38 



Pliocene times, as is the case of the phosphate beds of Peace River, 

 Florida. Again Holmes, in his description of the Goose Creek local- 

 ity, makes the assertion that the Pleistocene rests upon the Pliocene, 

 which in turn rests upon the Eocene. This, so far as is known to 

 the writer, has not been shown to be false. All in all, then, there 

 seems to be sufficient evidence to warrant the statement that between 

 the Pleistocene and Eocene south of Georgetown, all along the coast, 

 there are intervening beds of Pliocene or Miocene, where these lat- 

 ter beds have not been carried away altogether by erosion, which has 

 doubtless been the case over considerable areas here and there, where 

 stream, wave, current or tide activity has been especially vigorous. 

 This is about what should be expected under normal conditions. 



The non-fossiliferous portion of the Pleistocene (and the writer 

 considers this the same as the Columbia of McGee), which includes 

 by far the greater amount of the surficial formation of the Coastal 

 Plain of the State, grades everywhere so gradually and uninterrupt- 

 edly into the fossiliferous, both in kind and arrangement of materials, 

 except the fossils of course, that it is impossible to draw any distinct 

 line between the two. This has usually been called Columbia from 

 its typical development in the District of Columbia. It has not been 

 found capable of subdivision into fluvial and interfluvial members 

 here, as has been the case in Virginia and farther North. Neither 

 does there exist a basis for such a division as that in Maryland into 

 Sunderland, Wicomico and Talbot, nor as that in New Jersey into 

 Bridgeton, Pensauken and Cape May. In New Jersey these divisions 

 respectfully represent early, middle and late Pleistocene ; so likewise 

 do the divisions in Maryland represent the earlier and later Pleisto- 

 cene — the Sunderland and Wicomico being considered two divisions 

 of the earlier Columbia (or Pleistocene), and the Talbot the later. 

 Doubtless if there were two or more distinct submergences during 

 Pleistocene times in New Jersey and Maryland, there were also in 

 South Carolina; but here there are no terraced rivers or shore lines 

 to show this, and the sands and other materials are so nearly alike 

 as to be indistinguishable. It may be that the Talbot in Maryland 

 corresponds to the fossiliferous portion of the Pleistocene in South 

 Carolina, since to it (the Talbot) have been attributed the fossilifer- 

 ous beds at Cornfield Harbor and Wailes' Bluff. The supposition is 

 that the successive Pleistocene submergences in South Carolina, 

 though on the whole less marked than those farther north, yet had 

 their relative depths somewhat reversed. That which took place in 

 Virginia, the advance of the interfluvial over the fluvial phase, may 



