86 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



We returned the same day to Williamsburg, and on 

 the following morning took up our journey towards 

 the South. On the road to the James River, a mile 

 from Williamsburg, another shell-bank had been laid 

 bare at a mill site, beneath a covering of red sand and 

 clay 40-50 ft. deep. + From the appearances here and 

 concordant phenomena observed later elsewhere, it is 

 plain enough that all these shell-banks lie at a fixed 

 depth beneath the upper stratum of sand and clay, 

 along the whole flat coast, but are exposed only at such 

 places where brooks and rivers, on their way to the sea, 

 have cut sufficiently deep into the great slope ; which, 

 (were it not for these cuts effected by the w r ater), 

 would appear as a continuous, uniform, and gently 

 declivitous plain. 



Seven miles from Williamsburg we came to the 

 James River, leaving the high sand-flats as much as 

 half a mile from the river, and getting into deep, level, 

 low-grounds. The wind was high, and there was a 

 hesitation about setting us over the river, three miles 

 wide, which having no high banks or hills to break the 

 force of the wind is so much the more disturbed by 

 every puff, particularly when the current is met by the 

 in-coming tide. Hoping to see the wind laid, we re- 

 mained some time on the bank, for neither at the ferry 

 nor between it and the town is there any retreat to be 

 had at such a juncture, and the ow r ner of the ferry is 

 quite unconcerned if, with untoward wind and 

 weather, the traveller finds shelter or not. We rode to 

 some houses in the neighborhood, to avoid returning to 

 the town and in order to be near by, should the wind 

 come better ; but w r e were nowhere taken in, and were 

 not tempted to praise overmuch the far-sounded Vir- 



