HARPER: COASTAL PLAIN OF THE CAROLINAS 355 
from Florence to Wilmington, N. C., and Wrightsville Beach on 
the 27th, from Wilmington to Rocky Mount and Tarboro, N. C., 
and Norfolk, Va., on the 28th, and from Norfolk to Petersburg, 
Richmond and northward on the afternoon of the 30th. By this 
zigzag route I crossed the coastal plain several times while work- 
ing gradually lengthwise of it, thus obtaining a broad view of it 
which could hardly be surpassed in soshort atime. Augusta, 
Rocky Mount, Petersburg, and Richmond are fall-line cities, 
Charleston, Wilmington, and Norfolk are seaports, and Florence, 
at another of the angles of the route, is about two-thirds of the 
way from the coast to the fall-line. From Richmond to New York 
the rest of my way lay along the fall-line — the coastal plain be- 
tween these points being so interrupted by bays and estuaries 
that one cannot travel far in it by rail —and this part of the route, 
which was already more or less familiar to me, was traversed in the 
dark. 
Topography and geology. — The topography of the Virginia- 
Carolina coastal plain seems very simple and monotonous, as com- 
pared with that of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Slightly 
undulating near the fall-line, where the average altitude is about 
300 feet, the relief, the general slope, and the elevation gradually 
and almost insensibly decrease toward the coast. Here there seem 
to be no sudden changes in the aspect of the country, such as are 
encountered at intervals in crossing the coastal plain almost any- 
where between the Savannah and Mississippi Rivers, where the 
different geological divisions are so well marked by their topog- 
raphy and. vegetation that it requires no knowledge of paleon- 
tology, and not a great deal of experience, to distinguish them. 
On this journey of about 700 miles through three states I do 
not remember seeing any rocks, bluffs, escarpments, hills, ravines, 
gullies, springs, or hammocks, or passing through any railroad cuts 
deep enough to obstruct the view, unless perhaps a few near the 
fall-line. The flatness of most of this region (which is quite com- 
parable in this respect with the coastal plain or southern portion 
of Long Island and the flat pine-barren region of Georgia) could 
easily be inferred, with the aid of a good map, from the straight- 
ness of the railroads. No curves were noticed in a distance of 
about 50 miles through Pender and Duplin counties, N. C., and 
