LETTEES FROM ALABAMA. 
81 
rated by the sun. These hollows are sometimes 
large, and in winter, and during rainy seasons, 
form permanent ponds of considerable magnitude, 
but the water is of course very unwholesome. 
I have heard sad accounts of the privations under- 
gone by planters on these “dry and thirsty lands.” 
Not very far from this neighbourhood there was a 
family, whose dependence was a large pond of this 
kind. The weather was excessively hot, and they 
were panting with thirst all day long, yet dared 
not use the water but in the most parsimonious 
manner. In any other circumstances it would have 
been rejected with loathing, for it was green, and 
stagnant, and lukewarm, and in one part of the 
pond lay the bloated carcase of a dead horse, to add 
to its flavour. This they were reduced to drink 
until it was absolutely impossible, when the only 
resource was to send the waggon and team with 
a large tub almost daily a distance of many miles, 
at a great expense of labour and time. When 
procured in this way, the water was so precious, 
that every mode of economizing it w^^as practised ; 
the scanty drop, in which the faces of the family 
were washed in the morning, served to wash the 
hands the whole day, and was in the evening given 
to the cattle ; all that could be preserved from the 
necessary household lustrations was given to them 
likewise. The washing of clothes w^as performed 
at a distance, the garments being taken to the 
water ; and in this miserable way they dragged 
on, until the weather broke up, and the rains 
afforded them a fresh supply. 
There are two kinds of prairies distinguished 
here ; the open prairie, which I have endeavoured 
to describe, and the wooded prairie, which is forest. 
a 
