OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 149 
found beyond the area circumscribed by the buhr-stone; for the rivers and streams cut through 
these formations near their junction, at numerous points, and expose sections of great depth in 
which not a particle of lime has been found. 
It was these considerations that led me to doubt Mr. Lyell’s conclusion,” in regard to the relative 
position of these beds; and to satisfy myself, and settle a fact of practical importance, I set myself 
to examine carefully, across the State, every point where the two formations approach each other. 
Commencing below Fort Motte, where the rail-road passes round the bluff, to cross the Congaree, 
in Orangeburg District, there is a section brought to view, composed of the sand and colored clays, 
very similar to that already seen higher up the river, near the mouth of Beaver Creek. 'The height 
of this section cannot be less than 150 feet. The road from the ferry leaves this bluff to the right, 
but passes over the beds at an easy angle, up the hill to Lang Syne, the plantation of D. J. M’Cord, 
Esq. where two or three enormous ravines have very fortunately been excavated by the rains, and 
expose to view exceedingly interesting sections of the upper beds of the Buhr-stone formation. 
The depth of the principal ravine is about fifty feet, and the beds of which the sides are com- 
posed are the following. 
Fig. 29. 
1.—Soil and loam. 2.—Colored clays, sand, and fragments of buhr-stone. 3.—Red and yellow sand, no- 
dules, and irregular masses of cemented white sand, and silicified shells. 4.—Clay, two to five feet thick, 
containing, on the surface and lower portions, fossil shells. 5.—Sand and comminuted silicified shells, 
with strong lines of oblique, or false, bedding. «he 
The lower portion presents evident marks of violence during the deposition of the materials of 
which it is composed. The shells that are mixed with the sand are thrown up into diagonal and 
slightly curved lines. On the surface of the sand, where it joins the clay, fossils are quite numer- 
ous, although much broken; among them I found Cardita Blandingi, Pecten membranosus, Tur- 
ritella Mortoni, and Endopachys Maclurii. 
The period of repose which followed the deposition of the lower beds, is well marked by the bed 
of laminated clay, the surface of the bedding planes of which are studded with shells that lived 
and died on the spot. Among these are Ostrea Alabamiensis, Ostrea Selleformis, and Cytherea 
McCordia, Ruffin. One layer of the clay, towards the bottom of the bed, is perforated by a Pholas, 
+I desire to restrict this observation to South Carolina, and to what I have seen. Mr. Lyell found the buhr-stone overlying the 
calcareous rocks, in Georgia. 
38 
