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North Carolina and its Resources:
Electronic Edition.

North Carolina. Board of Agriculture.

Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.

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First edition, 2001
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Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
2001.

        © This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.

Source Description:
(title page) North Carolina and its Resources.
State Board of Agriculture
xv, 413 p., ill.
Winston
M. I. & J. C. Stewart, Public Printers and Binders
1896
Call number C917 N87a (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998

Languages Used:

LC Subject Headings:

Revision History:

        

Illustration

        

Illustration

        

Illustration

1. W. F. Green, Chairman.
2. H. E. King. 3. J. R. McLelland. 4. W. R. Capehart. 5. J. H. Gilmer.
6. D. A. Tompkins. 7. E. A. Aiken. 8. Cyrus Thompson. 9. R. H. Wharton.
BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

        

Illustration

10. H. E. Fries. 11. W. S. Primrose. 12. Frank Wood. 13. N. B. Broughton.
14. J. B. Cottfield. 15. J. L. Nelson.
16. H. B. Battle, Director. 17. S. L. Patterson, Commissioner. 18. T. K. Bruner, Secretary.
BOARD OF AGRICULTURE AND OFFICERS.

        

Illustration

NORTH CAROLINA
AND ITS
RESOURCES.

ILLUSTRATED.

STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.
RALEIGH.

WINSTON.
M. I. & J. C. STEWART, PUBLIC PRINTERS AND BINDERS.
1896.

Page III

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page XI

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page XII

Page XIII

PREFACE.

        At the December (1895) meeting of the State Board of Agriculture it was agreed that a new edition of the Hand Book was a necessity, and the Secretary to the Board was charged with its preparation. This involved a complete revision of the former publication, the selection of suitable illustrations, the preparation of much new data, and the issuing during this year of a volume illustrative of the vast resources of North Carolina. All of this with the view of pointing out progress already made, and the possibilities presented for future development. The work has proved more exacting than at the time was contemplated, in that the changes necessary frequently required the rewriting of such portions of the former volume as were still considered in part available, and to make more complete the presentation whole chapters have been introduced presenting matter hitherto entirely omitted or to which but slight allusion was made.

        The remarkable development in all branches of industry, with corresponding increase in the volume of business, together with the varied and ever-widening conditions favorable to the avocation of the farmer, the trucker, the fruit grower, the lumberman, the miner and the fisherman, have all combined to induce the publication of this volume by the Board of Agriculture. The Board, always in the lead, is ever found promoting the best interests of the people of the State, lending encouragement to the development of her rich resource of forest, of mine, of soil and of sea. The State Constitution provides for an Agricultural Department, and its earlier reports date back to 1825. The present organization of the Board was effected under an act of the General Assembly in 1877. From the day of its organization it began the discharge of the duties assigned it with an earnest determination to foster and stimulate agriculture in all its branches, and to promote every legitimate attempt to develop the State's resources. It has aided in almost every movement in this direction, being in a certain sense a pioneer, by directing attention to the possibilities offered. It was first among the States to increase the catch of fish by means of fish hatcheries; it explored the phosphate beds of the eastern

Page XIV

counties; it surveyed the coal fields; it exhibited the ores of gold, silver, copper and of iron in great expositions, and in the same way advertised the forests; it surveyed the oyster grounds, and it promoted the development of the sand-hill region. By its assiduous and systematic effort North Carolina is becoming known as the most resourceful of all the Southern States.

        This is the fifth publication of its kind emanating from the Board; the first appearing in 1879, which was followed by an improved edition in 1883; this was exhausted by distribution at the Boston and New Orleans expositions, so that in 1886 a new and still better book was issued and did good service until the approach of the great Columbian Exposition, when it was determined to offer a more exhaustive treatment of the conditions presented in North Carolina for the profitable investment of capital. This volume was a departure from the ordinary Hand Book type, and proved a most acceptable résumé of the varied conditions so happily distributed in the State by the munificent hand of nature. So useful a volume was soon brought to the attention of the public, and so persistent was the demand that the edition of ten thousand had dwindled to as many hundred, when the Board took the action referred to above.

        It is most gratifying to note the advance made all along the lines of enterprise since 1893. The extent of progress in the industries and the manufactures; the extension of agriculture and horticulture; the widening of remunerative truck fields; the adaptability of hitherto worthless sand-hills and flat lands to the profitable production of peaches, grapes, berries and bulbs, and the expansion of the facilities for all forms of education--these all tell of the solid progress of our people and point with unerring conviction to North Carolina as the most progressive, most desirable and most healthful of all the South Atlantic States as a place of residence. Her homogeneous, hospitable population, conservative laws, light taxation, salubrious and temperate climate, and the great possibilities of her natural and improved conditions also present inviting fields to the investor or to the home-seeker.

        The subjects brought to view in this volume are presented with rigid regard to fact; they are under-drawn rather than otherwise, and described from a sober business point of view without exaggeration or untruthful illusion. The facts about North Carolina are sufficient in themselves; no coloring is needed. These facts are but imperfectly presented in the pages to follow; there are doubtless omissions and many under-drawn descriptions, but the work has been performed while in the discharge of regular official duties. The

Page XV

compiler has sought out facts in regard to all the State's resources obtainable by research, enquiry and from personal observation, and, subjecting all to careful examination, has arranged them in as succinct and coherent an order as the subjects will allow. A considerable portion of the facts are from official records and statistics, and the remainder from the most accurate and competent authority attainable.

        It is fitting here to give credit and make due acknowledgment to those who have so generously contributed in the preparation of the matter for the work. Much has been drawn from the very excellent and accurate work of Col. John D. Cameron, in the Hand Book of 1893. He has written much that is enduring, and from it the most liberal quotations have been made. For information relating to the ores, building stones, minerals, waterpowers and roads, I am indebted to Professor Joseph A. Holmes, State Geologist; for information in regard to taxation and the State debt, to Hon. R. M. Furman, State Auditor; for articles on Agriculture, to Hon. S. L. Patterson, Commissioner of Agriculture; for information prepared on horticulture, to Prof. W. F. Massey; for information relating to flora and the climate, to Dr. H. B. Battle, Director of the North Carolina Experiment Station, and to Professor Gerald McCarthy, Botanist, and Mr. C. F. von Herrmann, Meteorologist, of the Experiment Station staff, and to the following for information on the subjects annexed to their names:

        To all I beg to give assurance of hearty appreciation and the full credit for assistance rendered.

T. K. BRUNER,
Secretary.

        

Illustration

HICKORYNUT GAP.

Page 1

HISTORICAL.

EARLY HISTORY.
THE LANDING OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S COLONY.


                         "They were the first that ever burst
                         Into that silent sea."--Coleridge.

        On the 4th of July, 1584, two English ships hove in sight of the coast of North Carolina, somewhere about Cape Fear. They were the vessels of Sir Walter Raleigh, and were on a voyage of discovery, to take possession of some portion of the new world in the name of the crown of England. The day on which they first beheld the shores of our country has since become the great political holiday of the age, and is now distinguished as the anniversary, not of the origin, but of the downfall of the authority of England over the United States. The commanders of these two ships were Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe; and the ceremony which they performed upon the coast of North Carolina, and which I am now about to celebrate, is perhaps one of the most memorable events in the history of mankind. The fortunate results of the dominion of England over the territory of our Union are as innumerable as are the stars; and the free Anglo-American, in whatever forests he may be found, will turn reverently to the spot consecrated as its birthplace. The two adventurers loitered along the coast of North Carolina, in full view of the shore as it sweeps in a curve from Cape Lookout to Cape Fear. There was scarcely wind enough to ruffle the plumage of the two ships as they lay their gentle course, and the mild land-breeze was so fragrant, that the voyagers exclaimed that they seemed to be in the midst of some delicate garden, abounding with all kinds of odoriferous flowers. Thus making their liquid way, on the 13th of July, 1584, we find the two ships at anchor in the roads of Ocracock Inlet, within a few hundred yards of the island which lies to the south, and which the Indians called Wokokon. And this is the spot, of all the fair lands of our wide-spread country, which was first occupied by old mother England.


        NOTE.--Extracts from "Memorials of North Carolina" by Joseph Seawell Jones.


Page 2

        About midday on the 13th, when there was not a film of a cloud in the heavens, nor a breath of air to break the sea; when the tides were still, and the sunshine danced along the glittering sandbanks from Hatteras to Lookout; when the whole scene was so intensely tranquil, that those ships looked like "painted ships," and that ocean a "painted ocean;" when the crew stood about the decks in silent wonderment at the vast and solitary world before them--no scudding skiff, no rising smoke, no distant sound; at this hour, when solitude was most awful and most sublime, the sound of prayer broke the enchantment, and the first words of Christian suffrage were uttered in returning thanks to God that the lion flag of old England was about to be planted upon the coast of the new world. The boats were then manned, and the two captains, attended by the most noble gentlemen of the expedition, were pulled toward the shore; and as the boats grated upon the sand, they sprang upon the beach, and Captain Amadas shouted in a loud voice:

        "We take possession of this land in the right of the queene's most excellent majestie, as rightfull queene and princesse of the same, to be delivered over to the use of Sir Walter Raleigh, according to her Majestie's grant and letters patent, under her highnesse's great seale."

