150 Harper: Explorations in Georgia 1903 



Altamaha Grit escarpment mentioned above, but down here in 

 Decatur County, if not for some distance farther east, its base 

 seems to be composed of rocks of a different formation, apparently 

 the Chattahoochee.* The slopes next to the river support a fine 

 forest of angiospermous trees, as is characteristic of the Chatta- 

 hoochee region. (The transition from the shady woods of the 

 slopes to the open pine-barrens of the summit is very abrupt at 

 Climax and Fowlstown.) At some points along the brow of the 

 escarpment near the river, where the forest has been partly 

 removed, one can get a surprisingly extensive view of the much 

 lower and comparatively level country across the river to the 

 northwestward. At such points the horizon in that direction is so 

 distant that it appears to the unaided eye as a perfect, unbroken, 

 straight line, though doubtless composed of the tops of pine trees. 



On top of this escarpment near the P'lint River, particularly in 

 the vicinity of Faceville, many square miles are covered with a 

 thick deposit of dry Columbia sand. This supports a flora simi- 

 lar to that of the sand-hills of Southeast Georgia, but differs from 

 all regular sand-hills in its unusual height above the river. It is 

 like the majority of them, however, in being within the Altamaha 

 Grit region, and on the left side of the stream. 



Some maps of Georgia show in the northern part of Appling 

 County a pond, which if it is as large as represented must be quite 

 unh'ke anything else In the Altamaha Grit region. On September 

 r2th, as I was passing through the county, I spent a few hours 

 between trains in trying to find out something about this place. 

 Getting off at Prentiss, the nearest station, I directed my steps 

 northeastward, and after traveling a couple of hours through flat 

 pine-barrens I approached my destination. But I found the pond 



F 



surrounded by such a dense growth of evergreen trees and shrubs 

 (such as Magnolia glatica, Gordonia, Cliftonia, and Pieris Jiitidd) 

 that I could not get a glimpse of it ; and the few natives living in 



* The portion of this escarpment in Decatur County has been described by 

 Pumpelly (Am. Jour. Sci. III. 46: 445-448. December, 1893) and Foerste (Am^ 

 Jour. Sci. III. 48: 41-54- July) 1894), but neither of these authors seems to have 

 indicated the occurrence of Altamaha Grit on top of it. I have seen no rocks of this 

 formation farther west than Worth County, but its characteristic topography and flora 

 extend uninterruptedly and unmistakably well into Decatur County. Moreover, the 

 rocks of the Chattahoochee formation are not hard enough to form such an escarpment. 



