256 
LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
■•s 
LETTER XIII. 
September 20tli. 
A FEW evenings since I accompanied the over- 
seer for a mile or two through a neighbouring 
swamp. His object was to get a little sport, in 
the way of hunting racoons, opossums, wild cats^ 
or any other game that might occur ; mine, rather 
to see the interior of the lone forest, with its strange 
sights and sounds, beneath the gloom of night. 
The result, in the matter of game, was almost nil ; 
the dogs started an opossum or two, but they took 
to the lofty trees, and, in the darkness, no shot 
could be obtained. But I enjoyed the novel and 
somewhat exciting circumstances greatly. 
The sun was barely gone from the tops of the 
forest-trees, when we set out through the swamp ; 
a district studded with the low Fan-palm [GJia-- 
mcerops serrulata). This species does not rise with 
a tall stipe from the ground, like the kindred 
Palmetto ( C, palmetto), that grows around Mobile, 
but spreads its broadfolded fan-like leaves on 
every side, within reach of the cattle, that munch 
the rigid tips, and make them ragged and unsightly. 
A handsome tall yellow flower, the Gerardia 
{.G.flava)^ bearing some slight resemblance to our 
Foxglove, except in colour, was' growing here; 
and a still lovelier one, the Cardinal-flower [Lohelia 
