18 THE COAST REGION. 



and the swamps are on the east banks of these streams, or as it would be 

 stated from observations on the sea islands, the short slopes face north 

 and cast, and the long slopes south and west. The contours of the slopes 

 throughout the tertiary plain conform generally to tliis rule, and may 

 be accounted for in this way. 



PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



In approaching the coast from the sea about the time the white caps of 

 the first breakers are seen, a long, low line of smooth, hard, sandy beach, 

 for the most part of a snowy whiteness, makes its appearance. Immedi- 

 ately inland from the beach swell the undulating ridges of blowing sand, 

 ripple-marked by the action of the wind, in striking similarity to the 

 wave marks of water. 



Here the palmetto meets you, standing often solitary and alone, a con- 

 sjDicuous landmark in the picture. Beyond rise the dark green turrets of 

 the pine, beneath which a tangled growth of myrtles and vines is found. 

 Sometimes more than one ridge of sand hills, with an average elevation of 

 ten or fifteen feet, must be traversed before the borders of the salt marsh are 

 reached. The salt marshes, their stiff, green reeds rising out of the black 

 ooze visible at low tide, and at the flow apparently floating on the water, 

 with here and there a stray palmetto or a group of under-sized live oaks, 

 their limbs covered with the long, gray moss, form the scarcely varying 

 framework of all landscapes among the sea islands. Everywhere these 

 marshes are penetrated by salt rivers and creeks of greater or less width 

 and depth, and surround islands varying from a few acres to many square 

 miles in area. These islands attain a height of ten to fifteen feet — rarely 

 of twenty-five or thirty — above high tide. The mean rise and fall of the 

 tides is 6.9 ft. at the mouth of the Savannah river ; 6.7 ft. at Port Royal ; 

 5.1 ft. at Charleston harbor, and 3.5 ft. at Georgetown entrance, showing 

 a marked diminution as you advance northeast algng the coast. The 

 influence of the tide extends to a distance of thirty miles in a direct line 

 from the sea, up the Savannah river, and about fifteen miles up the San- 

 tee. Salt water, however, usually ascends the Santee river only about 

 two miles, and even when the current of the river is diminished in seasons 

 of great drought, not more than four miles. Up Georgetown bay it 

 reaches farther, and is sometimes injurious to the crops at a distance of 

 fourteen miles. What has been said of the Santee in regard to fresh and 

 salt water, is true to nearly the same extent of the Savannah river. 



SOIL 



The soil of the sea island consists, for the most part, of a fine, sandy 

 loam. This soil rests on a subsoil of yellow sand or yellow clay, of fine 



