I860,] 



THE SOUTHEKN PLANTER. 



453 



the same county, Dallas, at 760 feet, the 

 bottom of the marl had not been reached. 

 The present upper surface of the bed, (form- 

 ed by ancient denudation, and forming a 

 very acute angle with the plane of the un- 

 der side, is much more nearly horizontal, 

 but still dipping, or sloping downward to- 

 wards the south and gulf coast. The extent 

 and character of this thick cretaceous bed 

 are enough to explain the causes why there 

 should be neither natural springs nor streams 

 in all this country; and also, why, with| 

 very clayey and close-textured surface soils | 

 and sub-soils, that every con; iderable rain 

 should render the ground very wet, and a 

 universal adhesive mire, from which the ab- 

 sorbed superfluous water can escape only by 

 the slow process of evaporation. This latter 

 quality, the efi"ect of an extremely clayey 

 and impervious soil, is the great evil of this 

 otherwise highly favored • region. After 

 spells of rain, and during all winter, the 

 roads are almost impassable by wheel-carria- 

 ges, and the dryest ground is scarcely fit to 

 walk upon. The wheels of carriages, on the 

 roads, would be soon completely enveloped 

 by a tough adhesive mud, usually as black, 

 and almost as sticky as pitch, so that with- 

 out continual cleaning the mud from the 

 wheels, they would soon be entirely cover- 

 ed and rendered immovable. And walkers 

 would find the load of mud on their feet, in- 

 creasing at every step, the most efi'ectual 

 of shackles to forbid voluntary exercise on 

 foot. Such conditions of the soil and roads, 

 I learned only by description, except so far 

 as seeing the indications from the very mark- 

 ed elFect of one hasty and light shower of 

 rain on a before very dry surface, which, for 

 a few hours, made walking difficult and dis- 

 agreeable. But there can be no question of 

 the great inconvenience, annoyance, and ac- 

 tual great loss, in winter, from this peculiar 

 condition of the land, being worse than any 

 person elsewhere and without information, 

 could ever conceive to be possible.* 



* The " cane-brakers" deny, and treat as a ca- 

 lumnious charge of out-siders on their fine coun- 

 try, that it is usually necessary to scrape the 

 masses of adhering mud from the i'eet and legs 

 of the chickens, to enable them to walk. But it 

 is admitted that it is necessary to cut off every 

 I)ig's tail, because if left of its natural length, it 

 would soon collect on the end, a ball of mud 

 which often becoming dry and hard, would be a 

 permanent appendage of great annoyance to the 

 wearer, and more like a " slung shot" than a 

 natural tail. 



The earliest white inhabitants, finding no 

 springs or permanent streams, dug shallow 

 wells or pits in the low and dampest spots, 

 which were sunk a little into the blue lime- 

 rock. In wet weather, the rain-water, that 

 could percolate so low, " seeped" or oozed 

 into these excavations, and so furnished a 

 scant and uncertain supply of very bad wa- 

 ter for drinking. The like diggings, made 

 much broader, (sometimes 40 to 60 feet 

 across,) and with an inclined sloping passage- 

 way from the surface, (and with connected 

 ditches also to bring in surface rain-water.) 

 are still used to supply water to the live- 

 stock on many plantations. This " seeping" 

 water is merely so much of the rain-water 

 as had previously and slowly and with much 

 difficulty, filtrated through the very close 

 upper bed of clay, mostly black with the 

 large impregnation of vegetable or other or- 

 ganic matter, which communicated a disa- 

 greeable flavor to all such water. But for 

 drinking, and all other domestic uses, (other 

 than for live-stock, and sometimes for them 

 also,) there are now usual and abundant sup- 

 plies of rain-water, collected from the roofs 

 of the buildings, and conducted into under- 

 ground cisterns, which are excavated in the 

 compact blue lime-rock. The opening into 

 these cisterns is like that of a small ordina- 

 ry well. But when reaching the firm calca- 

 reous bed, the digging is widened on all 

 sides, as much as may be desired for abun- 

 dant capacity ; and the firm texture of the 

 lime-rock prevents any danger of the over- 

 hanging top faUing in. A side apartment, 

 is in some cases extended laterally, with a 

 horizontal ceiling, to serve for a refrigera- 

 tor, to keep milk, butter and fresh meats in. 

 Into these subterranean excavations, very 

 little of outer or upper water penetrates by 

 percolation through the overlying and sur- 

 rounding firm marl, or soft but solid creta- 

 ceous rock. These cisterns, or underground 

 galleries and small apartments, could not be 

 more permanent, or safe, for their designed 

 uses, if hewn out of solid marble. As all 

 communication with the open air cannot be 

 avoided, mosquitoes, though otherwise few 

 in number, and of but slight annoyance, 

 would find their way to, and if not prevent- 

 ed, breed in numbers in the water of these 

 cisterns. This however, is counteracted by 

 placing in them a few small fish, which 

 consume all the eggs and la7'vsc of the mos- 

 quitoes. 



But the most convenient and abundant 



