The Atlantic Monthly | Page 6

delay, stocked with innumerable cocoons of the kind already
found so abundantly on James Island. These I expected would furnish
thousands of spiders, the care of which, with the reeling of their silk,
would give employment to all the freed people in South Carolina,--for
even then the poor creatures were finding their way to the coast. And
perhaps, I thought, some day, the Sea-Island silk may be as famous as

the choice Sea-Island cotton. This hope I still cherish, together with the
belief that, under certain conditions, the spiders may also be reared at
the North.
After riding miles and miles in all directions in search of the readiest
point of attack; after having once engaged a row-boat to go around
through Stono River and meet me at the nearest point of land,--on
which occasion I dismounted to give my horse a better chance of
getting over a bad place in the road, and the ungrateful beast left me in
the lurch and went home much faster than he came, while I, being now
half-way, walked on through the marsh, and had the pleasure of sitting
on a log in a pouring rain for an hour, with Long Island just on the
other side of a creek over which no boat came to carry me,--after this
and other disappointments, I at last made sure by going in the boat
myself, and so finally reached the island. But now, to my discomfiture,
after a most careful search, I saw only two or three cocoons of the kind
I looked for, while the others, of loose texture, were quite abundant,
and doubtless would have been found in still greater numbers but for
their always being under leaves, and often at a considerable height. It
was probable now that these latter cocoons contained the spiders, and
that the former were a different species.
The regiment now removed to the interior of the State, and while there
occurred the coup de soleil above mentioned. We remained at
Orangeburg until the middle of August, and then, being stationed at Mt.
Pleasant, I again made raids for spiders. Upon James Island, in the
localities where during the spring the cocoons were abundant, I found
many large geometrical spiders, all of one kind, but not of the kind I
sought. They were bad-tempered, and their legs were so short and
strong that it was not easy to handle them, while their silk was of a light,
and not brilliant, yellow.
My first attempt upon Long Island was made by leaving Charleston in a
boat, which, after touching at Sumter, landed me at Fort Johnson. Here
I was joined by a sergeant and corporal of the Fifty-fourth
Massachusetts, and we walked across to a little settlement of freed
people not far from Secessionville, where a boat and crew were

engaged. It would be tedious to relate how, after sticking on invisible
oyster-beds and mud-flats, and losing our way among the creeks, at two
o'clock we found ourselves about one hundred yards from the north end
of the island; and how, since it was too late to try to reach the wharf on
the east side, even had we been sure of the way, the two Fifty-fourth
boys and myself got out of the boat and essayed to cross upon the
marsh. Such a marsh! We have marshes at the North, but they are as
dry land in comparison. I had seen them at the South, had stepped upon
and into them, but never one like this. It was clear mud, as soft as mud
could be and not run like the water that covered it at high tide. Even the
tall rushes wore an unsteady look; and the few oysters upon its surface
evidently required all their balancing powers to lie upon their flat sides
and avoid sinking edgewise into the oozy depths. In we sank, over
ankles, at the first step, and deeper and deeper till we took a second; for
our only safety lay in pushing down the rushes with the inside of one
foot and treading upon them, till the other could be withdrawn from its
yielding bed, and a spot selected for the next step forward. I say
selected, for even this mud was more firm than a hole in it filled with
water and treacherously concealed by a few rushes. A misstep into one
of these pitfalls brought me to my knees, and well-nigh compelled me
to call for help; but a sudden and determined spring, and a friendly
bunch of rushes beyond, spared me that mortification. When two thirds
of the way across, and while thinking we should soon reach dry land,
we came upon the edge of a creek, not wide, it is true, but with soft,
slimy, sloping sides, (for banks they