the natives, Pine-Barrens. The soil is pure sand; and, though the holly,
with its coral berries, and the wild myrtle grow in considerable
abundance, mingled with the pines, these preponderate, and the whole
land presents one wearisome extent of arid soil and gloomy vegetation.
Not a single decent dwelling did we pass: here and there, at rare
intervals, a few miserable negro huts squatting round a mean framed
building, with brick chimneys built on the outside, the residence of the
owner of the land and his squalid serfs, were the only evidences of
human existence in this forlorn country.

Towards four o'clock, as we approached the Roanoke, the appearance of
the land improved; there was a good deal of fine soil well farmed, and
the river, where we crossed it, although in all the naked unadornment of
wintry banks, looked very picturesque and refreshing as it gushed along,
broken by rocks and small islands into rapid reaches and currents.
Immediately after crossing it, we stopped at a small knot of houses,
which, although christened Weldon, and therefore pretending to be a
place, was rather the place where a place was intended to be. Two or
three rough-pine warerooms, or station-houses, belonging to the
railroad; a few miserable dwellings, which might be either not half
built up, or not quite fallen down, on the banks of a large mill-pond;
one exceedingly dirty-looking old wooden house, whither we directed our
steps as to the inn; but we did not take our ease in it, though we tried
as much as we could.

However, one thing I will say for North Carolina--it has the best
material for fire, and the noblest liberality in the use of it, of any
place in the world. Such a spectacle as one of those rousing pine-wood
chimneyfuls is not to be described, nor the revivification it engenders
even in the absence of every other comfort or necessary of life. They
are enough to make one turn Gheber,--such noble piles of fire and flame,
such hearty, brilliant life--full altars of light and warmth. These
greeted us upon our entrance into this miserable inn, and seemed to rest
and feed, as well as warm us. We (the women) were shown up a filthy
flight of wooden stairs into a dilapidated room, the plastered walls of
which were all smeared and discolored, the windows begrimed and darkened
with dirt. Upon the three beds, which nearly filled up this wretched
apartment, lay tattered articles of male and female apparel; and here we
drew round the p