OUR NEGLECTED SOUTHERN COAST 



A Cruise of the Carnegie Institution Yacht "Physalia" 



By Alfred Goldsborough Mayer 



Director of the Department op Marine Biology of the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington 



With Photographs by the Aidhor 



NO part of our Atlantic coast is 

 less generally known than that 

 which stretches from the mouth 

 of Chesapeake Bay to northern Florida. 



The coastwise steamships shun the 

 proximity of the treacherous sands, and 

 the curiosity of the average 'passenger 

 respecting the shore is more than satis- 

 fied by a glance along the long, low line 

 of dull gray strand trending in hopeless 

 monotony to the obliteration of the hori- 

 zon. Indeed, so low is this coast that 

 Mount Cornelia, north of Saint Johns 

 River, Florida, which is only 63 feet in 

 'height, is nevertheless the most elevated 

 point between Norfolk, Virginia, and 

 Key West, Florida. 



One's interest in this coast develops 

 only upon prolonged association with it, 

 for there is in the vast expanse of its 

 lonely swamp lands a mysterious attrac- 

 tion which, like a mirage, leads us on- 

 ward though but to the allurement of our 

 "hope. 



Exploration is greatly facilitated by 

 the countless number of tidal creeks and 

 estuaries which meander tortuously 

 through the grassy flats, and by extensive 

 sounds, such as those of Albemarle, Pam- 

 lico, Core, and Bogue, whose calm 

 waters lie protected from the Atlantic 

 waves behind narrow barriers of sand 

 dunes. 



Thus it is that with a vessel drawing 

 five feet one may pursue a winding way 

 through these creeks and sounds down 

 nearly the entire length of this coast, and 

 ■only occasionally be obliged to put out to 

 sea. Indeed, the only considerable ocean 

 passage is that between Beaufort, North 

 Carolina, and Charleston. 



Upon such an exploration one passes 

 from the region of chestnuts and beeches, 

 through the pine barrens of the Caro- 

 linas, to the palmetto groves of northern 

 Florida ; and thus from the temperate re- 

 gions to the border lands of the tropics. 

 . .Nor is this region altogether one of 

 desolate flats of swamp grass bending 

 rhythmically to the breeze. It may even 

 be beautiful, as where in North Carolina 

 the Pasquotank River wanders through 

 the avenues of an over-arching forest. 

 Here, in the shadows of the fern thickets, 

 under the canopy of the woods, is the 

 haunt of the bittern, the heron, and the 

 mink, in a region where primeval nature 

 still knows naught of man's encroach- 

 ment. 



At Norfolk, Virginia, we leave behind 

 us the hardwood of the Chesapeake re- 

 gion and enter a land where the tall, 

 straight trunks of pine trees stand in 

 stately monotony in every view. The 

 trees keep a respectful distance apart, so 

 that the noonday sun penetrates to their 

 roots and falls upon the coarse grasses 

 which cover this forest land. Here and 

 there one sees a young pine tree resem- 

 bling a green fox-tail thrust upright into 

 the ground. 



From northern Florida southward the 

 ever-present bayonet-palm usurps the 

 space under the pine trees. Its scaly, 

 knob-like trunks interlace everywhere 

 over the sandy soil, and only its low- 

 lying clusters of serrated leaves thrust 

 upward to the light. No forests are 

 more uninteresting than are the pine bar- 

 rens infested by the impenetrable thickets 

 of this bayonet-palm. The hard yellow 

 green of its bristling leaves obtrudes it- 



