c 
life of WILSON, 
thanksgiving with both when they get fairly ovei'^ without going 
through; enormous cypress swamps, which, to a stranger, have a 
striking, desolate, and ruinous appearance. Picture to yourself a 
forest of prodigious trees, rising, as thick as they can grow, from a 
vast flat and impenetrable morass, covered for ten feet from the 
ground with reeds. The leafless limbs of the cypresses are clothed 
with an extraordinary kind of moss, {Tillandsia usneoides,) from two 
to ten feet long, in such quantities, that fifty men might conceal 
themselves in one tree. Nothing in this country struck me with 
such surprise as the prospect of several thousand acres of such tim- 
ber, loaded, as it were, with many million tons of tow, waving in 
the wind. I attempted to penetrate several of these swamps, with 
my gun, in search of something new ; but, except in some chance 
places, I found it altogether impracticable. I coasted along their 
borders, however, in many places, and was surprised at the great 
profusion of evergreens, of numberless sorts ; and a variety of ber- 
ries that I knew nothing of. Hei'e I found multitudes of birds that 
never winter with us in Pennsylvania, living in abundance. Though 
the people told me that the alligators are so numerous as to destroy 
many of their pigs, calves, dogs, &c., yet I have never been ena- 
bled to get my eye on one, though I have been several times in 
search of them with my gun. In Georgia, they tell me, they are 
ten times more numerous ; and I expect some sport among them. 
I saw a dog at the river Santee, who swims across when he pleases, 
in defiance of these voracious animals ; when he hears them behind 
him, he wheels round, and attacks them, often seizing them by the 
snout. They generally retreat, and he pursues his route again, 
serving every one that attacks him in the same manner.* He be- 
longs to the boatman ; and, when left behind, always takes to the 
water. 
* This is an uncommon instance of intrepidity in the canine race, and is worthy of record. 
It is well known that the alligator is fond of dog-flesh ; and the dog appears to be instructed by 
instinct to avoid so dangerous an enemy, it being difficult to induce him to approach the haunts 
of the alligator, even when encouraged by the example of his master. A fine stout spaniel ac- 
