164 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
Santee Canal, on Biggin Creek. The marl here appears identical with that of the Ashley, particu- 
larly towards the bottom of the bluff, and in the bed of the creek. I found here a cast of Artemis, 
the same as one found on the Ashley. Above this the Ashley and Cooper beds are lost in what I 
have already described as the coralline beds of the Charleston Basin. Among the large fossils 
Scutella Lyelli becomes conspicuous, and O. Selleformis quite abundant, to the right and left of 
the canal. 
An extensive excavation, made on the plantation of Dr. Holmes, gave me a better opportunity of 
examining below the surface of the marl than I had had hitherto. I obtained here the first ceta- 
ceous bones that I had seen in the Eocene; and the Doctor very politely presented me with some 
fine and well preserved teeth of Carcharodon. 
A little to the north of this, at Mr. Gaillaird’s, I saw other beds exposed. And to the right of the 
public road, I visited, in company with Dr. Gibbes, of Columbia, an exceedingly interesting locality. 
We found here the ruins of a dwelling of considerable size, said to have been erected by Sir John 
Colleton. Of the house itself little more remained than the dilapidated foundation, but there was 
an out-house, or office, in a pretty good state of preservation. It is evident that the walls were of 
stone, and at first sight I was reminded of Portland stone, which I supposed had been imported, in 
those early times—as I had seen, in Maryland and Virginia, stone steps and window-sills, that had 
been brought from Europe by the first colonists. 
The stone was well dressed and coursed, the window-jambs well cut; and within the building, 
the fire-place was decorated with a tasteful mantel, handsomely moulded, with angles quite sharp, 
and all composed of the same stone. Even where the wall was exposed to the weather, the marks 
of the tools were as well defined as if they had been impressed but yesterday. While examining 
these things I discovered some minute Eocene fossils; and on closer examination I found that this 
building material was nothing more or less than marl, and the quarry, in the vicinity, from which 
it was taken, we were not long in finding. The blocks had evidently been split out, and sawed, or 
shaped with the axe, into proper form. The rock is not marlstone, but the ordinary compact, 
granular and yellowish marl, found in numerous places on the river. 
Seeing how well this material resists the disintegrating effects of atmospheric agencies, in many 
of the bluffs along the river, such as the high and perpendicular escarpment on the creek, near the 
Rectory, which is even perforated with caves, it is not surprising that it should have suggested itself 
as a building material, and it is only strange that the experiment should have ended here. 
Ashley Beds.—In ascending the Ashley, from Charleston, marl is first seen at Bee’s Ferry, on 
both sides of the river, below high-water level. Both here and elsewhere, on the river, it is exceed- 
ingly uniform in structure and external appearance, with the exception of about two or three feet 
of the surface, which is composed of irregular and water-worn fragments of marl stone, embedded 
in clay, and containing numerous fossils, in the state of casts. These fragments are scattered over 
the surface, so as, in some places, to offer obstruction to the cultivation of the land. On the Rev. 
Dr. Hanckel’s plantation I had a good opportunity of examining these fragments; and at Drayton 
Hall they have been gathered from the lawn and thrown into heaps. At first sight I was disposed 
to refer the beds containing these fragments to a formation different from the underlying marl, but 
Ihave since found that nearly all the fossils are common to both, and that these fragments are 
