roared with
laughter at the working of the double paddle, as I shot past the
landing-place where cotton and naval stores were piled, waiting to be
lightered nine miles to Pot Bluff,--so called from the fact of a pot
being lost from a vessel near it,--which place is reached by vessels
from New York drawing twelve feet of water. Though still a long distance
from the ocean, I was beginning to feel its tidal influences. At Pot
Bluff, the landing and comfortable home of its owner, Mr. Z. W.
Dusenberry, presented a pleasant relief after the monotony of the great
pine forests. This enterprising business man made my short stay a very
pleasant one.

Wednesday, January 20th, was cold for this latitude, and ice formed in
thin sheets in the water-pails. Twenty-two miles below Pot Bluff, Bull
Creek enters the Waccamaw from the Peedee River. At the mouth of this
connecting watercourse is Tip Top, the first rice plantation of the
Waccamaw. The Peedee and its sister stream run an almost parallel course
from Bull Creek to Winyah Bay, making their debouchure close to the city
of Georgetown. Steam saw-mills and rice plantations take the place of
the forests from a few miles below Tip Top to the vicinity of
Georgetown.

Mr. M. L. Blakely, of New York, one of the largest shingle manufacturers
of the south, occupied as his headquarters the Bates Hill Plantation, on
the Peedee. This gentleman had invited me, through the medium of the
post-office, to visit him in the rice-growing regions of South Carolina.
To reach his home I took the short "cut-off" which Bull Creek offered,
and entered upon the strongest of head-currents. The thick, yellow,
muddy torrent of the Peedee rushed through Bull Creek with such volume,
that I wondered if it left much water on the other side, to give
character to the river, as it followed its own channel to Winyah Bay.

One and a half miles of vigorous paddling brought me to a branch of the
watercourse, which is much narrower than the main one, and is
consequently called Little Bull Creek. This also comes from the Peedee
River, and its source is nearer to the Bates Hill plantation than the
main Bull Creek. To urge the canoe up this narrow stream three miles and
a half to the parent river Peedee, was a most trying ordeal. At times
the boat would not move a hundred feet in five minutes, and often, as my
strength seemed failing me, I caught the friendly branches of trees, and
held on to keep the canoe from being whi