Inc indigenous productions of this country are not unworthy the attention of the botanist and natural his torian. Of the plains in the low country, the large natural growth is almost universally pitch-pine, a tall and beautiful tree, which grows here to a size far superior to the pitch-pine of the northern states. This valuable tree affords pitch, tar, turpentine, and various kinds of lumber, which, together, constitute at least one-half of the exports of North Carolina. it is of two kinds, the common, and the long-leaved. The latter differs from other pines, not in the shape, but in the length of its leaves, which arc nearly half a yard long, and hang in large clusters. This country produces white and red oak of the finest quality, and its swamps abound with cypress and bay trees. Oak, walnut, and pine, are the most common species of timber in the back country. In the moist gravelly soil, there grows a kind of stunted oak, called by the inhabitants black jack, which seldom exceeds right or nine inches in distorter. The trees in the low country, near the sea-coast, are loaded with quantities of a long spongy moss, which, by absorbing the noxious vapour exhaled from stagnated waters, is to contribute Meal to the healthiness of the climate. The hypothesis is supported by experience ; for it is generally observed that the country, being cleared, is less healthful than before. The misictoe fre quently engrafts itself upon the trees ill the back coun try. Plums, grapes, strt.wberries, and blackberries, grow spontaneously in this happy soil. Besides being covered with herbage of various kinds, and with a species of wild-grass, it abounds with medicinal plants and roots ; the most valuable of which are the ginseng, Virginia snake-root, Seneca snake-root. an herb or emetic quality resembling, ipeeacuanha, and lion's heart, a ,overeign remedy for the bite of a serpent. In many places there is found a sensitive briar, which, on the slightest touch of a leaf, turns, and clings close to its stalk, and in about two minutes after, perfectly recovers it; former situation. The stalk of this plant dies in win ter, but its root survives, and shoots forth a new st• Pt in spring. To this li of plants and I efts, we may ad I the Idlis•lpIlla Vetiel is. The rh h liOttOloS arc ov rgrotvil '0,11,, I all the a aVey of NVhi•h r o' ti me grt en all r, and al101d excellent pas' tire fur ( • .
Of all 1.11( United Slates, North Carolina seems to l' farthest r•moted ftoin that perfection of ( 1,1hit e, w I i, ii js necessary to girt it the full wit, ota-:e of tile natural richness of its soil, and the t ante of its p•OdtirtioliS. One great c•us( of it, Lack wardn-ss in tiltural improvements, is t• e na•igation, and of proper harbour ,. The lirst impetliint I t al is s not so much from t 1l, s 1.,liness or shallown:ss ( f tne rivers, as From C.e bat a of hard sand w hiCh block up their The Chowan t iver, f m •(1 by Cie confluence of thre. streams w-ich rise in Vi i t. is thy s wide tv,..re it fails into ode Soon I. hint t.arrows r pialV in its ascent. T..e Ro in, t ough a tit (.1. of ,r, t length, is so extretti It rapid, and so foul of ds, that it call navi:;ated o 1y by shallops. nor by Lit se more than sixty or never t• mites from it-, ois .cti• •( into
Albemarle Sound. Tli F It t i o, or T r riv r, flowing into Pamlico Sound, is 1 11.1 yth: s( Is dr tt i feet of water, as far as t to town ot NV ,s tin 5to out forty miles (coin the CO tit ; and for scow, or 11 I to the town of Tarborough, fifty mil s firth r up. The Netts river, falling likewise into Pan in o Sound, is navig• ble for ships of considerable burden, al»ut twelth. miles above the town of Ni when). for Si o,vs fifty to l s. and for boats two hundred miles. Besieges th.s , re are many smaller rivers, all of which are navigatle so long as they continue broad et ouzli for a vessel to turn. The: Tennessee, too, rolls part of its or jestic stream through this state, and re' eives in its cour,e several waters. In burst ih,g through the Comb •rland or Laurel loontains, it occasions a remarkable whir!puol. Flom an exp-i se of half a mile. it is here confined to the wicIta of about loo yards. Just as it enters 1.1 e moun tain, a lare rock, projecting obliqu ly fro I tl e uo t shot c, r nders the chain, 1 of the river still mr -ower, and causes a sodden bend. The water, thrown with t r • at force a rainst the southern shore, rebounds around the point of the rock, and product s t to whirl, wAich is about eighty yards in circninf”rel.ce. In less than a milt be low this whirl, the river expands into its usual breadth, and continues to .flow in placid beauty, till it inim,lcs with the Ohio. These rivets, if accessible to s! ips of any magnitude, would greatly facilitate the interna, com merce of North Carolina ; but touy are unfortunately rendered almost useless in that respect by the sand bars at their entrance.
Nor is this inconvenience co.mpensated by any fine harbours, spacious bays, or bold inroads of the ocean into the country. It has, indeed, some extensive sounds, such as Pamlico. Albemarle, and Core sounds ; but the se may be regarded as mere lakes. for the inlets by which they are connected with the ocean arc so small, as to be nat only to boats or small vessels, and admit so little of the tide, that the rivers which flow into tI e sounds receit e not, even at their mouths. the slid test taste of brine. This state cannot boast of one good har bour throughout the whole extent of its coast. It is said that there was formerly an excellent haven iu, Cape Lookout, which, since the year 1777. has been complete ly filled up with land. The best of the bad I,a,b.mrs now to be met with in North Carolina. is Wilmington.
which admits vessels of 300 tons burden; but the en trance to it is rendered extremely dangerous and difficult, by a large shoal, to which mariners have given the name of Cape Fear. The north-eastern branch of the river Fear is navigable as far as Fayetteville, one hun dred miles beyond Wilmington, for vessels of eighteen or twenty tons burthen. This is the greatest river na vigation in the state, and serves greatly to enliven the trade of Wilmington. A considerable traffic is carried on between this port and the Antilles ; and European goods are conveyed thither from Charleston, Baltimore, and Norfolk. The exports of Wilmington amount ed, in 1791, to 258,728 dollars ; in 1792, to 262,498 dol lars; in 1793, to 171,569 dollars ; in 1794, to 133,167 dollars ; and in 1795, to 254,151 dollars.