LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
103 
move about, and partly because the elasticity of 
the branch, to the end of which he is fastened, 
yields to his movements, whereas, if tied to the 
"trunk, he might by a sudden pull break the bridle 
and get loose. 
The negroes ferried me over the romantic river, 
for which I paid a (f.e. a picayune, the 
sixteenth of a dollar, or half a “bit’’), the smallest 
silver coin current. Cahawba was formerly the seat 
of government of the state, but it is now much de- 
cayed, and has a very desolate appearance : a few 
“ stores,” a lawyer’s office or two, and two or three 
tradesmen’s shops, with the usual proportion of 
rum-shops or “groceries,” whose branch of business 
seemed scarcely to partake of the general decay, if 
I might judge from the number of customers in 
the verandahs — appeared to constitute the business 
of the “ city.” I found no temptation to linger 
here, and quickly returned. 
In going, I had heard, from a wet marshy place 
beside the road, a continued and most deafening 
shrieking, extremely shrill and loud. When I 
came to the place in returning, the noise was still 
kept up, and my curiosity was much excited. I 
watched, and had reason to believe it was pro- 
duced by a small dusky species of frog [Rana 
damata?)^ for, on approaching the spots whence it 
proceeded, it instantly ceased, at least there, and 
two or three of these frogs would dash into the 
water and dive. Wishing much to witness the 
act of uttering the sound, (which was no easy 
matter, for, as I have said, it ceased on the ap- 
proach of a foot,) I crept cautiously to the edge 
of one of the little pools, in which I saw two or 
tliree frogs : they were very shy, and kept under 
