66 
TRAVELS IN 
ray, are infadable cannibals, and very troublelome 
to the fifhermen. The bays and lagoons are ftored 
with oyfters, and varieties of other flhell-iifh, crabs, 
ftirimp, &c. The clams, in particular, are large, 
their meat white, tender, and delicate. 
There is a large fpace betwixt this chain of Tea- 
coaft-i (lands and the , main land, perhaps generally 
near three leagues in breadth ; but all this fpace is 
not covered with water: I eftimate nearly two- 
thirds of it to confift of low fait plains, which pro- 
duce Barilla, Sedge, Rulhes, &c. and which border 
on the main land, and the weftern coafls of the iflands. 
The eaft Tides of thefe iflands are, for the molt part, 
clean, hard, Tandy beaches, expofed to the wafh of 
the ocean. Between thefe iflands are the mouths 
or entrances of Tome rivers, which run down from 
the continent, winding about through thefe low fait 
marfhes, and delivering their waters into the founds, 
which are very extenfive capacious harbours, from 
three to five and fix to eight miles over, and com- 
municate with each other by parallel fait rivers, or 
pafles, that flow into the found : they afford an ex- 
tenfive and fecure inland navigation for moft craft, 
fuch as large fchooners, (loops, pettiaugers, boats, 
and canoes; and this inland communication of wa- 
ters extends along the Tea coaft with but few and 
fhort interruptions, from the bay of Chefapeak, in 
Virginia, to the Miflifippi, and how much farther I 
know not, perhaps as far as Vera Cruz. Whether 
this chain of fea-coaft-iflands is a ftep, or advance, 
which this part of our continent is now making on 
the Atlantic ocean, we muff leave to future ages to 
determine. But it Teems evident, even to demon- 
fixation, that thofe fait marfhes adjoining the coaft 
of the main, and the reedy and graflfy iflands and 
marfhes 
