TO PAMLICO SOUND FOR DUCK 



A Hard Luck Story 



BY ALEXANDER HUNTER 



The five great Sounds of North 

 Carolina were apparently at one time 

 a part of the ocean, and it needs but a 

 small tidal wave to overflow and over- 

 whelm the sand bank that for a hun- 

 dred miles, separates the sea beach 

 from the shore of the Sounds, to make 

 old ocean regain her lost territory. The 

 Currituck, Albemarle, Chowan, and 

 Pamlico Sounds are themselves barred 

 by two swamps from each other, and 

 continuous navigation is only by canals 

 that give access into each, and make 

 uninterrupted, inland navigation for 

 nearly 200 miles. 



There are many fresh water rivers 

 pouring into these sounds, and scores 

 of small villages and hamlets crown 

 their banks, which, were it not for the 

 outlet to Norfolk, Newberne, and Wil- 

 mington, would perish from simple in- 

 anition ; for there is no back-country 

 to support, with its garnered grain, any 

 organized community. All merchan- 

 dise is either the product of ocean or 

 river and such as can be transported 

 by water. Roads, turnpikes or rail- 

 ways are impracticable, for the whole 

 section is but a vast swamp, alternated 

 by soggy bottoms and miry woodland. 

 The chief exports are pine and cypress 

 timber, rafts of which are hauled by 

 steam tugs through the narrow canal 

 and broad sounds to market. Fish is 

 the great staple of trade, as well as 

 oysters and wild fowl ; and every na- 

 tive is a fisherman and gunner com- 

 bined. They work in the spring and 

 summer with the net, and in the fall 

 and winter with the gun. They are 

 all splendid shots by inheritance as 

 well as practice, and although the 

 North Carolinians living along the 

 eastern coast are wretchedly poor, 

 their wants are simple and they have 

 no trouble in keeping the household 



pot boiling all the year round. The 

 women are very industrious, but the 

 men are constitutionally lazy, and like 

 the Indians, look down upon labor, and 

 permit the squaws to do all the drudg- 

 ery. Higher up on the rivers, where 

 the larger farms are, the condition of 

 the people is different ; there can be 

 found men of means, who live liberally, 

 and whose hospitality has become 

 widespread. 



The water of these Sounds is slight- 

 ly brackish ; for in the Chowan and 

 Pamlico Sounds there is an inlet 

 through which the saline water of the 

 ocean mingles, making a mixture that 

 is neither one thing nor the other ; and 

 where the wild fowl which haunt either 

 the brine or the fresh water, can find 

 suitable food, though the quantity and 

 quality of wild fowl is markedly dif- 

 ferent from that of the sounds, for 

 farther South, the water deepens, and 

 the wild celery grows less. Then, 

 again, where the ocean flavor is strong, 

 this esculent, that the Canvas-back 

 and Redhead are so fond of, is killed 

 by the saline properties. 



Several years ago I learned that the 

 Pamlico lighthouse, situated on a large 

 marsh just where the Pamlico river 

 empties into the Sound, was about to 

 be abandoned by the Government, on 

 account of the rapidly increasing 

 shoals in its vicinity. Inquiry at the 

 Treasury Department confirmed the 

 truth of the rumor, and I immediately 

 wrote down to the natives of that vi- 

 cinity, asking if the place afforded any 

 sport in the way of wild fowl. In an- 

 swer, supported by the statement of the 

 lighthouse keeper, they assured me the 

 gunning was excellent. So I appeared 

 before the lighthouse board, and made 

 application to have the property turned 

 over to me for a shooting resort; and 



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