themselves in the
soft, muddy bottoms of creeks and lagoons. All the negroes, and many of
the white people of the south, assert, that when captured in his winter
bed, this huge reptile's stomach contains the hard knot of a pine-tree;
but for what purpose he swallows it they are at a loss to explain.

In twelve miles of tortuous windings there appeared but one sign of
human life--a little cabin on a ridge of upland among the fringe of
marshes that bordered on Alligator Lake. It was cheering to a lonely
canoeist to see this house, and the clearing around it with the season's
crop of corn in stacks dotting the field. All this region is called
Stump Sound; but that sheet of water is a well-defined, narrow,
lake-like watercourse, which was entered not long after I debouched from
Alligator Lake. Stump Inlet having closed up eighteen months before my
visit, the sound and its tributaries received tidal water from New
Topsail Inlet.

It was a cold and rainy evening when I sought shelter in an old
boat-house, at a landing on Topsail Sound, soon after leaving Stump
Sound. While preparing for the night's camp, the son of the proprietor
of the plantation discovered the, to him, unheard-of spectacle of a
paper boat upon the gravelly strand. Filled with curiosity and
delight, he dragged me, paddle in hand, through an avenue of trees to
a hill upon which a large house was located. This was the boy's home.
Leaving me on the broad steps of the veranda, he rushed into the hall,
shouting to the family, "Here's a sailor who has come from the north
in a PAPER boat."

This piece of intelligence roused the good people to merriment.
"Impossible!" "A boat made of paper!" "Nonsense!"

The boy, however, would not be put down. "But it _is_ made of paper, I
tell you; for I pinched it and stuck my nails into it," he replied
earnestly.

"You are crazy, my boy," some one responded; "a paper boat never could
go through these sounds, the coon oysters would cut it in pieces. Now
tell us, is the sailor made of paper, like his boat?"

"Indeed, mother, what I tell you is true; and, O, I forgot! here's the
sailor on the steps, where I left him." In an instant the whole family
were out upon the veranda. Seeing my embarrassment, they tried, like
well-bred people, to check their merriment, while I explained to them
the way in which the boy had captured me, and proposed at once returning
to my camp. To this, however, they would not listen; and the charming