236 BIRDS. [CHAP. XVII. 



leaves spread out on all sides, as in other fan palms. Those 

 which have fallen off do not leave separate scars on the trunk, 

 but rings are formed by their bases. The cabbage of the young&quot; 

 palm is used as a vegetable, but when this part is cut off&quot;, the 

 plant is killed. I saw sections of the wood, and the structure of 

 it resembles that of true palms. It is said by Elliott to be inval 

 uable for submarine construction, as it is never attacked by the 

 ship-worm, or Teredo tiavalis. This tree flourishes in a clay 

 soil, and is of slow growth. It requires the sea air, and has not 

 suffered from the late severe frost. We saw some plants twelve 

 years old, and others which in fifty years had attained a height 

 of about twenty or twenty-five feet. Such as have reached forty 

 feet are supposed to be at least a century old. In those fields 

 where the negroes were at work, and where the cotton plants 

 were still standing five or six feet high, with no other trees ex 

 cept these palms, I could well imagine myself in the tropics. 

 We put up many birds, the names of which were all familiar to 

 Dr. Le Conte ; among others the Virginian partridge (Ortyx 

 mrginiana), the rook (Corvus americanus), nearly resembling 

 our European species, not only in plumage but in its note, the 

 marsh hawk (Circus cyaneus), the snowy heron (Ardea can- 

 didissima), the bald-headed eagle, the summer duck, and meadow 

 lark. We also heard the mocking-bird in the woods. As we 

 were entering a barn, a screech-owl (Bubo asio, Lin.) flew out 

 nearly in the face of one of the party. When we came to a tree 

 partially barked by lightning, I asked Dr. Le Conte whether he 

 adopted the theory that this decortication was caused by steam ; 

 the sap or juices of the tree, immediately under the bark, being 

 suddenly converted by the heat of the electric fluid into vapor. 

 He said that lightning was so common here, that he had had 

 opportunities of verifying this hypothesis by observing that the 

 steam, or small cloud of smoke, as it is commonly called, which 

 is produced when a tree is struck, disappears immediately, as if 

 by condensation. 



There are decided proofs on the coast of Georgia of changes in 

 the level of the land, in times geologically modern, and I shall 

 afterward mention the stumps of trees below the sea-level, at the 



