NORTH AMERICA. 221 
ther ; and if any one ftrolled from the reft at too 
great a diftance, the dog would fpring up, head 
the horfe, and bring him back to the company. The 
proprietor of thefe horfes is an Indian in Talaha- 
fochte, about ten miles diftance from this place, 
who, out of humour and experiment, trained his 
dog up from a puppy to this bufinefs : he follows 
his mafter’s horfes only, keeping them in a feparate 
company where they range; and when he is hungry 
or wants to fee his mafter, in the evening- he re- 
turns to town, but never ftays at home a night. 
The region we had journeyed through, lince we 
decamped this morning, is of a far better foil and 
quality than we had yet feen fmce we left Alachua; 
generally a dark grayifh, and fometimes brown or 
black loam, on a foundation of whitifli marl, chalk, 
and teftaceous limeftone rocks, and ridges of a loofe, 
coarfe, reddifh fand, producing ftately Pines in the 
plains, and Live Oak, Mulberry, Magnolia, Palm, 
Zanthoxylon, &c. in the hommocks, and alfo in great 
plenty the perennial Indigo; it grows here five, fix, 
and feven feet high, and as thick together as if it 
had been planted and cultivated. The higher ridges 
of hills afford great quantities of a fpecies of 
iron ore, of that kind found in New-Jerfey and 
Pennfylvania, and there called bog ore; it ap- 
pears on the furface of the ground in large detach- 
ed maffes and ftnaler fragments; it is ponderous 
and feemed rich of that moft ufeful metal ; but one 
property remarkable in thefe terrigenous hones is, 
that they appear to be bliftered, fomewhat refem- 
bling cinders, or as if they had fuffered a violent 
action of fire. 
Leaving the charming favanna and fields of Capo- 
la, we palled feveral miles through delightful plains 
and 