        This, then, was the birthday, and here, then, was the birthplace, of our great Anglo-American empire. And how fortunate was it for the cause of civil and religious freedom all over the world that England, and not Spain, France, or Portugal, colonized our splendid domain. Look to the South American States, already in the decrepitude of old age; their moral, intellectual, and physical condition alike unimproved; their governments unsteady and tyrannical; their private estates insecure; and the very liberty which, but a few years ago, they so proudly achieved, already degraded into popular despotism. Spanish blood corrupted the new world. The seeds of civil and religious despotism were sown, broadcast, from the City of Mexico to Cape Horn; and after a revolution of three hundred years, Spanish America can boast of but little that is either grand or sublime, in all her history, excepting the monuments of Montezuma's magnificence and the victories of Bolivar.

        But how different has been the career of the Anglo-American race. The seed which was planted on Wokokon Island has given birth to a new genus of men. Another and a hardier race than even the Anglo-Saxon has sprung into existence, and are now bearing onward to the Pacific, as they leap from the Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains, the language and the liberty of their forefathers. The

Page 3

general principles of human government have been simplified; the liberty of the people and their right to self-government, immovably established; a free, happy and powerful Republic, under the constitution and laws of which the rights of individuals are as inviolably sustained as is the glory of the national faith, now covers the fairest portions of the new world; and what is the proudest result of all, this new-born nation, in the purity of its government and in the happiness of its people, is now sending back across the sea, to regenerate and to reform the old world, the sublime lessons of her own experience. Happy proud Anglo-America. She has given to the world the great principle of a free government. She has extended the provinces of liberty, civilization, and of law. "The lightning of the heavens could not resist her philosophy, nor the temptation of a throne seduce her patriotism."

        Let us now return to the voyagers. As soon as they had performed the ceremony of occupation, the company penetrated a few miles into the interior, and, on reaching the summit of an eminence, they discovered that they were on an island, and not on the continent, "They behelde the sea both sides of them to the north and to the south, having no end any of both ways." They were on an island clad with vines, which reeled so full of grapes, "as that the very beating and surge of the sea had overflowed them, of which we found such plentie as well there as in all places else, both on the sand as on the green soil, on the hills as in the plains, as well as on every little shrub as also climing towardes the tops of high cedars, that I thinke in all the worlde the like abundance is not to be found." From the eminence which they had gained, they beheld the valleys replenished with goodly cedar trees, and having discharged their harque-buz shot, a flock of cranes (the most part white) arose under them, with such a cry, redoubled by many echoes, as if an army of men had shouted all together." The island is again described as having "many goodly woods, full of deer, conies, hares, and fowle, even in the midst of summer, in incredible abundance. The woods are not such as you find in Bohemia, Moscovia or Hercynia--barren and fruitless, but the highest and reddest cedars in the world, far better than the cedars of the Azores, of the Indies, or of Lybanus."

        The extracts which I have made are taken from the report of the two captains, Amadas and Barlowe, made to Sir Walter Raleigh on their return to England. The description is not too highly wrought, for we must remember that the ravages of man and of the ocean have, for more than two centuries, desolated and changed Wokokon Island. The beautiful name of Virginia was first applied to the islands of

Page 4

North Carolina, and I have seen, in the earliest maps and charts of the State at present bearing that name, Roanoke and Wokokon Islands laid off to the south under the somewhat boasted title of "Old Virginia." This, at least, was the Virginia of Sir Walter Raleigh, and of the Fairy Queen of England. His name is identified with no other section of our Union, and the name of the capital of North Carolina best betokens her proud remembrance of the character of her founder.

        The two captains, after having surveyed Wokokon Island, returned to their ships and there remained for two days before they encountered the natives. It is not my design in this number to follow them in their adventures among the savages; I would rather ask the reader to come with me to the consecrated spot, and see how it now looks after a revolution of two hundred and fifty years.

        I have myself stood upon such an eminence on Wokokon Island as that described by the voyagers, but I sought a more poetical hour than midday, and I had, too, the benefit of a blustering March wind, which threw the waters all into a rage, and brought down the waves of the Pamlico all the way from Roanoke Island, as heavy as if they had been born in the Gulf Stream. It was a clear, cold day; and with the history of these voyages fresh in my memory, I had wandered about the island, and at sunset I placed myself as near as possible on the very eminence on which they had stood centuries ago. The view before me was indeed wild and startling. The glorious sunset gilded the crested waves of the Pamlico, as they broke in boundless succession afar to the west and to the north, and the narrow island that curves around to the northeast from Ocracock to Hatteras, all covered as it was with the mellow tints of the sun, resembled a rainbow resting on the face of the sea. The opposite towns of Portsmouth and Ocracock, and the old shell castle, stood before me amid the noisy waves, as if they had arisen to earth from the convulsive throes of the excited sea, and then there was the narrow island, with its naked woods and vines, and the waves bursting and thundering upon its shores, combing their foam higher and higher on each return, as if in the wantonness of their strength they would clap their hand over the very spot on which I stood. To me there is something especially fascinating in the scenery about Ocracock Inlet. I love it for its very bleakness; and historical association, too, hallows it in my memory. It is indeed a place of storms, for nature has there provided everything which can give fury to the winds, and, come from what quarter they will, they bring noise and strife. An easterly wind arouses the whole Atlantic, and the waves

Page 5

dash through the narrow straits, retreating from the fury of the storm; and then a westerly wind arises and, sweeping over the Pamlico, sends them all back to their ocean mother. A northeast gale will bring down from the banks of Hatteras sand enough to create an island; and oftentimes a ship, riding at her anchorage, is enveloped in a whirlpool of sand, and lifted high and dry out of the sea; but then a northern storm will send its ministers to the rescue, and the briny waves will soon ply their strength, undermine it, and sweep the ship away.

* * *


                         "The gentle children of an isle,
                         Who knew but to worship and to love."--Russell.

        For two days our adventurous voyagers saw no signs of man. The vine-clad and flowery isle before them seemed to have bloomed away its existence unenjoyed by man, and their minds were filled with the sublime thought--that in this virgin world the clamor of war had never been heard, nor the silence of its shores ever violated, save by the thunders of the waves and of the clouds of heaven. On the third day, however, this dream was broken. A solitary boat with three savages turned the northern part of Wokokon, and, gliding into an indenture in the shore, one of the party sprang upon the beach, and coming directly opposite the anchorage of the ships, he walked up and down along the water's edge, seemingly in wonder at what he saw. When Captain Amadas and three other gentlemen approached him in a boat, he made them a speech of much length, in his own barbarous tongue, and then firmly stepping into their boat, he manifested by signs his desire to visit their ships. How brave is innocence. It goes wheresoever it will, and triumphs where guilt would fall. It has survived the fiery furnace, and once walked upon the stormy sea, as upon the plains of the earth.

        The name of this Indian was Manteo; and the whole domestic history of England cannot boast a more perfect character. He was alike the firm friend of the English and the stern patriot and defender of his tribe; and whenever a strife arose among them, he held out the olive branch, and made peace upon the principles of justice. His savage birth and life were indeed but additional embellishments of his character; and while he restrained the inhuman vices of his tribe, he checked the not less odious avarice of his new and more civilized associates. . . . On reaching the ships, Manteo wandered about the decks, examining every part of them with the curiosity of ignorance; and having tasted of their meat and of their wine, and received a present of a hat and some other trifles, he departed again

Page 6

to his own boat and attendants. He then put off into the water and "fell to fishing, and in less than half an hour he had laden his boat as deep as it could swim;" and then he came back to the shore, divided his fish between the two ships, and departed.

        The next day Granganameo, the king's brother, with a fleet of canoes, entered Ocracock Inlet; and leaving his boats, as Manteo had done, in a small cove, he came down to the water's edge near the ships. He was attended by forty or fifty men, "very handsome and goodly people, and in their behavior as mannerly and civil as any of Europe;" and they spread down upon the shore a long mat or carpet, upon which Granganameo was seated, and "at the other end of this matte four others of his company did the like--the rest stood about him somewhat afar off."

        He showed no signs of fear or mistrust as the English, dressed in full array of armor, approached; but he sat perfectly unmoved, and bade them, by signs, to be seated near him, and then he made them "all figures of joy and welcome--striking on his breast and on his head, and afterwards on ours, to show we were all one--smiling and making shewe the best he could, of all love and familiaritie." After this welcome, Granganameo made them a long set speech, to which Captain Amadas replied by presenting him with divers things, which he joyfully received; and during the whole ceremony none of the company of attendants spoke a word audibly, but each in the other's ear very softly.

