1 
!T0 TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICA: 
behind me for several days, as all the flats 
belonging to the place had been sent up,.a creek 
some miles for staves,, &c. and tlhey had no 
other method of getting horses into the ferry 
boats, which were too large to come close into 
shore, excepting by carrying them out in these 
flats, and then making them leap on board. 
It is a roost irksome piece of business to cross 
the ferries in Virginia; there is not one in six 
where- the boats are good and well manned, 
and it is necessary to employ great circum¬ 
spection in order to guard against accidents, 
which are but too common. As I passed along 
I heard of numberless recent instances of,horses 
being drowned, killed, and having their leg* 
broken, by getting in and out of the boats.] 
Norfolk stands nearly at the mouth of the 
eastern branch of Elizabeth River, the most 
southern of those which empty themselves into 
Hie Cbesapeak Bay. It is the largest commer¬ 
cial town in Virginia, and carries on a flou¬ 
rishing trade to the West Indies. The exports 
consist principally of tobacco, flour, and corn, 
and various kinds of lumber; of the latter it 
derives an inexhaustible supply from the Dis¬ 
mal Swamp, immediately in the neighbour¬ 
hood. 
Norfolk would be a place of much greater 
trade than it is at present, were it not for the 
impolicy of some laws which have existed m 
