TRAVELS IN 
There feems, in fhort, nothing wanted but the ap- 
pearance of wigwam and a canoe to complete the 
fcene. 
Keeping along the Weft or Indian fhore, I faw 
balking, on the fedgy banks, numbers of alligators*, 
' fome of them of an enormous fize. 
The high forefts on this coaft now wore a grand 
and fublime appearance ; the earth rifmg gradually 
from the river weftward, by eafy fwelling ridges, 
behind one another, lifting the diftant groves up in- 
16 the ikies. The trees are of the lofty kind, as the 
grand laurel magnolia, palma elata, liquidambar 
flyraciflua, fagus fyivatica, querci, juglans hiccory 3 
fraxinus and others. 
On my doubling a long point of land, the river 
appeared furprifingly widened, forming a large bay, 
of an oval form, and feveral miles in extent. On the 
Weft fide it was bordered round with low mar-flies, 
and inverted with a fwamp of Cyprefs, the trees fo 
lofty, as to preclude the fight of the high-land fo- 
refts beyond them ; and thefe trees, having flat 
tops, and all of equal height, feemed to be a green 
plain, lifted up and fupported upon columns in the 
air, round the Weft fide of the bay. 
The cupreftus difticha ftands in the flrft order of 
North American trees. Its majeftic feature is fur- 
prifmg ; and on approaching it we are ftruck 
with a kind of awe, at beholding the ftatelinefs of 
the trunk, lifting its cumbrous top towards the Ikies, 
and cafting a wide lhade upon the ground, as a 
dark intervening cloud, which, for a time, excludes 
* I have made ufe of the terms alligator and crocodile indifcriminately 
for this animal, alligator being the country c?,mc. 
the 