        During this visit the voyagers learned that the country was called Wingandaceo, and that the king was named Wingina, and that his majesty had recently had a fight, in "which he was shot in two places through the body, and once clear through the thigh, by reason whereof, and for that he lay at the chief town of the country, which was five days journey off, they saw him not at all." Thus, by the illness of the king, Granganameo was in authority, and when the captain went around making presents to the company of attendants, he rose from his seat and took them all away, and indicated to the voyagers that all things should be given to him, and that the men around were but his servants and his followers.

        In a few days the voyagers commenced trading with the savages for skins, and such other commodities as they possessed; and on showing all their merchandise, the article that most took the fancy of Granganameo was a large, bright tin dish, which he seized and "clapt it before his breast, and after made a hole in the brim thereof and hung it about his neck, making signs that it would defend him against his enemies' arrows; for these people maintain a deadly and

Page 7

terrible war with the people and king adjoining. They exchanged the tin dish for twenty skins, worth twenty crowns, and a copper kettle for fifty skins, worth fifty crowns."

        A few days after this, the captains gave a collation on board the ships, and Granganameo came with all his retinue, and they drank wine and ate of their meat and of their bread, and were exceedingly pleased; and in a few days more he brought his wife, his daughter and two or three children on board the ships. His wife is represented as having been a most beautiful and modest woman. She wore a long black cloak of leather, with the fur side next to her skin; her forehead was surmounted with a band of white coral, and from her ears swung, even down to her waist, bracelets of precious pearl. Her raven hair was streaming down from her coral crown, and intertwisting itself with her earrings of pearl, flowed gracefully back over her jetty robe in wild and unshorn luxuriance. Granganameo, too, on this occasion was dressed in state . . . . The civility and kindness of the voyagers were well appreciated by Granganameo and his wife; and they spread around the country such reports of their good will, that "a great store of people" came down to Wokokon to see the strangers, and to trade away skins, pearls, coral and dyes. During all this intercourse nothing occurred to give dissatisfaction on either side, and in a few days we find Captain Barlowe, with seven comrades, at Roanoke Island on a visit to Granganameo. The particulars of this visit deserve to be specially detailed, to illustrate not more the manners and customs than the hospitality of the uncorrupted American savage.

        On the north point of Roanoke Island there stood an Indian village of nine houses. Several were very large and commodious dwellings, being built of the best cedar, and containing as many as five rooms. The town was fortified by a circle of pickets, and the entrance through this, into the interior of the village, was over a turnpike path, which wound around from the water's edge, and entered the fortification through an avenue of these picketed trees. This was the town of Granganameo; and as Captain Barlowe and his company approached it in their boats, the wife of the good savage, being in the entrance near the water's edge, saw and welcomed them cheerfully and friendly.

        Granganameo not being at home, the civilities of the tribe devolved upon his wife, and generously did she acquit herself. She ordered a number of men to draw the boats out of the water, others she appointed to carry the voyagers on their backs, and when they were brought in the outer room, she gave them seats around a large

Page 8

fire. Their outer garments, which had been wet in a rain, were taken off, quickly washed and dried, and the women of the village came and brought warm water and bathed their feet. My reader, I have drawn this picture not from my imagination but from history, nor have I purloined from classic annals a description of the Golden age, and thrown it amid the scenery of Roanoke Island; but this good Indian woman deserves to live renowned in the history of North Carolina as a good Samaritan, who ministered to the sorrows of the weary and distressed.

        But Granganameo's wife was not satisfied even with these cordial attentions. She had prepared, in the words of Captain Barlowe, "a solemn banquet" wherewithal to refresh them, and as soon as they had dried themselves and reassumed their outer garments, they were ushered into an inner room to enjoy the feast. The tables were set all around against the walls of the house, and on them were placed "some wheate like furmentie, venison, sodden and roasted, fish sodden, boiled and roasted, melons raw and sodden, roots of divers kinds, and divers fruites." Their drink was wine made of the grapes of the island, and ginger-cinnamon and sassafras water. Captain Barlowe exclaims, "We were entertained with all love and kindness, and with as much bounty after their manner as they could possibly devise. We found the people most gentle, loving and faithful, and such as live after the manner of the golden age."

        The house of Granganameo comprised five rooms--the hall in which the voyagers first entered, the banquet room, and then came two sleeping chambers, and in the rear of them all was the sanctum in which they kept an idol to bend before and to worship, and "of whom they spoke incredible things." The feast went off gloriously. The voyagers gave many signs of their pleasure and gratification, and the good woman implored them to tarry for the night; but the prudent Captain Barlowe preferred lounging in an open boat near the shore during a rainy night, lest there might be some miscarriage. She, however, sent them mats to cover with, and brought down to the boat, with her own hands, some supper put in pots; and Captain Barlowe concludes his account of the feast by declaring that a more kind or loving people cannot be found in the world.

        Let us now see what information, as to the geography of the country, these voyagers acquired. The Indian name of the Albemarle Sound was Occam, and into it flowed a river named Nomopana, and near the mouth of this river was a town called Chowanook, and the name of the king thereof was Pooneno. The Pamlico shores of the County of Carteret were called Secotan, and those of Craven,

Page 9

Pomonick. Secotan was under the king of Wingandaceo, and Pomonick under an independent king named Piamacum. In the interior, towards the setting sun, the country was called Newisk, and through it coursed the river Neus. The king of this country was in alliance with Piamacum, and had aided him in a war against the Secotans. The journal of Captain Barlowe speaks too of a river called Cipo, which flowed into the ocean, in which were found "great store of muscles" producing pearls, and constant allusion is made to a great town called Shicock, which was said to be five days' journey from the banks of the Occam.

        There was a tradition about Secotan, that some years before the arrival of the voyagers a ship had been wrecked on the coast, and the unfortunate strangers had been preserved by the savages. They remained ten days on the Southern Cape of Wokokon Island, and afterwards put to sea in a rudely constructed craft and were seen no more. Some weeks afterwards their boat was found wrecked on a contiguous island, and these were the only people "well apparelled and of white color" of whom the Indians had ever heard.

        I will here conclude my notices of the voyage of Captains Amadas and Barlowe. The report which they made to Sir Walter Raleigh gave a powerful impulse to the adventurous spirit of the whole British nation, and was distinguished at that day as the very beginning of the authority of England over the present territory of the United States. A rich bracelet of pearl was carried home and worn by Sir Walter as an emblem of his new dominions; and Manteo and Wauchese, two of the native savages, were passengers back to England, where they became the companions of the noble Lord Proprietor of Virginia.

ROANOKE ISLAND.*

        * NOTE.--Extract from the "Picturesque History of North Carolina."



                         "Such is the aspect of this shore,
                         `Tis Greece, but living Greece no more;
                         So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
                         We start, for soul is wanting there."

        I have never wandered over the Island of Roanoke without a feeling of melancholy, as intense as that of Byron whilst contemplating the fallen greatness of Greece. The days of her glory are over, and gone with those beyond the flood; but still she is to me an island of the heart, for her shores are the graves of the warlike and the wise. The native Indian built his Machicomack on her hills; and there, too, stood the City of Raleigh, the birthplace of the Anglo-American; and

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thus was Roanoke known long before the beach of Jamestown was settled or the rock of Plymouth consecrated. She is the classic land of all English America, and will live in the future story of our Republic as the mother-earth of American liberty. The illustrious names of Raleigh, of Cavendish, of Grenville and of Drake--the heroes of the reign of Elizabeth--are a part and portion of her history. Hariot, the mathematician and philosopher of the age, for the space of a whole year studied its natural resources and Indian History; and nearly two hundred and fifty years since gave to the world a book unequalled for the accuracy and the interest of its details. It would seem, indeed, as if the chivalry and learning of that age had contributed this splendid representation, to give a dazzling brilliancy to the early history of that State on whose shores the flag of England was first unfurled, and in whose valleys, and over whose hills, the mountain Goddess Liberty first shouted the cry of American independence. Bear witness, Mecklenburg, on the 20th of May, 1775.

        But it is not historic association alone which makes sacred the shores and the vine-clad forests of Roanoke. Nature seems to have exerted herself to adorn it as the Eden of the New World. The richest garniture of flowers, and the sweetest minstrelsy of birds, are there. In traversing the northern section of the island, in the spring time of the year, flowers and sweet-scented herbs, in the wildest luxuriance, are strewn along your winding way, welcoming you with their fragrance to their cherished isle. The wild rose bush, which at times springs up into nurseries of one hundred yards in extent, "blooms blushing" to the song of the thousand birds that are basking in her bowers. The mocking-bird, too, whatever ornithologists may say of its "chimney habits," makes this his favorite haunt; and I myself have seen him pillowed on the highest cluster of roses, and swinging with his weight the slender tree, as he warbled out his most exquisite song. It may be, however, that Roanoke is the very spot where, in imitation of the Eastern queen of song, the mocking-bird fell in love with the rose.

        There are stately pine forests extending along the centre of the island; but the most beautiful of its trees are what are commonly called dogwood, the laurel, and a delicate species of the white oak. I have seen a forest composed of these trees, the branches and limbs of which were literally intertwisted and knitted together by the embraces of the Roanoke vine, which here, in its native garden, grows with extraordinary exuberance.

