The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-14
GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF
THE WONDERS OF HATTERAS
Myriads of Wild Fowl Make it a Veritable Hunters
Eden. Exuberant Vegetation Clothing its
Wire ck=Strewn Shores.
Especial Correspondence of the Baltimore


Especial Correspondence of the Baltimore
SUM-
When at Cape Hatteras one is impress
sed with the situation as that of re-
mote sea island. ! was there late in the
month of January, my second visit to that
locality and spent a week. No steam
ers touch there and visitors are infre-
quent. My first stay there was in Sep
TENDER following the great August hur-
ricane of 1899, when l was subdued at
sight of the wreckage. and on my last
visit my mind was equally full of wonder
at the sight of the wild fowl.
l have used the gun as amateur hum
er and collecting naturalist for 35 years,
yet | saw more game at Hatteras the one
week last spent there than in all former
experiences combined. On the first day
of that week l easily saw quarter of
a million wild fowl-brant, geese and
various ducks. am accustomed to COM
putations in the millions, not to say
in money, and realize something of the
proportions of the 100000 number. l saw
all of those living forms in a three or
four hour period and not while lacking
ship across a wide zone, but in making
IL lOieEdDly direct course through TIC
cape channel for anchorage under the
land opposite Cape Hatteras Light. These
wild fowl were feeding or flying over the
shadows of the Pamlico sound. Relative
ly speaking the same species of fowl
were at that time equally numerous
along the ocean banks Tin the sound of
course) to New inlet and southwark to
Ocracoke inlet combined distance of
about 60 miles.
GRAVEYARD FOR SHIPS AND MEN.
i was first attracted to Cape Hatteras
by the remarks by an unknown CONNER
cial traveller whose vivid description of
the locality as an untoward graveyard
for ships and men awakened my keenest
interest. At once ! felt a desire to see
for myself, as l have done, the scene
of horrors and get close enough to feel
the presence of the destroyer in Diamond
Shoals But when l landed there a
month after the summer hurricane of
1899 there were but three graves, each
on the sand beach at high-water mark,
and designated by long straight stick.
Only these were drowned. all others be-
ing saved. and through the efforts of the
life-sayers nearly all lives of late years
are saved. Many vessels are lost and
the insurance companies writhe under the
burden but the mortality among the ship
wrecked is hardly more than 2 per cent.
The place, therefore, presents a more
cheerful aspect under this changed and
brighter condition. Diamond Shoals are
still there. jutting Is miles out to sea,
submerged, but easily distinguishable,
owing to the almost continued presence of
the snow white foam on the crests of the
breakers. Careless navigators are the
ones. l was told while there, who are
the most numerous victims to their flu
ries. When ships ground there the life
savers have to so out to them in open
boats, and when this has to be done
through the surf there is an almost in
comparable strain on both muscle and
nerve. When / was there the first time
the lightship had been washed from
the point of the shoals entirely out on
the high land of the banks.
DENsELY GROWING VEGETATION
The ocean banks. which traverse the
greater part of the North Carolina
coast, dividing sound and ocean, are or
dinarily narrow. but along here. from
the Cape to Hatteras inlet they are
quite broad and most agreeably clothed
IN densely growing vegetation The shell
tered area is about seven miles long and
two miles wide, and the growth is so
largely composed of evergreen species
that the landscape is impressively tropi-
cal. In midwinter it is as verdant as the
heart could wish large percentage of
the rich, glossy green is the foliage of
the yopon, a shrub but often of tree
proportions. 1t is a native tea plant,
and extensively incorporated into the
diet of the dwellers there. This plant is
not mentioned in the North Carolina
Handbook nor is the word in Webster's
Unabridged Dictionary, and | may not
have the spelling correct 1t grows ev-
crywhere there in great profusion, and
bears indefinite pruning The leaves
and branches are chopped or broken and
used green in making the tea decoction,
or the years stores are cured at a given
time in a smothered kiln. They excavate.
forming pit in the sand ridge, and burn
brush as for a barbecue. and at last
throw in the chOpped-up mass and cover
with earth till all is dry within. 1t is
sold at retail at about so cents bushel
The cured tea is universally known to
be irresistible to house cats. and the ut
most precautions are necessary to pre-
vent them from sleeping on it. This plant.
with the holly, pine, live oak and dwarf
palmetto. makes growth which is in
tenscly pleasing and satisfying.
YOPON AND HOLLY BERRIES.
But a charm, not to be left unme n
toned, as being part of the winter ever
green is the unrivaled crown of red ber-
RIGS which ornament the yopon and hol-
ly. This land being surrounded by salt
water and so near the Gulf stream. the
fertilization of the flowers on these plants
is more perfect than a person of ordinary
experience can conceive. and the fruit
age is SO complete that the stems are
fcstoOned in clusters, resembling sumac
berries. Last January it would have been
possible TO gather 500 barrels 1t is too
far out ut sea for the robin and such
other birds to frequent these berry store
houses with ordinary safety Also the
doSwood berry is uncOmmonly abundant
and when it falls to the ground COM
prises an important element in the dict
of the deer. which are here in consider
able numbers. The abnormal berry pro-
duct observed ut IIattcras has its couu-