CHAPTER VII 
CYPRESS SWAMPS 
PASSING interest in sawmills once led 
me into the swamps of the Roanoke 
River, and while my mind was ostensibly on 
logs and their transportation, it was speedily 
evident that that interminable morass was 
a region different from any farther north— 
the lovely hemlock swamps where the rose 
pogonia grows: a new personality whose note 
was a profounder gloom than any other aspect 
of Nature had shown me. Yet it exerted a 
certain force of attraction, perhaps owing to 
its very gloominess, or it may be, to its 
strangeness and solitude. In all events it 
was strong enough to easily divert the at- 
tention, from considerations of commerce, to 
the contemplation of the vast dismal swamp 
and of certain aspects of bird life connected 
with it. These swamps form an integral 
part of the South-eastern States and are 
characteristic of them. The impressions they 
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