        Within the deep shades of these reclining vintages, the spirit of solitude at times reigns in undisturbed majesty. At midday, when

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the heat of the summer's sun is too glowing for exertion, there is not the chirp of a bird to break the solemnity of the spot. The long and slender vine snake, which at other hours is seen industriously threading his way through the mazes of the vintage, has now suspended himself on a twig, and hangs as idle and as still as a black silk cord. If you hear the tread of footsteps, it is not of man, but the stealthy retreat of an unsuspecting fawn, which hath slept too long, and which now, like a woodland nymph, hies away on the approach of man. But in the morning and in the evening this scene of quiet and of repose is all changed. It is then the granary of the island, and the birds have all assembled and are warbling in bacchanal confusion their morning or evening hymn. The scenery of Roanoke is neither grand nor sublime. There are no Alpine summits to mingle with clouds, but a series of gentle undulations, and a few abrupt hills, in the valleys of which the richly dressed scenery I have described may be found. If it should ever be the lot of the reader to stroll under the vintage shades of Roanoke--made impervious to the rays of the sun by the rich foliage and clustering grapes above him--he will not venture to discredit the highly wrought sketches of Hariot, nor mock the humbler enthusiasm of the volume now before him. I remember once to have stood upon the loftiest eminence of the island, and to have watched the progress of a sunset. It was on a summer's eve which had been made peculiarly clear by a violent thunder squall the preceding night, and not a film of a cloud or a vapor was to be seen about the horizon or in the blue vault of heaven. There was not a breath of air to stir the slender leaf of the few lofty pines that straggled around me, and even the mocking-bird seemed to have hushed his capricious song, to enjoy the intense feeling of the moment. To the westward of the island, the waters of the Albemarle crept sluggishly along; and in the winding current of the Swash several vessels stood, with outspread but motionless wings. Away down to the south, the Pamlico spread itself out, like an ocean of molten gold, gleaming along the banks of the Chikamacomico and Hatteras; and, contrasted with this, were the dark waters which separate Roanoke from the sea-beach, and which were now shaded from the tints of the sunset by the whole extent of the island.

        A sea of glory streamed along the narrow ridge--dividing the inland waters from the ocean; and beyond this the boundless Atlantic heaved her chafed bosom of sapphire and of gold against the base of yon stormy cape. I enjoyed and lived in that sunset and twilight hour. I thought of the glorious destiny of the land on which I trod--as glorious as the waters and the earth then around me. I thought of

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the genius and the death of Raleigh--of the heroic devotedness of Grenville--of the gallantry of Cavendish and Drake--of the learning of Hariot--of the nobleness of Manteo, the Lord of Roanoke--of the adventurous expedition of Sir Ralph Lane up the river Moratock--of the savage array of the bloodthirsty Wingina--of the melancholy fate of the last of the Raleigh colonies--of Virginia Dare, the first Anglo-American--of the agony of her mother--and I then thought of those exquisite lines of Byron,


                         "Shrine of the mighty, can it be
                         That this is all remains of thee?"

ROANOKE COLONY MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION.

        The Roanoke Colony Memorial Association was organized in the Spring of 1894. The chief agents in its organization were Prof. Edward Graham Daves, of Baltimore; Dr. S. Weir Mitchell and Mr. Talcott Williams, of Philadelphia. Earlier than this Prof. Daves, who was a North Carolinian by birth, had made a tour in North Carolina, lecturing for the benefit of the scheme.

        At the first meeting, which was held in May, 1894, Prof. Daves was elected president; Mr. W. D. Pruden of Edenton, vice president; and Dr. J. S. Bassett of Trinity College, secretary and treasurer. In the succeeding July Prof. Daves died, and the vacancy thus made was filled by the election of his brother, Maj. Graham Daves, of Newbern, N. C.

        The Company has bought the site of the Raleigh Fort on Roanoke Island, which it has marked clearly, and it intends to preserve the site as it stands, and to erect permanent memorials of the Lost Colony.

VIRGINIA DARE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION.

        An organization under the above title has been effected in North Carolina. The object of the Association is to erect a permanent memorial to the memory of Virginia Dare. Mrs. Florence P. Tucker, of Raleigh, is president, and Mrs. Sallie S. Cotten, of Falkland, is secretary.

        Virginia Dare was the first white child born in North America, of English-speaking parents. It is also significant that the first Christian sacrament in America was the baptism of Manteo, an Indian, and Virginia Dare, infant native white American, which occurred on Roanoke Island. North Carolina, in August, 1587.

        

Illustration

VIEWS AT MOREHEAD AND BEAUFORT.

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THE REVOLUTION.

        North Carolina was most forward in resisting the arbitrary aggressions of the British Government. The first pitched battle against governmental tyranny was at Alamance, May 12, 1771. The first legislative body in defiance of the Royal Governor was at Newbern, Aug. 25, 1774. The General Assembly had placed on its seal May 20, 1775, as the date of the first declaration of independence.

        [The skirmish at Lexington on April 19, 1775, although insignificant in itself, fired the American heart; the news of the encounter reached Charlotte, in Mecklenburg county, on the 19th of May following, and on the next day, May 20, the patriots of Mecklenburg met in convention and declared the independence of the colonies. The cause of Massachusetts and of New England was theirs also, and a blow struck there in furtherance of British aggression must ultimately be repeated in North Carolina; hence this bold and patriotic action.]

        In the winter of 1775-76, North Carolina troops under Howe helped drive Lord Dunmore from Virginia. In February, 1776, the Tory Highlanders were crushed at Moore's Creek bridge. On April 25, 1776, North Carolina, first of all the colonies, empowered her delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence. In the next month her troops assisted to repel the British fleet at Charleston. In the same Summer her militia under Rutherford, marching over trackless mountains, effectively humbled the hostile Cherokees. Her troops fought gallantly under Washington at Brandywine, German-town and Monmouth and were among the picked men to storm Stony Point under Wayne. By their stubborn endurance and pluck her people thwarted Cornwallis' attempt to subjugate the Carolinas and Virginia. They furnished troops and leaders for capturing Ferguson at King's Mountain. They aided Green in crippling Cornwallis at Guilford Court House, and the virtual victory of Eutaw Springs.

        By the patriotism of Ex-Judge David Schenck, the battlefield of Guilford Court House has been purchased, and converted into a beautiful park, with appropriate monuments to the gallant heroes of the action.

AFTER THE REVOLUTION.

        After the Revolution the State steadily increased in population and wealth, albeit hindered by two causes. In the first place, as she then had no good accessible harbors within her limits, she was denied the striking evidences of prosperity which attend the building of great

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cities. The handling of her products enriched the merchants of Charleston, Norfolk, Richmond, Baltimore and New York. Then the opening for purchase at government rates of immense areas of fertile lands in the West and Southwest carried off many of her citizens with all their substance to build up Indiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and other States.

        The following table taken from the census books shows that there was no backward step:

        
YEAR. . . . . . POPULATION.
1790 . . . . . 393,751
1800 . . . . . 478,103
1810 . . . . . 555,500
1820 . . . . . 638,829
1830 . . . . . 737,987
1840 . . . . . 753,419
1850 . . . . . 869,038
1860 . . . . . 992,622
1870 . . . . . 1,071,361
1880 . . . . . 1,399,750
1890 . . . . . 1,617,947

        This population is of a singularly homogeneous character. The immigrants in early days, Virginians (mainly English), Pennsylvanians (mainly Scotch-Irish and German), Scotch-Irish, Scotch Highlanders and Lowlanders, Swiss, French, Huguenots, Germans from the Rhine and elsewhere, have fused by inter-marriages or business or social communication into a homogeneous people of steady, orderly and friendly habits. The relations between masters and slaves were singularly free from cruelty on the one side and insolent spirit of rebellion on the other. And after emancipation there was little friction in the adjustment of the new relation of employer and employee.

PROPRIETARY AND ROYAL GOVERNMENT.

        The attempts of Sir Walter Raleigh having signally failed, no further attempts at colonization were made for three-quarters of a century. In 1629, a charter was granted by Charles I. of England to Sir Robert Heath of the Southern part of Virginia, Latitudes 31° to 36°, under the name, in honor of that king, of Carolina. As Heath did nothing under it, a renewal was granted in 1663 to eight Lords Proprietors, and an enlargement to 36° 30′ and 29°, two years afterwards. The first permanent settlement in the limits of North Carolina was called the County of Albemarle. The Lords Proprietors appointed Governors of Albemarle, and then Governors, or Deputy

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Governors, of North Carolina until 1728. Seven of them then sold their interests to the Crown, Lord Carteret, afterwards Earl Granville, yielding the right of government, but retaining his one-eight interest in the land of all Carolina. In 1744 he obtained a grant in severalty of about one-half of North Carolina, next to the Virginia line. The colony was therefore under the crown from 1728 to the Revolution.

