The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-07-11

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The ladies enjoyed it as much as the
men, though they were q little afraid OF
the water.
We had the same boat all the time,
owned by Capt. Joseph NJ. Wise and
manned by himself and two intelligent
young meu-George and John. They
would bait our hooks and take OF the
fish, the bait being one joint OF crabs
leg. These men knew more about the
sea and fishing and managing boat
than We ever could understand, and our
greenness when they used the various
nautical terms and controlled their boat
30 easily, made us sad till We remembered
the reply of the squirrel to the mountain,
"when the latter called the former little
prig," viz: "f l can not carry trees
upon my back, neither can you crack
nut"
ManteO is 4 miles Southwest OF Mays
Head. Our party OF 13-including two
ladies and little Belle Hicks and two big !
trunks, ten valises and four guns
crossed over in Capt. Wise's little boat. |
The wind was strong and the waves high |
and the water tapped over into the boat |
and wet Lou Gooch and Mrs. Major
Harris. Little Belle became frightened
and said she wanted to go home. Papa
pointed to Manteo and told her wewouh
soon DE tOere. Sne Sdlu "dut W
go to my sho' nuff home"
On July 4th the men of the party went
| IA miles from Manteo to Oregon Inlet,
below Bodies Island Lighthouse. This
is the only place between Cape Henry
| and Cape Hatteras where the waters OF
| the ocean and the Sound pass into and
| out of each other. At ordinary times the
Inlet is about half O mile wide, but in
rough weather the Inlet is two miles
wide and the water covers hundreds OF
acres that at this season are nothing
but white sand, studded with shells and
curiosities of the sea, including myriads
OF sea gulls and ducks and crows. The
gulls lay their eggs in this sand and the
sun matches them. Major Harris and
Sam and Andrew and Lou GOOch carried
their guns aud all except the MAJOR dld
great slaughter. But his celebrated gun,
Venus, was not able to reach a single
gull. The Major felt 80 bad over this
that after repeated failures he turned his
gun on sandfdtiler that had for some
time easily eluded the hot pursuit OF
Owen Davis, and Venus laid the said
sandfiddler low. Then Owen proposed
that the guns name should be changed
from Venus to Sandfddler, and it was 80
voted. The gulls, when fired on, would
: not fly away, but upward, out OF the
reach of the guns, and the trouble with
Venus was that her owner could not
shoot so well straight overhead, while
Mr.. Sandfiddler had to stay on the
ground and thus lost his life.
{ Two ducks we're seen lying on shore as
we sailed along. All of the guns fired
. !, at once and one duck died; the other
, rolled into the water and out OF sight.
!, | The Captain ordered us to watch Tor it,
! and though our boat did not stop and
O was going about Z miles an hour, IN
a about minutes the duck s head appeared
| above the water about q hundred yards
y ahead of us, but went under again before
the guns could be aimed at her. She
,, appeared on the surface again in about
. five minutes, but still further of, and
" after that, though all we're watching fo1
T. her to rise, we never saw her again. W.
10 we're much surprised at such sagaclty IL
a bird. Flight would have been certain
: death and the duck seemed to know it.
- We caught no fish that day as tn
wind was wrong for the drums and pis
~ fish we went to catch, but we saw tn
o | rush and roar of the mighty ocean AM
4 bathed in it, and felt as we looked upol
e it our littleness and the greatness OF God
On our way home that afternoon tn
20 CAPTAIN complimented us for being 81
. we'll behaved, saying he had neve
~ handled but one crowd of men VIII
% behaved better. Thereupon Wills Hick
q felt moved to relate an anecdote tina
"a appeared to have been in basket wit
st. Goals, and motion was made to thro
ID him overheard. After some argumer
he pro and con the motion was put an
NO resulted in six votes for and seve
,r against drowning him. Then some Oths
Of Jokes were told.
u The narrow strip of land betwee
~. Albemarle, Currituck and Pamlie
2 Sounds and the ocean is nothing mo-
os than ridge of white sand that may |
IL seen for miles and miles, and in its 81
er and vastness reminds one of the pyramid
70 Every wave of the sea adds to this san
ne and when dried it is blown to and Ov
no the ton and is all the time encrOachiI
rio on the Sound. Mays Head is on til
us strip of sand, on the side next to t
he Sound. In fact, the present Nags He,
of Hotel was built on posts over . ieet
ev water in the Sound. The first hotel "
no built on land but the sand hills encroach
,at on it till now there is pile OF sand me
q than 100 feet high and 800 yards thi
,e !" right where it stood, which is changi
ies it's place every day and in 5 years "
engulf and destroy the present hotel.
,on There are no rocks at all down the
The except the pile thrown out by Amid
the and Barlow, when, on July 10th, 15e
md thew lightened the ship SO as to be al
hla to pass up the Sound to the North G
;ch of Roanoke Island where they built
IN fort, the remnants OF which are 8
,yai there, to protect themselves from
hat Indians. That pile of rocks is still tn
not in the Sound at q point called Balls
Point, and we passed right over tn
mo several times, going fishing, and het
.ear our boat strike and grind against the
,rd That's great country. People
and contented and happy there and can
Ono without work The county was form
hv ! in 1869 from part of Currituck. All
hot deeds and mortgages, real and person
=, - are recorded in four books the same
800 of those in Vance, of which 25 have b
~ filed in IA years. There is only
~ LAWYER in the county and he new con
o+or The court house door wasn't opened
.aas once while We we're there. L asked
,;nr there we're any Populists there and
.,.os told there was not one in the couI
chi and though we saw and talked wit
= tu as great many people we didn't hear 16
+ho / or gold bug mentioned while on tn
o III" happy shores. Court meets there
Jh" add twice year and adjourns invarit
" ''s before night of the first day. Fishin,
AGO. their business. There were sew
lin Northern people at Mahteo VINO q
,nres for sport. The Northerners when
as CouT oi"e - ,or;o+y
and when III huo 49,, con,
and Costumes eAce ans .n" ~ nantjan
,said man "ouiue .'" snn,oa No bic ~
was Af. "eS'o'SS' ~, ~,
hotel anu we "eie III ,a .oasond en-
Ouse tue hooNe an1 e. 5ano.s ond ube,
the COST ."ent t ~. tIo,n and y
y in failed.
NV But time flies and faster when pleasa
90 n' ;s spent, and chad to leave Saturday {
+ho after another dip in the ocean at
.h .n Head and a night at that hotel stan
- ,ne eso out in the water. And how the W
Yields roareu lue p'J h III ,,a.o so nIoo
We II comparisons "heio O."