and midway be- 

 tween the Chesapeake and the sea. It was barely sunrise when 

 two of us arrived upon the scene, having passed a strenuous 

 night. 



Leaving Philadelphia at eleven p. m. we reached Salisbury at 

 about three a. m. , where a two-horse team awaited us. Rain 

 was then descending in torrents, and for the remainder of the 

 night we drove in the darkness through the storm and the mud. 

 At daybreak we jogged into the small and sleepy settlement of 

 Willards, which was still for the most part wrapped in slumber. 

 Here we secured a villainous breakfast, and were joined an hour 

 later by the four other members of our party. They came from 

 the east by the little railroad which here spans the peninsula. 

 They had left Philadelphia at four p. m. on the previous day, 

 had spent the night comfortably at the little town of Berlin, and 

 now, well fortified by sleep and food, they were the better pre- 

 pared to enter upon the activities of the coming day. Our 

 canoes and other paraphernalia had preceded us. They were 

 quickly loaded upon a two-horse open vehicle. Without regret 

 we turned our backs on Willards and went down the sandy road 

 which led to the Pocomoke, a mile to the eastward. 



This is one of the most northerly of the cypress rivers. Per- 

 haps it should hardly be called a cypress river, for its banks 

 and adjoining marshes are heavily timbered with a great variety 

 of bog-growing trees, among which the cypress has a bare 

 majority; nor does it here grow to the great size which it attains 

 on the more southern streams. 



The waters of the Pocomoke are restrained in a mill-pond just 

 below Willards. Hundreds of cypresses rise from the placid 

 surface of the pond. The road which we followed led across 

 the dam, and by it stood the mill. Here just below the 

 rumbling wheel we slipped our canoes into the clear brown 

 water and were ready to start on our winding way southward 



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