36 



X. Young Island, Wadmalaw Sound. 



A section of the bluff in the lower part of which lies the fossil 

 bed is : 



Loose, yellowish, light-colored sands 10 to 15 feet 



Ferruginous sand with casts of shells, breaking in fairly 



good lumps 2 feet 



Red or brownish clay 2 feet 



Fossiliferous bed, sand of grayish color with little mud, 



with comminuted shells, fossils in fine preservation.. 3 to 4 feet 



The part of the bluff above the fossil-bearing stratum is almost 

 perpendicular, but the fossil bed slopes gently beneath the tide. The 

 tide rises to the level of the top of the bed of fossils. If observations 

 or collections are to be made, they must be made when the tide is 

 low. Many of the shells here, such as Barnca costata and Labiosa 

 canaliculata, are found in pretty much the same position they occu- 

 pied in life, having both valves entire and in correct position. The 

 shells are remarkably well preserved, having a bright, fresh appear- 

 ance, oftentimes retaining the polish and color they had the day they 

 were deposited. 



XL Doctor's Swamp. 



Here the fossil bed, which is of the usual thickness, three or four 

 feet, is overlaid by a kind of marshy soil surcapped by sand. The 

 extent of the exposure is considerable, being perhaps five miles in 

 length. 



XII. Lady's Island and other points around Beaufort. 



A section in that neighborhood, which is roughly characteristic of 

 the fossiliferous Pleistocene in that whole region, is about as fol- 

 lows, according to Ruffin : 



Loose beach sand 8 to 10 feet to more 



Marl similar to the common blue Miocene marl 



of Virginia, but containing Pleistocene fossils. 3 to 4 feet. 



The fossiliferous Pleistocene, as is seen from the situation of the 

 localities just described, extends along the coast of the State from 

 northern Horry to southern Beaufort. It is composed here of sand, 

 clay and mud, with by far the greater percentage of sand in most 

 localities where examined. The fossil-bearing strata themselves are 

 rarely ever more than four feet in thickness, though the whole Pleis- 

 tocene formation may, in many places along the coast, be forty or 

 fifty to sixty feet in thickness. 



