INTRODUCTION. ni 



The fossil bones obtained from some of these strata are often in a fine state of perserva- 

 tion, especially those taken from the blue mnd, which are generally petrified; those from 

 the sands are likewise well preserved, but in the peaty or upper beds they are not so petri- 

 fied, retain all their gelatine and appear to decompose rapidly. 



Dr. Klipstein, who resides near Charleston, in digging a ditch for the purpose of re- 

 claiming a swamp, discovered and sent me the tooth of a mastodon, with the request that I 

 should cro down and visit the place, as there were indications of the bones and teeth of the 

 animal still remaining in the sands which underlie the peat-bed. Accordingly, with a 

 small party of gentlemen, we visited the Doctor, and succeeded not only in obtaining 

 several other teeth and bones of this animal, but nearly one entire tusls, and immediately 

 alono- .side of the tusk discovered a fragment of pottery which is similar to that manufactured 

 at the present time by the American Indians. The depth of the excavation was about 

 three feet below the surface; bones of the deer and two teeth of a horse were also found. 



This is not a drift-bed, but a deposit of the peat and sand of the Post-Pleiocene formation. 

 The marine beds with their characteristic shells lie immediately beneath, and are exposed 

 on the high land which surrounds the swamp. If we take the one hundred and fifty 

 species of moUusca, whose shells are so beautifully preserved in these beds, and place the 

 entire group along side a similar collection of shells of the recent species living upon the 

 coast, we will observe that they are identically the same in form, character and every other 

 respect. There are among the fossils two shells whose analogues are not now living upon 

 the sea coast of Carolina, but are common in the gulf of Mexico, and West Indian seas. 

 Stromhus piicjilis, abundant on the coast of Florida and Cuba, is a fossil of the Post-Pleio- 

 cene ; and G/m//wf?o« CK«e«/?«H, now living in the estuaries near Mobile, and along the 



