of the neighborhood. This feature has been too often over- 

 looked or neglected, but it is one of high importance to science, 

 and is now becoming recognized much more than before. It is 

 moreover an easy and a most practical field, and one that can be 

 cultivated by every country college at little cost and with real 

 advantage. 



The Charleston Museum is fully alive to the value of this 

 side of its work, and is preparing to emphasize it in various 

 departments, in the installation of its fast-increasing material 

 in the new building. In this article, however, the object is to 

 outline a somewhat wider plan of the same kind, in the special 

 field of mineralogy and geology, one that will give a unique and 

 distinctive character to this museum. 



The Middle and Southern Atlantic States constitute, in a 

 broad sense, a geographical and geological unit. They all con- 

 sist of (1) what is known scientifically as the "coastal plain," 

 and popularly as the "low country", extending for a consider- 

 able distance inland in a wide belt; then (2) the so-called Pied- 

 mont belt, of much older rocks, worn down to a region of hills or 

 rolhng country ; and (3) the mountain region of the Blue Ridge 

 and the Appalachians. The first of these great zones consists 

 of Tertiary and Cretaceous rocks, with many fossils of those 

 periods; the second, and in parts the third, is chiefly crystalHne 

 rocks, some igneous and some metamorphic, containing many 

 interesting and valuable minerals. On passing further west- 

 ward into the mountains, the crystalline character diminishes, 

 and the rocks become more or less altered sediments, with iron 

 ores and coal-beds and ancient fossils. 



Now, throughout this great region, from Virginia to Alabama, 

 there has been much study of the minerals and of the fossils, at 

 many points, but all separate and scattered. The States have 

 their special surveys, and the results of these have been more or 

 less gathered into State collections and exhibits, which may be 



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