OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 145 
are worn into singular forms. The lower beds are often loose sand, which is constantly subject to 
waste—the undermined superincumbent beds of rocks fall down and cover the surface with their 
ruins, Fig. 28 is an example of the forms given to these rocks by unequal disintegration. 
& + 
The next locality of this rock to be examined, occurs at the head of Congaree Creek, where it 
outcrops in the form of beds varying in thickness from three to forty feet, and interstratified with 
loose sand and white clay, which only differ from the hard rock in not being cemented into a solid 
mass. Many grotesque forms are presented by the rocks at this interesting locality, and are due 
to the cause explained above. ; 
When the hard stratum rests upon one of sand or clay, portions are often left standing, like an 
enormous fungus. One of the most remarkable of these is called Buncombe’s Table, and is said 
to commemorate a person of that.name, of Revolutionary memory. One of the most remarkable 
beds here is one of mottled clay, quite indurated, and in some parts of the bed sufficiently hard to 
take a good polish. The bed is unfortunately much broken by fissures, otherwise this would be an 
exceedingly ornamental rock. 
This is the first locality at which I discovered fossils in the sandstone. ‘They occur in the upper 
part of the bed, but are so comminuted as to render it impossible to determine more, with cer- 
tainty, than their Eocene type. 
At the “ Rock House” is another noted locality, where this rock has been quarried for architectu- 
ral purposes; and it was here that all that was formerly used in Columbia was procured. The 
outcrop is half a mile in length, and a section of 100 feet in height may be examined at this spot. 
About eight or ten feet of this is solid; the rest is loose sand, clay, mica. &c. presenting beautiful 
examples of false bedding.. Fine porcelain clay is seen in beds in the sand, and indurated, or con- 
verted into semi-opal in the rock. 'The sandstone is seen in all stages of disintegration, and pre- 
sents every degree of fineness, from coarse quartzose grit to hard white clay. The debris that 
covers the surface has very much the appearance of pulverized granite. 
Three quarters of a mile south of this I found impressions of leaves of Decotyledonous plants, 
silicified wood, and fragments of bones, in about three feet of the upper part of the rock. Some 
remarkable beds of porcelain clay are found on the sides of the valley; the clay is colored by oxide 
of iron, and presents every shade, from a light buff to deep yellow. 
37 
