ets were within a space of
three miles, and were all north of Chincoteague village. Green Run
Inlet, which had a depth of about six feet of water for nearly ten
years, also closed after shifting half a mile to the south of its
original location. The tendency of inlets on this coast is to shift to
the southward, as do the inlets on the coast of New Jersey.

Oystermen, fishermen, and farmers live along the upland, and in some
cases on the island beaches. From these bays, timber, fire-wood, grain,
and oysters are shipped to northern ports. The people are everywhere
kind and hospitable to strangers. A mild climate, cheap and easily
worked soils, wild-fowl shooting, fine oysters and fishing privileges,
offer inducements to Northerners and Europeans to settle in this
country; the mild form of ague which exists in most of its localities
being the only objection. While debating this point with a native, he
attacked my argument by saying:

"Law sakes! don't folks die of _something_, any way? If you
don't have fever 'n' ague round Massachusetts, you've got an
awful lot of things we hain't got here--a tarnashun sight wuss
ones, too; sich as cumsempsun, brown-critters, mental
spinageetis, lung-disease, and all sorts of brown-kill
disorders. Besides, you have such awful cold winters that a
farmer has to stay holed four months out of the year, while we
folks in the south can work most of the time out of doors. I'll
be dog-goned if I hadn't ruther live here in poverty than die up
north a-rolling in riches. Now, stranger, as to what you said
about sickness, why we aren't no circumstance to you fellows up
north. Why, your hull country is chuck-full of pizenous
remedies. When I was a-coasting along Yankeedom and went ashore,
I found all the rocks along the road were jist kivered with
quack-medicine notices, and all the farmers hired out the
outsides of their barns to advertise doctor's stuff on."

In no portion of America do the people seem to feel the burden of
earning a livelihood more lightly. They get a great deal of social
enjoyment out of life at very little cost, and place much less value on
the "mighty dollar" than do their brother farmers of the northern
section of the states. The interesting inquiry of "Who was his father?"
commences at Philadelphia, and its importance intensifies as you travel
southward. Old family associations have great weight among all class