igo8 ~\ Forestry Problems on N. C. Banks 127 
as follows: Three hundred ponies, 500 sheep, 250 cattle, 300 
goats. These animals are very destructive, and are rapidly 
destroying all grass, shrubs, and tree sprouts on the Banks. Com- 
mercially they are of little value and a law compelling the people 
to keep them up would in the end work no hardship on the citi- 
zens of the Banks. 
A more important, though less immediate, reason for checking 
the sand drift lies in its effect on the channels and fisheries of the 
sounds. Where the once wooded Bank has become a sandy desert, 
the sand blown by the wind has filled in or is filling in the chan- 
nel of Core Sound. Wherever the woods are still in existence, the 
deep water extends up to the Bank, but where the woods have 
been exterminated, the channel near the Bank haf been filled up, 
being now only one or two feet deep at low water. This in itself 
is not of great importance for navigation so long as other channels 
near the mainland can be kept open, However, as the sand drifts 
in, these will gradually become shallower until, probably within 
the course of a few decades, the waterway between Bogue and 
Pamlico sounds will become closed. The effcet of a filling in of 
the channels would be disastrous to the fishing industry at this 
point . The enormous stream of mullet and other fish now coming 
through Core Sound from Pamlico would be diverted to some other 
outlet, and fishing would cease to be a means of existence to the 
people of the region. 
As an example of the effect on the people of the drifting sand, 
attention is called to Diamond City, a fishing viliage on the sound 
side of Shackleford Bank not far from Cape Lookout. When the 
forest covered this part of the Bank the villagers were prosperous, 
being sure of a good catch of fish and having productive gardens 
under cultivation. As the sand came over from the beach, the 
gardens were first destroyed, then the channels began filling in and 
the catch of fish fell off. Finally, as the sand spread out more 
and more, the winter storms began to sweep the Bank more and 
more completely, until, about 1903, conditions became such that 
the settlement was broken up, and the inhabitants, about four 
hundred in all, were compelled to move over to Harker’s Island, 
near the mainland. Now Diamond City is visited only in the fall, 
