OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 157 
On the banks of the Santee Canal I found specimens of the large oyster, (O. Caroliniensis, Con.) 
referred to so frequently by Geologists, since the time it was first noticed by Mr. Finch. It is 
undoubtedly a variety of Ostrea compressirostra, and identical with one found in the oldest Eocene 
beds of James River, Va. differing from the common type of that fossil only in being much more 
ponderous. So far from its being found in a continuous bed, extending across the State, into 
Georgia, as has sometimes been stated, this is the only locality at which I have met with it. It 
appears to have been confounded with O. Georgiana, found in Barnwell, and in Georgia, at Shell 
Bluff. At the rocks the marl is laid bare in several places, and is mixed with green sand. Ostrea 
selleformis and O. Panda are found at all these localities, 
Proceeding north, the next important exposure occurs at Eutaw, where the coralline beds are 
finely characterised. ‘The marl seems to be a mass of comminuted coral, slightly cemented by 
caleareous matter, and rising above the surface in rugged irregular ledges. A bold spring rises 
here, or rather, a subterranean stream has been brought to light by the falling in and removal of a 
portion of the natural tunnel through which it flowed. 'This is a spot of considerable elevation, 
and as the formation is exposed, at intervals, to the river, it shows its great thickness. 
Below Eutaw, on the Santee, strata, forming high bluffs, again make their appearance. Ostrea 
selleformis, which Mr. Ruffin had noticed was a rare fossil below this, here is found in great num- 
bers, and seems to have attained its full size. 
At Vance’s a noble section of six miles in length is washed by the river. It consists of layers of 
marl stone of various hardness, and contains a prominent bed of O. Selleformis. At the highest 
point it is thirty feet, and when I saw it, it presented a picturesque object for so level a country. 
Towards the water line the bluff was ornamented with a dense fringe of gray fibrous roots that 
extended down its face, whilst above it was ornamented with a gay zone, composed of such showy 
shrubs as the Hydrangea, Itea, and Philadelphus, in full bloom. In many places the bluff was 
sufficiently overhanging to admit our canoe, and afford a shelter from the rain. A little below the 
landing a mass had fallen, and an eddy produced by it in the current, by which the formation 
of a strip of low land was favored ; and although the latter has not advanced into the river above 
fifteen feet, yet trees, two feet in diameter, are found growing on it. Besides O. Selleformis, there 
is, about half way up the section, a bed three feet in thickness, consisting of casts of fossils. 
Owing to a bend in the river, which carries it along the strike of the strata, persons who have seen 
these rocks, at this point, have erroneously represented them as horizontal. 
Between the river and Mr. Simmons’s house, a soft white marl is found in the ravines, and on 
the hill sides. I saw here, for the first time, casts of Lutraria lapidosa, together with O. sellefor- 
mis, Pecten calvatus, casts of Cardita planicosta, and a large Pyrula, identical with one found at 
Wilmington. ‘The surface here is much broken by lime sinks, and some of them are of very recent 
date. 
Proceeding up the river, I found, on the adjoining plantation, fragments of Caelorhynchus and 
Latraria lapidosa. Between this point and Pinckney’s mill there appears to be an old bluff, which 
once constituted the river bank, but is now removed many yards from it. At F'elder’s the thick 
oyster bed of Vance’s Ferry is quite conspicuous, and at Pinckney’s, where the marl is forty feet 
thick, the overlying white beds, containing Lutraria, are seen. 
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