70 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
beds of other rock, and may be covered by patches of the overlying slates, yet it is seen forming a 
vast plain that extends from the mountains to the middle of the State ; forming, with a few excep- 
tions, all the obstructions on the rivers. The strike being nearly at right angles with the course of 
the streams that drain the Atlantic slope, a series of falls is produced by the outcropping edges of 
the rock, that extends from its Southern limits to the mountains. 
In Edgefield this rock is first seen towards the South, in a quarry a short distance below the 
village, where it marks the extremity of the anticlinal axis described in the preceding pages. It is 
nearly vertical, and has pushed up the superincumbent slates, so that towards the North we have a 
series of mica and hornblende slate, with beds of eurite; and towards the South we have a similar 
alternation; which may be studied on the plantation of W. Brooks, Esq. Here the strata are thin 
and slaty in their structure—in several places quite vertical. The following section, through the 
village, represents the disposition of the rocks at this place, towards the North and South. 
1.—Gneiss. 2.—Hornblende slates. 3.—Clay slates. 
The thick, outcropping edges of the gneiss may be traced across the State, from the Savannah to 
Broad River, by the natural dams which they form in the rivers, and over which the water tumbles 
in a series of picturesque cascades, varying in height from ten to eighty feet. Commencing at the 
plantation of J. E. Calhoun, Esq. on the Savannah, Abbeville District, the rock is seen again on 
Long-cane and at Ware’s Mill, on Saluda, where it forms the first falls on that river. It is finely 
exposed again on Reedy and Reaburn’s Creeks, in Laurens, and farther towards the N. E. at the 
corner of Union, and a few miles higher up the river, at the Mountain Shoals of Enoree, and it is 
seen again at Lockhart’s Shoals, on Broad River. To the North, and parallel with these, other 
series may be observed, for instance, Tumbling Shoals, on Reedy; Van Patton’s Shoals, on the 
Enoree; and corresponding falls, on Broad River. Still farther North gneiss is observed crossing 
the rivers; the Seneca, in Pendleton; Reedy River, at Greenville Court House; Pacolet, at Hurri- 
cane Shoals, and on Broad River, at Cherokee Ford. And the enormous strata forming the moun- 
tains present the next and last series. 
These parallel ranges of falls might, at first sight, suggest a corresponding series of uplifts; but, 
after considering the subject attentively, I can only refer them to the result of the alternation of 
more and less destructible beds: the former being washed away, whilst the latter are left projecting, 
like a flight of steps. 
The strike is generally between N. 20° E. and N. E. and S. W. The dip agrees, in direction, 
with but few exceptions, with that of the Atlantic slope—varying but a few degrees on either, of 
S. E. So that the dip of the rock coincides in direction with the slope of the country. In a few 
instances, particularly towards the Southern extremity of the rock, it is tilted up, which gives it a 
dip in an opposite direction. Such instances, however, are not common, and have no where pro- 
duced any important effect on the topography of the country. 