        The colonists have been charged by some historians as of a turbulent character, but it seems certain that their civil commotions were on account of real grievances, and were not more frequent nor violent than in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Virginia and South Carolina. They had the wisdom to discern attacks on their rights and bravery to resent them.

        The Tuscarora war of 1711 brought terrible losses of life and property to the young colony. By the aid of troops from South Carolina the uprising was quickly suppressed. Afterwards in the Yemassee Indian war, North Carolina repaid her neighbor by sending prompt and efficient succor under Col. Maurice Moore. She likewise sent troops to aid the unsuccessful attempt on Carthagena, and to Virginia and New York to fight against the French and Indians.

THE CIVIL WAR.

        North Carolina was not forward in adopting secession. The people by a small majority in February, 1861, voted down the proposal to call a convention to consider Federal relations. But when coercion by the United States Government was resolved upon, a convention was called, and, on May 20, 1861, an ordinance of secession was passed by unanimous vote, and it was supported by large levies of money and troops. It was not the policy of the Confederacy to defend seriously the North Carolina coast, and by the Spring of 1862 the whole of the country from Beaufort to the Virginia line was in the hands of the Federals. Plymouth was, however, recaptured with nearly two thousand prisoners by the Confederates under General Hoke, but in a few months it was lost again, the Confederates having previously been ordered to Virginia. Fort Fisher at the mouth of the Cape Fear was defended with conspicuous courage for many months, thus enabling Confederate vessels to evade the blockade and introduce large supplies of necessaries, such as cloth, blankets, shoes, medicine, &c., for the use of our soldiers. And this was brought about by the efforts of Governor Zebulon B. Vance, seconded by the votes of the Legislature in authorizing large increase of bonds and treasury notes. A sharp but indecisive battle was fought at Bentonsville near the close of the struggle, but the valor and the sacrifices of the soldiers

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of North Carolina were chiefly in the great campaigns of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and to a less extent in Tennessee and South Carolina.

        The records of the War Department at Washington, comprising forty-nine volumes of about one thousand pages each, furnish a statistical history of the war. The result is impartial and represents the combined labors of five Federal and two Confederate officers. The casualties on both sides are recorded. The tables of dead and wounded show that on the Confederate side North Carolina lost more soldiers killed than any other Southern State, as follows: 14,522; and that she headed the list in the number that died of wounds, and that 20,602 of her soldiers perished of disease. Her military population in 1861 was 115,369, yet she furnished 125,000 to the Confederate cause.

GENERAL SKETCH.

        The State of North Carolina is bounded on the north by Virginia, east by the Atlantic Ocean, south by South Carolina and Georgia and west by Tennessee. It is included nearly between the parallels 34° and 36½° north latitude, and between the meridians 75½° and 84½° west longitude.

        The extreme length of the State from east to west is 503¼ miles; its average breath is 100 miles; its extreme breadth is 187½ miles. Its area embraces 52,286 square miles, of which 48,666 is land, and 3,620 is water.

        Its topography may be best conceived by picturing to the mind's eye the surface of the State as a vast declivity, sloping down from the summits of the Smoky Mountains, an altitude of nearly 7,000 feet, to the level of the Atlantic Ocean. The Smoky Mountains constitute a part of the great Appalachian chain, which here attains its greatest height; the greatest, indeed, in the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains. This slope is made up of three wide extended terraces--if that term may be allowed; the first a high mountain plateau--distinguished as the Western or Mountain Section; the second, a sub-montane plateau, distinguished as the Middle Section, or the Piedmont Plateau region; the third, the Atlantic plain, distinguished as the Low Country or the Coastal Plain region, and that part from the head of the tides downward as the Tide-water Section. From the first to the second section there is a sharp descent through a few

Illustration

SOUTHERN RAILWAY--ASCENT OF BLUE RIDGE--THROUGH TWO TUNNELS.

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miles only of not less than 1,500 feet; from the middle to the low country a descent of about 200 feet; through the two latter, however, there is a constant downward grade.

THE MOUNTAIN REGION.

        This is so sharply and distinctly defined, and embraces so large a portion of the territory of North Carolina, as to merit a somewhat extended reference to its magnitude, its elevation and its characteristics. Broadly considered it may be treated as a high plateau, bounded on the east by the irregular chain known as the Blue Ridge, extending across the State in a general direction from northeast to southwest, until, reaching the southeastern border of Henderson county, it turns to the west and forms for a long distance part of the southern boundary of the State, passing at length by a southwest projection into the State of Georgia, and again reuniting with the chain of the Smoky Mountains, to which it had made near approach on its entry into North Carolina in the counties of Ashe and Watauga.

        The average elevation of the Blue Ridge is nearly 4,000 feet, though on the southern and northern extremities it drops to 3,000 feet, its lower gaps being a little above 2,000 feet over the main level of the Piedmont country. Seen from the east, the chain presents the aspect of a steep and rugged escarpment springing suddenly from the Piedmont plateau to an altitude of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above it. From the west the appearance is that of a low and ill-defined ridge, in some places, as in parts of Henderson and Macon Counties, presenting almost a smooth, unbroken horizontal line; again uplifting itself in bold prominence, attaining the height of nearly 6,000 feet, as in the Grandfather, and the Pinnacle, the conspicuous summits so attractively visible near Round Knob, on the Western North Carolina Railroad.

        The western boundary of this division is that long chain known under the various names of the Iron, the Smoky, and the Unaka Mountains, and forming the dividing line between North Carolina and Tennessee, and enclosing with marked definiteness the plateau of Western North Carolina. The area of this division approximates 6,000 square miles. The plateau is the culminating region of the Appalachian system, and contains not only its largest masses, but also its highest summits. It is divided by a number of cross ridges, and consequently into a number of smaller plateaus or basins, each bounded on all sides by high mountains and having its own independent system of rivers or drainage. It is this connection or interlacing of the outside bounding chains by the agency of the numerous cross chains

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that gives Western North Carolina its marked mountain character, its alternation of high mountain ranges with corresponding valleys and their attendant rivers, and the numerous lateral spurs, penetrated also by their valleys and their mountain torrents, and all arranged with an order and a symmetry as rare as it is beautiful, and also presenting facilities for communication from the opposite sides of these chains of inestimable value in the construction of works of internal improvement not often possessed by mountain countries.

        The chief of these in exceptional elevation is known as the Black Mountains, consisting of a single short ridge extending in a northly direction from the point where it leaves the Blue Ridge. Its total length is only about fifteen miles, but within this short distance there are a dozen peaks that rise to an elevation of more than 6,000 feet above the sea, and one of these--Mitchell's Peak--the highest mountain on the eastern half of the continent, has an altitude of 6,711 feet. Between the French Broad and the Pigeon rivers stretches the long ridges of the Pisgah and the New Found mountains, interrupted by the valley of Hominy creek, the opening of which offers convenient passway to the next parallel ridge, the Balsam mountains, which extends in unbroken continuity from the South Carolina line on the south to the Smoky Mountains on the Tennessee border on the north. This range has a mean elevation of about 5,500 feet, with fifteen summits exceeding 6,000 feet; and across the range are only two pass-ways or gaps suitable to the passage of wheeled vehicles, one of which, traversed by the Western North Carolina railroad, is 3,357 feet above sea-level; the other, Soco Gap, being 4,341 feet high. Then comes the Cowee mountains, extending nearly across the State, and separated from the Great Smokies by the narrow valley of the Tuckasegee river. The mean height of this ridge is about 4,800 feet, the highest summit, at the southern end, being Yellow mountain, 5,133 feet. Then succeeds the massive and very bold double chain of the Nantahala and Valley River mountains, with a mean height of 5,000 feet, the two branches of which lie in close parallelism from the Georgia State line on the south as far as the Red Marble Gap on the north, where they separate, one branch directed westward and known as the Long Ridge, and uniting itself with the Smoky mountains in Cherokee county; the other extending to the northeast, under the name of the Cheowah mountains, and ending without definite connection in undefinable ridges or isolated peaks.

        On the east side of the Blue Ridge and extending into the Piedmont region are a series of short and irregular ridges or spurs. Among these are the Saluda, Green River, Tryon and Hungry

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mountain masses, which are more or less separated from the Blue Ridge by the deep valleys or gorges carved by the river torrents which have cut through them and thus unite with the waters flowing toward the Atlantic; the waters on the west of the Blue Ridge, on the contrary, all directing their courses toward the Mississippi or its tributaries. Two other and more prominent ridges extend into this Piedmont plateau for considerable distances. The South mountains, commencing as foot hills of the Blue Ridge in western McDowell, extend in a general easterly direction, south of the Catawba river to western Catawba county, a distance of some fifty miles. They reach their maximum development near the junction of Burke, McDowell and Rutherford counties, where several knobs have an elevation of near 3,000 feet. The other of these two ridges, the Brushy mountains, cut off from the Blue Ridge at the west by several tributaries of the Catawba assumes definite proportions in eastern Caldwell county and extends northeast more or less parallel to the Yadkin valley and Blue Ridge on the north, as far as the Sauratown mountains in Stokes county, a distance of some eighty miles. In Yadkin and Surry counties these mountains nearly disappear, but they reappear in Pilot, Eaton and Moor's Knobs to the northeast.

