INTBODUCTION. 
13 
crust with a force and volume sufficient to turn an ordinary mill wheel. 
The last named springs constitute the outlet for the system of small lakes 
above mentioned, (“ Crane Ponds),” whose surface is unaffected by 
drouth or flood. 
Lakes. — The only bodies of fresh water in the State which attain to 
the dignity of lakes are in the eastern section. They are 15 in number. 
The largest is Mattamuskeet, in Hyde county, which has an area of nearly 
100 square miles. Its form is elliptical, and its dimensions 15 miles b} r 
5 to 7. This and three others, Phelps Lake, Alligator L. and Pungo L. r 
are situated in the great swamp between Albemarle and Pamplico 
sounds. Phelps Lake has about one-third of the area of Mattamuskeet, 
and the others are of much smaller dimensions. In the White Oak 
swamp of Jones and Carteret counties is a group of small oval lakes only 
a few miles apart and connected b} 7 canals partly natural and partly arti- 
ficial. The largest of these, North West Lake, has an area of 10 to 12 
miles. In the Green Swamp of Brunswick county, occurs another lake of 
the same form and character, S miles long by 5 wide. These lakes are all 
situated in the highest part of the swamps in which they are found, and 
have sandy bottoms, for the most part, and a depth of 4 or 5, to 8 or 10 
feet, and occasionally more. There are five other small lakes in Bladen 
county, about half way between Wilmington and Fayetteville, between 
Cape Fear river and South river. Their average area is probably not 
more than 2 square miles. The aggregate lake surface of the State is 
more than 200 square miles. 
Sounds and Bays. — Along the entire sea front of North Carolina, 
nearly 300 miles in length, there is a chain of sounds, for the most part 
very narrow and shallow, separated from the sea by a succession of long 
lineer islands called the hanks , which are disconnected only by occasional 
narrow inlets. 
The largest of these are Pamplico Sound and Albemarle Sound; the 
former about 75 miles long and 15 to 25 miles wide, having a curvature 
nearly parallel to the coast, and the latter having an east and west di- 
rection, a length of 50 miles, and a breadth of 5 to 15 miles. From the 
eastern end of the Albemarle the long, narrow arm, called Currituck 
Sound , extends north about 40 miles, to and across the Virginia border. 
Its breadth varies from 3 to 5 or 7 miles, but is interrupted by frequent 
islands and shoals. Albemarle and Pamplico are connected by Croatan 
Sound, about 4 miles wide and 10 miles long, and also by a narrower 
channel lying nearer the coast (Roanoke Sound), separated from the for- 
mer by Roanoke Island. The continuity of the line of sounds is kept 
up to the southward of Pamplico by Bogue Sound, Stump Sound, &c., 
