33 



overlaid by the Columbia. Where erosion has carried away the gray 

 or whitish-colored Columbia sands and the alternating orange-colored 

 sands are exposed, the difference is quite marked and the contrast 

 rather pleasing than otherwise. 



The fossiliferous Pleistocene, as stated elsewhere in this paper, is 

 exposed in numerous places along the entire coast line of the State, 

 where streams have cut down and carried away the overlying mate- 

 rial Nowhere do these exposures occur farther inland than ten 

 miles from the present shore line. Everywhere the bed is not far 

 above or far below tide level, though at one place, Laurel Bluff, it 

 occurs, according to Tuomey, at an elevation of eight feet above tide, 

 and at Charleston it lies several feet below tide. The following de- 

 scriptions of localities, together with sections where they could be 

 obtained, will serve to show this. In making these descriptions, re- 

 course is had to the literature on the subject, especially where the 

 country has been so changed by the forces of nature and by man's 

 activities — in phosphate mining and otherwise — as to almost, if not 

 quite, destroy these beds of shells once so well exposed. 



I. Price's Creek (White Point Creek), Horry County. 



The exposure here seems to have been a bed of loose sand and 

 shells, not deeply covered by overlying sands, as is the case in many 

 other localities. The bed was about six feet thick and was elevated 

 above tide about five feet. Among the shells found were Venus mcr- 

 cenaria, Ostrea Virginica, Scapharca incongrua, Area Noae and a 

 species of Pectunculus. 



[I use the past tense here because of the fact that this bed could 

 not be located last summer, as explained in the introduction to this 

 paper.] 



II. Laurel, Georgetown County, northeastern corner. 



A section here of the perpendicular bluff of the Waccamaw gives : 



Yellowish, light-colored sand 20 feet 



Blue mud 6 inches to 1 foot 



Fossiliferous bed, sand and broken shells, contain- 

 ing Area, Mactra, Rangia, etc 8 feet 



The top of the bed is eight feet above tide. This is possibly a 

 Pliocene bed, as some have claimed ; but the fact that all the fossils 

 listed from it have been found elsewhere in the Pleistocene, and also 

 especially that Donax variabilis, one of the species found, has not 

 been found as yet earlier than the Pleistocene, justifies one in consid- 

 ering the bed Pleistocene rather than Pliocene. 



3— p. d. 