        The Linville mountains, though a distinct spur from the Blue Ridge, are so coincident with it in perspective and in general characteristics as to need no mention as a distinct ridge.

        The above embrace the whole mountain system of North Carolina, and in the western section unmistakably present the culmination of the great Appalachian system, as illustrated by the highest summits lifted up in all the territory of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and also as the source from which many large rivers radiate to flow towards the opposite directions of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mississippi river and its tributaries.

        Along the Blue Ridge, along the Smoky mountain range, and along the cross chains are found the following summits which exceed 6,000 feet in elevation:

        IN THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS--Mount Buckley, 6,599; Clingman's Dome, 6,660; Mount Love, 6,443; Mount Collins, 6,188; Mount Alexander, 6,447; Mount Henry, 6,373; Mount Guyot, 6,636; Tricorne Knob, 6,188; Raven's Knob, 6,230; Thermometer Knob, 6,157; Luftee Knob, 6,232; Cataloochee, 6,159; Roan (High Knob,) 6,313; Roan (High Bluff,) 6,287; Grassy Ridge, (Bald), 6,220; Cold Spring, 6,015.

        IN THE BALSAM MOUNTAINS--Enos Plotts' Balsam, 6,090; Jones' Balsam, 6,224; Rockstand Knob, 6,002; Brother Plott, 6,246;

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Amos Plott's Balsam, 6,278; Rocky Face, 6,031; Double Spring Mountain, 6,380; Richland Balsam, 6,370; Chimney Peak, 6,234; Spruce Ridge Top, 6,076; Reinhardt Mountain, 6,106; Devil's Court House, 6,049; Sam's Knob, 6,001.

        IN THE BLACK MOUNTAINS--Blackstock's Knob, 6,378; Potato Top, 6,393; Black Dome, 6,502; Mount Gibbs, 6,591; Mount Hallback, (or Sugar loaf,) 6,403; Mount Mitchell, 6,711; Balsam Cone, 6,671; Black Brother, 6,619; Cattail Peak, 6,611; Hairy Bear, 6,681; Deer Mountain, 6,233; Long Ridge, (middle point,) 6,259; Bowlen's Pyramid, 6,348.

        IN THE CRAGGY RANGE--Big Craggy, 6,068.

        In all forty-three peaks of 6,000 feet and upwards. And there are eighty-two mountains which exceed in height 5,000 feet, and closely approximate 6,000, and the number which exceed 4,000 and approximate 5,000 are innumerable.

        The general contour of all these mountains is gentle, the summits generally presenting smooth rounded outlines, occasionally rising into sharp pointed peaks, and, except on the southern border, presenting but few precipitous slopes. There, some of the most stupendous cliffs or precipices east of the Rocky Mountains present themselves, such as Cæsar's Head and Whiteside Mountain, the latter presenting a sheer perpendicular front of naked rock eighteen hundred feet in height.

        Otherwise the mountains are covered with deep rich soil, clothed with massive forests to their tops. To this general condition there is the remarkable exception presented by the locally named balds, natural meadows found on the rounded tops of many of the highest mountains. Their elevation is generally near, or above, 6,000 feet. The heavy forest growth of the valleys and lower slopes of the mountains is gradually dwarfed towards the bald summits, so that these are surrounded by a fringe of stunted, scrubby oaks, beeches, &c., the balds themselves being covered with a rich herbage of grass, pasturage to which large herds of domestic animals are annually driven to remain until the return of cold weather.

        The great elevation of these mountain heights is indicated by the botanical features of the vegetation, which shows a predominance of firs, hemlocks, white pines, and other trees of high latitudes.

        In respect to those timber trees found here, in common with the other sections, the Mountain region has the advantage of possessing an unbroken forest. In comparison with the extent of forest lands, the clearings here are mere patches.

        There is little hazard in saying that there is nowhere in any of the States an equal area of land covered with timber trees of such

Illustration

THE CRAGGY CHAIN--BIG CRAGGY.

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various kinds, and of such value. The walnut, tulip trees, (poplars), and oaks attain a size that would hardly be credited by one who had not seen them. The preservation of this magnificent forest is due to the fact that it has hitherto been inaccessible to transportation. Within the past few years much of it has been brought into connection with the markets of the world. One railroad line passes entirely through this section, and another branching off at Asheville and leading to the extreme southwest of the State, is now completed. Into the northwestern part of the State also a railroad has been completed and others projected.

        The cultivated productions of this section are the same as those of the Piedmont Plateau region, cotton and rice excepted. Its garden vegetables are the same, but the cabbage and the Irish potato grow here to a degree of perfection that cannot be excelled anywhere. Among the fruits, its apples are noted for size and flavor. Peaches and grapes grow well generally; but, for their highest perfection, nature has made provisions by a suspension to some extent of her ordinary laws. Throughout the mountains, in certain localities and at certain elevations, there are horizontal belts where frost is seldom known. Such localities are found not only in this section, but in the South mountains and in the Brushy range.

        The climate of this Mountain region differs less from that of the Piedmont Plateau region than would be inferred from its higher altitude. The difference is more perceptible in summer than in winter. In the former season, its cool and bracing air, together with its varied scenery, its mineral waters--sulphur, chalybeate and thermal--made this section one of the favorite resorts of the people of the South and Southwest when it could only be reached by private conveyances. Since it has been penetrated by railroads, the influx of health and pleasure-seekers has increased an hundred fold, and in future will add very largely to its resources.

        The soils of the basins of the great rivers of this section, and its mountain valleys, are noted for their fertility. The capacity for the production of cereals and hay grasses is equal to that of any lands. As might be inferred from the heavy forest growth with which the entire surface is covered, the mountain sides are susceptible of profitable cultivation up to their summits.

        Among the valleys most noted for their beauty and extent are the upper French Broad and Mills river valleys, of Henderson and Transylvania; the Swannanoa, in Buncombe; the Pigeon river, Richland and Jonathan's creek flat lands, in Haywood; those of the Valley

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river and Hiwasse, in Cherokee; and portions of the upper Linville, in Mitchell.

        The entire transmontane country is well adapted to stock-raising. The cultivated grasses flourish everywhere with even ordinary care. But it is in the north-western counties--particularly in the counties of Ashe, Alleghany, Watauga, Mitchell, Yancey--that all the conditions are found necessary for its perfect success. The soil throughout these counties is a deep rich loam, up to the summits of the mountains. The whole country is covered with a dense vegetation, amongst which will be found some of the largest timber in the United States, and as yet the forests are comparatively unbroken, because they have been inaccessible to market. The clearing of the timber is a work of some difficulty, but when that is done the labor of the farmer is rewarded with the richest crops. After two or three crops are taken off, the land, if suffered to lie at rest, springs up spontaneously in timothy, herds grass, and other rich pasture grasses; and once established, the grass perpetuates itself upon the land. Nor is an entire clearing necessary to establish the land in grass. If the undergrowth is removed, the trees thinned out, and the surface stirred and sown in orchard grass (Cocks foot,) it flourishes luxuriantly even while the forest trees are left standing.

        Its capacity as a grazing country has long been known. But formerly the cattle were left to the resources of nature, which indeed, in such a country were abundant and rich. "Horses and horned cattle," says General Clingman in one of his publications, "are usually driven out into the mountains about the first of April and brought back in November. Within six weeks after they have thus been put into the range, they become fat and sleek. There are, however, on the top and along the sides of the higher mountains ever-green and winter grasses on which horses and horned cattle live well through the entire winter. Such animals are often foaled and reared there until fit for market, without ever seeing a cultivated plantation." Of late, attention has been turned to the breeding of fine stock, and some herds of cattle and flocks of sheep are found there which will compare not unfavorably with those of any country. This country is already penetrated by one railroad, and others are in course of construction. When fairly laid open to railroad communication it will offer--besides its rich mining interests and timbers--one of the finest fields for cattle and sheep breeding and for dairy products that the Union presents.

        Apart from its forests, nature has been prodigal to this section in shrubs and flowering plants. It has always been a favorite resort of

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the botanists. It is a field that has been assiduously cultivated by many of the most distinguished professors of that science. It was from these mountains that Bartram, the Michauxs--father and son--Fraser, Delile, Lyon, Nuttall, Von Schweinitz, Mitchell, Gray and Curtis, drew much of the material of their valuable contributions to botanical science. It was here that some of the most beautiful flowers that adorn the gardens of Europe and of this country were first discovered. It still yields rare flowers to the explorer, which though not conspicuous for their beauty, are deemed rare treasures by botanists.

        This section has also been one of the chief sources of supply of medicinal herbs. Immense quantities are gathered and shipped to the northern cities and to Europe. In travelling through the mountains bales of these herbs may be seen collected about the country stores as bales of cotton are seen in the middle and eastern regions. Ginseng in great quantities is shipped to China. The trade in medicinal herbs has grown into a large business.

