CAROLINA. 



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sm.-h 



Tid. 



Minera- 

 logy. 



.i, and greatly facilitate the internal communica- 

 tion of different parts of the country. The 1 

 . bpread themselves, by innumerable tribu 1 

 :ns, throughout the upper country. Some of 

 their branches are even wider than the rivers them- 

 selves. Keowee, though two hundred yards wide for 

 several miles above its confluence with the Tuguloo, 

 is the narrowest or" these two streams, whose united 

 the name of Savannah river. 



1 ii most of he upper districts, but especially in those 

 at a moderate disic, r e from the mountains, amazing 

 facilities are afforded toi il|p, and other machinery. 

 The springs which issue from U.o ^des of the moun- 

 tains, after running sixty or seventy n,il>3, become 

 streams from 100 to 200 yards in breadth. Thco*. as 

 they spread wide, have many shoals, and are so shallow 

 as to be generally foidable. At many of those shoaU 

 the falls are sufficient, with the aid oi a small dam, to 

 impel the most weighty machinery. At some of 

 them the falls are so great and so abrupt, as to ad- 

 mit twenty feet wheels upon the overshot construc- 

 tion, without any races, or, at most, with very short 

 races ; and, at others, the ledges of rocks form a na- 

 tural dam, quite sufficient for obstructing as much 

 water as is necessary to drive any kind of mill. Be- 

 sides these rivers, smaller streams called creeks spring 

 from the foot of the hills ; and with the advantage of 

 their falls, are sufficiently powerful to impel machi- 

 nery of any magnitude. The inhabitants are now 

 beginning to avail themselves of these natural ad- 

 vantages. Many valuable machines have been erect- 

 ed for improving and facilitating labour, particular* 

 ly saw-mills and corn-mills ; though it must be own- 

 ed, that their improvement in manufactures have by 

 no means kept pace with their progress in wealth, and 

 are far from being adequate to their opportunities. 



Almost the only, lake of which South Carolina can 

 boast, is a sheet ef water in Barnwell district, nearly 

 a mile in circumference. In several places, the large 

 rivers have broken through peninsulas formed by 

 their streams, and work a channel as wide and deep 

 as the circuitous -channels in which they formerly 

 flowed. When the mouths of these channels are 

 partly choked up, and the streams in them become 

 slow, they are denominated lakes. Such is Low* 

 der's lake on Pedee river, over which the surround- 

 ing lands project elevations of near one hundred feet. 



Along the coasts of South Carolina, neap tides 

 rise, in common weather, from six to eight feet ; 

 and spring tides from eight to teu. They are much 

 influenced, however, by the wind ; for, with a south- 

 easterly wind, neap tides rise higher than spring tides 

 when it blows from the northwest. The depth of 

 water for some milts frcm the shore, is from two to 

 five fathom?. In rivers, whose streams are not impe- 

 tuous, the tides ascend from thirty to thirty five 

 miles in a direct line from the sea. In the Santee 

 and Savannah, the influence of the tide is not per- 

 ceptible for more than fifteen nnles ; and the power- 

 ful column of water which they pour down, makes 

 them retain their fre&hness till within two miles of 

 their disembognement. 



The mineral productions of this country have not 

 yet, perhaps, been sufficiently explored ; but those 

 which are known are of considerable importance. 

 Asbestos is found near the sources of Lynche'a 

 creek. Soap-stones, steatites, rock crystal, white 



flint, fuller's earth, clays of different kind* and of South 

 h. autiful colouri, potter's clay, itinglats, ochres, CtnAio^ 

 chalks, and raarh, have been found in different part* """"~ """ 

 of the state. At Beaver's creek, there is a quarry 

 of grey stone resembling freestone, which work* 

 well, and splits easily. Rocks suitable for mill- 

 stones are cmi.m m in the upper country ; good' 

 slate has been found in some places; and some fine 

 clay was brought to Charleslown, about the year 

 1760, from the Cherokee country, which, being sent 

 to England by Dr Garden, was manufactured into a 

 tea equipage, equal to the finest imported from Chi- 

 na. The upper country, particularly the mountain- 

 ous districts, abound with iron ore of so good a qua* 

 lity, an to yield a fourth of its weight in excellent iron. 

 The Cherokee mountains furnish great abundance of 

 lead ore, so rich as to produce two-thirds of its crude 

 weight in pure lead. Specimens of copper and of 

 several other metals have likewise been found, and 

 mines of these metals might perhaps be wrought with 

 advantage. There are many valuable medicinal springs 

 within this state, some of which are rising into fame; 

 but their component parts and real virtues have not 

 hitherto been ascertained with satisfactory precision. 



Many circumstances concur to render it probable, 

 or rather certain, that all the low country of Caro- 

 lina has once been under the dominion of the ocean. 

 In the deepest descent into the ground, neither stone-* 

 nor rocks are ever discovered. The strata generally 

 consist of rocks or beds of shells, with which petrified 

 fish are sometimes found intermixed at a considerable 

 depth from the surface. Extensive beds of oyster 

 shells have been discovered at a great distance from 

 the present limits of the sea shore. The most remark- 

 able of these extends from Nelson's ferry on the San- 

 tee river, sixty milea from the ocean in a south-west 

 direction, passing through the intermediate country, 

 till it crosses the Savannah river in Burke county, 

 and continuing on to the Oconee river in Georgia. 

 These shells are uncommonly large, and quite differ- 

 ent in kind from the oysters now found on the shore 

 of Carolina. They lie about seven feet below the 

 surface: the incumbent stratum consists of common- 

 earth : below the oysters, the soil, for the next four 

 feet, is a whitish coloured mass, intermixed with 

 shells ; a blue hard substaace resembling stone suc- 

 ceeds for the next three or four feet ; and under this 

 is sand, the depth of which is unknown. - 



In the cuts which have been made across peninsu- 

 las, for the purpo.se of facilitating inland navigation, 

 prodigious quantities of cypress timber are some- 

 times discovered, affording unequivocal evidence, that 

 the country had formeily been covered by immense 

 forests of that species of wood. A circumstance 

 still more calculated to .excite the wonder and curio- 

 sity of the naturalist, is the discovery, in these exca- 

 vations, of the bones of monstrous animals, unlike to 

 any which are now known to exist. Thtse bones 

 were found in digging the Santee canal, about eight 

 or nine feet under the ground, and lying so near to- 

 gether, as to render it prubable that they originally 

 belonged to the same animaL The enormous dimen- 

 sions of this animal may be conjectured from the size 

 of its ribs, one of which, when dug up, was nearly 

 six feet long, and from one of its jaw teeth, which 

 was S] inches long, 3% inches wide, and its root 11^ 

 inches long. The depth of the tooth, from its snr- 



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