348 UNITED STATES. 



-•t 



" Another curiosity, which occurred to my view, 

 was the pigeon roost on a branch of Big Black, about 

 sixty miles below the Chickasaw nation. An account 

 of the phenomenon there exhibited, carries with it 

 such an air of the marvellous, that, had I been the 

 only spectator, it would have been passed over iri 

 silence. The pigeons had taken their station in and 

 about a place known by the name of the Hurri- 

 cane Swamp. The greater part of the large timber 

 had been blown down, and they had perched on the 

 branches of the small timber that remained; and 

 •which, being broken by them, now hung down like 

 the inverted bush of a broom. Under each tree and 

 sappling, lay an astonishing quantity of their dung, 

 of which, from the specimens we saw, there must 

 have been not only hundreds, but thousands, of wag- 

 gon loads. Round each resting place was an hillock 

 raised a considerable height above the surface, al- 

 though the substance had been there eighteen months 

 when we made our observations on the place. At 

 that time the heaps were, no doubt, greatly sunk* 

 What bounds they occupied we could not ascertain 

 as the swamp was so full of brambles and fallen tim- 

 ber that we could not leave the road. It is near a 

 mile in diameter; and, as far as I can recollect, their 

 traces were the chief part of the way, and about aii 

 hundred paces on the north side of the swamp.'* 



To give an idea of the number and weight of the 

 pigeons, Mr. H. then relates, that a hickory tree, 

 of more than a foot in diameter, was alighted on by 

 so many of these birds, that its top was bent down 

 to the ground, and its roots started a little on the op = 