        Corundum abounds in Macon, Clay and many other counties. Mica is abundant in Mitchell and Yancey, and those counties yield a large part of the world's supply. The largest and finest sheets of it seen at the World's Fair at Vienna were from the Ray Mine in Yancey.

        This section is rich in iron ores of the best grade. That of Cranberry possesses such excellence for making iron for special purposes--steam boilers for example, and steel of the finest quality, such as is adapted to making surgical instruments and the like--that a railroad forty miles long and costing more than a million dollars has been constructed through one of the most rugged parts of the mountain territory to reach it. Copper also is prominent among the metals of this region. The most noted mine is that of Ore Knob, in Ashe.

        The effect of these mining enterprises upon the prosperity of this section has been marked. Labor has found employment, a home market has been furnished to the farmer, and there has been some appreciation of property of every kind.

        The past few years have been remarkable for the success with which the difficulties presented by the want of transportation in this State have been grappled with and overcome. These achievements at once great and beneficent, will make this period a memorable one in the history of the State. Railroads are now entering the northwestern part of the State in several directions. The completion and connection of these, and the opening up of this region, so rich in

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elements of undeveloped wealth, is now regarded as the first and most imperative duty of the statesmen of North Carolina.

PIEDMONT PLATEAU REGION.

        The Piedmont Plateau region is intermediate between the Mountain region, already spoken of, and the Coastal Plain region, which extends to the ocean. It comprises nearly one-half the territory of the State. In passing into this region from either of the others, a marked change is at once observable in topography, in production, and largely in industrial pursuits. The tumultuous continuity of mountains subsides into gentle undulations, a succession of hills and dales, a variety and charm of landscape, alike different from the high, uplifted mountain elevations and the flat monotony of the plains or levels of the east. Every step brings to view some new charm, some new arrangement of the rounded hills, some new grouping of the tracts of forest which still cover so large a part of the country. The hills, indeed, in their gracefully curving outlines, present lines of beauty with which the eye of taste is never satiated. These are attractions which depend upon permanent features of the landscape, and which, though infinitely heightened in their effects by the verdure of spring and summer, are only brought into fuller relief by the nakedness of winter. The variations of surface, though less defined at first, become more marked towards the west, and towards the Blue Ridge the country assumes a bold and even rugged aspect.

        The hand of improvement is more visible in this than in any section in this State. Almost the entire region is now dotted over with thriving villages and towns. The homes everywhere indicate a high degree of thrift and comfort. An unusual proportion are built in modern style, and tastefully painted. Nestled amidst yards and gardens, enclosed with neat painted palings, flanked with orchards of fruit trees, in which a space is generally allotted to choice grape vines, they give abundant proof of ease, plenty, and, in many instances, of no small degree of luxury.

        It is in this section that the great water-power of the State--estimated by the late State Geologist, Prof. W. C. Kerr, at three million horse-power--finds its greatest development and employment. It is through this section that flow the upper waters of the Dan, the Roanoke, the Tar, the Neuse, the Cape Fear, the Yadkin, and the Catawba, and their numerous affluents. All of those have been partially utilized by the erection of corn, flouring and saw-mills in every neighborhood, and cotton and woolen mills on almost all of the rivers and their tributaries. Within the last few years the number of cotton-mills has

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largely increased. Those erected lately are spacious buildings, and equipped with the best machinery. Within the same period all or nearly all of the older ones have been enlarged and new machinery put in. The fact begins to be more and more recognized that within the cotton States there are advantages for the manufacture of that staple that cannot be found elsewhere. Here the cotton is at the door of the manufacturer, and the prime cost of the material is therefore less. Wages are less here than in the northern States, and a lower rate of wages here affords a more comfortable living than a higher rate there, for the necessaries of life are cheaper, and less of food, clothing and fuel are required. Less fuel, too, is required for heating the mill in winter. The laborer can make substantial additions to his means of subsistence from his garden, which is always allotted here to the head of the family. Here there is no obstruction to machinery from ice in winter, and no greater suspension of work from drought in summer, for our rivers are as long as those of New England and have as many tributaries. The original cost of the site and of the building here is very much less than the same cost there. The force of these reasons cannot be long resisted, and, indeed, the phenomenal growth of cotton milling now observed in the State fully asserts the truth of the claims set forth.

        In subsequent chapters in this volume the water powers and manufacturing will be treated at more length.

        The soil of this Piedmont Plateau presents a blending of the soils of the Eastern and Western regions, the tertiary formation of the first pushing itself sometimes far towards the west until it comes into proximity with the older formations of the Piedmont region, and often, in its extreme western extension, partaking of the character of the formations of the mountains. A soil so composed or diversified, in connection with favorable climatic conditions, offers great agricultural possibilities, and in this section we find the widest range of production. It is here that we find the largest area devoted to the cultivation of the most profitable varieties of tobacco, and it is here that the culture of cotton is largely extended and profitably pursued; and it is here also that all the cereals and all the grasses are cultivated in their highest perfection, enlisting the leading agricultural interest of the population. Here also the fruits of the temperate zone find congenial home--apples, peaches, pears, cherries, the small fruits and grapes being unexcelled in excellence, variety and abundance. In this section are also widely distributed the richest veins and deposits of the valuable ores and metals, including the precious metals, gold and silver, iron, copper and lead, and the only two coal

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formations found in North Carolina. These ores, and the mining operations connected with them, will be treated of in a chapter in this work. This region also abounds in varied and extensive forest wealth, which will be referred to in its proper place.

COASTAL PLAIN REGION.

        The whole eastern portion of the State consists of a vast plain, stretching from the sea coast into the interior of the country, a distance of from one hundred to a hundred and fifty miles. Traversing this section from north to south are tracts of country which vary little from a perfect level. The Carolina Central Railroad has a stretch of one hundred miles where there is neither curve, excavation nor embankment. From east to west the surface rises by easy gradations at the rate of a little more than a foot to the mile. The rise, however, is not perceptible to the traveler. But though level in parts, it is in general relieved by slight undulations. Along its western border, as in the county of Moore, it attains an elevation of about five hundred feet.

        The western boundary may be roughly defined by a line extending from the western part of Warren, through Franklin, Wake, Cumberland, Chatham, Moore, Montgomery and Anson. This line marks what, at an earlier period of the earth's history, was a line of sea-beach. Over this whole section the primitive rocks are covered with a deep stratum of earth, principally sand. Along the western border there is a broad belt of unequal width, but generally from thirty to forty miles across, where granite, slate and other rocks are sparingly distributed, mainly near water-courses, where the more recent formations have been removed by the erosian agencies. The belt of primitive rock here mentioned extends to the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, from the Virginia line to Goldsboro, and from thence to a line drawn through Averysboro to the South Carolina line about where the Pee Dee enters that State. From the line there indicated to the sea coast not a stone of any size, except along the water-courses, and scarcely a pebble, except at a few points, is to be met with.

        A bed of shell limestone underlies some portions of the region, cropping out at intervals. It forms a good limestone, sufficiently pure for all the common purposes of building, and in quantity large enough to supply a wide extent of country with quicklime. Examples of this are found nine miles below Waynesboro, in the north-west corner of Jones, in the northern part of Onslow, at Wilmington, and on the north-west branch of the Cape Fear to a distance of forty miles above.

        

Illustration

SCENES NEAR FAYETTEVILLE.

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        This section is made up of beds of clay and sand, with vast quantities of shells imbedded in them. The soil varies in character to the extent that the one or the other predominates; and to the extent that the shells, when intermixed with it, have undergone decomposition. The upland soil is for the most part a sandy loam, easily accessible to the sun's rays, easily worked and very productive in the crops there cultivated. There are, however, extensive areas of country where sand predominates to such a degree that the surface to a considerable depth is a bed of white sand. Yet this kind of land is the favorite habitat of the long-leaf pine. When cleared, it yields good crops of corn and cotton for a few years without manure, and always with slight help from proper commercial fertilizers, and considerable areas, as in Moore county, have been found to be valuable for small fruits and orchards. There are other extensive areas where clay enters so largely into the soil as to form a clay loam. The counties on the north side of Albemarle Sound--a very fertile tract of country--are examples of this class. The alluval lands of this section--lands always in the highest degree productive from the fact that all the elements of fertility are intimately intermingled by having been once suspended in water--are of unusual extent and importance. The grain grown there supplies food not only for people of other parts of the State, but large populations in other States. There are also extensive areas when the marls of the tertiary formation come near the surface and increase the fertility of the soil. This is the case from the eastern part of Jones county to the Cape Fear river, and in portions of many other counties. Another class of lands in point of fertility equalling any in the world is that reclaimed from some of the swamp and lake areas in the extreme eastern portion of this region. These lands seem to be well nigh inexhaustible. The cultivation of three-quarters of a century has made no change in their productive capacity. To the lands reclaimed from the borders of marshes--so frequent near the shore--the same remark may be applied.

        Another class of land remains to be mentioned which will be a resource of inestimable value in time, perhaps not distant. Bordering on the sea and sounds are extensive tracts of country designated as swamps. Though so-called, they differ widely in their characteristic features from an ordinary swamp. They are not alluvial tracts, neither are they subject to overflow. The land covered by many of them lies for the greater part quite low; but this remark seldom applies wholly to any of them--to some does not apply at all. On the contrary many of them occupy the divides or water sheds between the

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rivers and sounds, and are elevated many feet above the adjacent rivers of which they are the sources. These latter are susceptible of drainage, and when reclaimed some of them have every element of exuberant and lasting fertility. Bay River swamp, between Pamlico and Neuse rivers, and Green swamp, in Brunswick and Columbus counties, may be mentioned as examples. The elevation of the latter is forty feet above the sea level. The work of drainage is simple. From the border of the swamp, which is always the highest land, the bottom slopes in every direction gradually, almost imperceptibly, to the centre. A canal cut through this border into the swamp, and carried to some neighboring stream, lays bare an extensive belt along the entire border. The aggregate territory in the State known as swamp lands is between three and four thousand square miles. When drainage shall be properly carried out over this great territory--a work which on account of the slight difficulties to be encountered as compared with those which they encountered and overcame, would be deemed trifling by the laborious North German and the indefatigable Hollander--hundreds of square miles of land of surpassing fertility will be added to the area now in cultivation.

        Throughout this entire section cotton, corn, oats, sorghum, peas, peanuts, potatoes, especially sweet potatoes, are the staple crops; the culture of tobacco has been lately introduced with success. Upon the rich alluvions and the reclaimed lake and swamp lands, corn, with peas planted in the intervals between the corn, forms the exclusive crop. Occasionally on the broad low-grounds of the Roanoke, wheat is grown to a considerable extent. In the counties on the north of Albemarle Sound it is one of the staple crops. On the low-grounds of the lower Cape Fear rice has long been the staple crop, and during recent years its culture has been extended northward along the low lying lands of the rivers and sounds. The upland variety of rice has been introduced within a few years past with entire success. This section is everywhere underlaid with marl--a mixture of carbonate of lime and clay formed by the decomposition of imbedded shells--sufficient in quantity, when raised and applied to the surface, to bring it to a high pitch of fertility and maintain it so.

        In the counties of Duplin, Sampson and New Hanover valuable deposits of phosphates have been discovered, which are now being mined and ground for fertilizing purposes. They are known to exist in the adjoining counties, but to what extent has not been yet ascertained. From the similarity of the geological conditions throughout

Illustration

BEAN FIELD--ATLANTIC COAST LINE.

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the Eastern Section, there is little doubt that a systematic exploration there will lead to further extensive discoveries.

        The use of marl, on account of its lower value in comparison with its bulk and consequent cost of transportation, must be mainly, if not wholly, confined to the section in which it is found. Phosphates, on the other hand, on account of their high fertilizing power, admit of transportation to any distance, and may be used anywhere.

        Dr. Emmons remarks: "The swamp soils of North Carolina show a greater capacity for endurance than the prairie soils of Illinois, notwitstanding the annual crops are somewhat less per acre; and, on the score of location, we are unable to see that the Illinois soils have the preference. Nor, as regards health, are our swamp soils more subject to malaria than the country of the prairies." He refers to the remarkable fact that "persons live and labor in swamps with impunity or freedom from disease." This statement is fully sustained by the reports of our engineers who have had charge of the construction of railroads in that section, as well as by the general healthfulness of the inhabitants of the region, and especially so by those who use cistern water.

        The swamps, in their natural state, afford abundant pasturage. They are covered in part by a dense growth of reeds, which supply excellent food for cattle, winter and summer.

        That eminent agriculturist, Mr. Edmund Ruffin, of Virginia, who studied this section of the State with care, expressed a high appreciation of the tidewater region for the cultivation of grasses. He said: "There is no better country for grasses east of the mountains. In small lots I saw dry meadows of ochard grass and clover that would have been deemed good in the best grass districts." It is evident, from the humid character of the climate in that region, and from the fact that the heats of summer are tempered by sea-breezes, owing to the proximity of the ocean, that the conditions are such as to favor the growth of this family of plants.

        Among the resources for future use along the seaboard country, peat is entitled to a prominent place. It exists over hundreds of square miles in area, and to the depth of many feet. At no distant day it will be extensively used, both as a fuel and fertilizer.

        If the indications of nature are to be relied on, North Carolina was plainly marked out as the land for vineyards. In the sober narrative of the voyage of Amadas and Barlowe, made in 1584, to North Carolina, then an unbroken wilderness, the author tells us, in most graphic language of the abundance of grapes: "so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them."

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        Upon the visit of the voyagers to the house of the Indian King, on Roanoke Island, wine was set before them by his wife. It is further mentioned that, "while the grape lasteth, they (the Indians) drink wine;" they had not learned the art of preserving it. Harriot, a distinguished man in an age of distinguished men, of whom it was justly said that he cultivated all sciences and excelled in all, visited the same coast in 1586, where he was struck with the abundance of grape vines, and he was impressed with the fact that wine might be made one of the future staples of the State. "Were they," he writes, "planted and husbanded as they ought, a principal commodity of wines might be raised." This State has proved to be far richer in this respect than it is probable even he suspected. Grape vines were found in equal profusion in the original forest throughout the State. They often interlaced the trees to such an extent that they were a serious impediment to the work of clearing away the forest, catching and suspending the trees as they were felled. At this day, if a tract of forest is enclosed, and cattle of every kind excluded, they spring up spontaneously and thickly over the land, Some of the finest wine grapes of the United States, the Scuppernong, the Isabella, the Catawba and the Lincoln, are native to this State. But it was long before the bounty of nature in this regard was improved. This was probably due to the fact that the State was settled almost wholly by emigrants from the British Isles, who knew nothing of the culture of the vine. It was planted here and there to yield grapes for table use; but it was not until within thirty years that a vineyard was known in the State. Within that period several of large and a great number of small extent have been planted. Grapes in season are abundantly supplied for domestic consumption, and shipped in hundreds of tons. The wines of the established vineyards are held in high and just repute. In a broad commercial sense, the possibilities of the Scuppernong, as a wine grape, is yet to be developed: North Carolina should supply the bulk of the wine used in this country.

        All the cultivated fruits and berries grow here in great perfection with the exception of the apple. This, though by no means an inferior fruit, is yet not equal in size and flavor to that of the Piedmont Plateau and Mountain regions. Among the swamps the cranberry is found in profusion. The melons are of every variety and of peculiar excellence.

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CLIMATE.

        It will be conceded without question that the influence of climate on human progress is supreme, because its happy or adverse conditions affect all that relates to comfort, health, energy and success in the occupations of life. Those regions most abounding in fertile soil and exuberant vegetation, which favor the growth of many valuable productions of nature, often have those treasures closed against the efforts of industry by unfavorable climatic conditions, an excess of heat and moisture, and an air poisoned with miasma, leading to loss of vigor, health, or of life itself. On the other hand the frigid regions of the north are equally unsuited for the permanent abode of man.

        The greatest nations have all developed in the regions of the temperate zone, which possess the most variable climate. Variations of heat and cold, of moisture and dryness, within extremes not too great, are essential to the best development of vegetable as well as animal life. Man especially, requires the inspiration of the changing seasons, the summer, warm enough to assure the rewards of labor by the abundant yield of the fruits of the soil, the winter, with its bracing cold, giving a period of rest and renewal of vigor.

        It is common to find the most extravagant claims made for the climate of favored localities. The splendid climate of North Carolina will be best described by presenting to the seeker for a new home a few facts in regard to the chief climatic features, which may be easily verified by reference to the excellent publications of the North Carolina State Weather Service, where more detailed information may be sought.

        North Carolina lies on the same parallel of latitude as the central Mediterranean basin, that climatically most favored region of the globe. Though this position in the warm temperate zone determines the chief climatic features of the State, these are modified by various causes, most important of which are the proximity of the ocean in the east and the mountain system in the west. The State is naturally divided into three regions: the Coastal Plain, Piedmont Plateau and Mountain. The effect of the prolongation of the first into the Atlantic is to give the climate of that region a more insular or marine character, the effect of the presence of the sea being to lessen the changes in temperature both diurnal and seasonal and to increase the amount of precipitation. Contrary to the prevailing impression, the nearness of the Gulf Stream has a minimum effect on the climate in

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the east, both because the Gulf Stream is separated from the land by fifty miles of cold water, and because the prevailing winds are from the southwest or northeast and do not blow the moist air of the Gulf Stream over the land, as is so often stated. The annual mean temperature of Southport, situated in the southeast corner of the State, is 64 degrees. Here vegetation of semi-tropical origin, as the palmetto and magnolia flourishes and rice is cultivated. The decrease in annual mean temperature towards the north is only to 59 degrees at Coinjock and Weldon. The land is level and fertile, and the earlier and more rapid development of vegetation has l