THE COAST REGION. 



23 



which place, however, patients suffering from the disease in Port Royal 

 were carried for treatment. 



The following table is from the reports of the Board of Health, and 

 shows the number of deaths occurring in each one thousand of tlie 

 population of the city of Charleston : 



The figures for 1880 show fifty per cent, more deatlis than were 

 reported by the enumerators of the tenth U. S. Census. Of 1,621 deaths 

 in 1881, Gl, or nearly 4 per cent, were of persons over 80 years of age. 



STATISTICS. . 



The population of the coast region, exclusive of the towns of Beaufort, 

 Charleston and Georgetown, is 67,132. Of this number, 83 per cent, are 

 colored, being the largest percentage in any region of the State, the 

 proportion of the colored to the white population decreasing in each 

 successive region as 3'ou go inland, until it is only 27 per cent, in the 

 mountain region. This percentage has decreased on the coast since 1870, 

 appearing in the census of that year as 00 per cent., a difference of 7 per 

 cent. The population per square mile is 30.4, which, in spite of the 

 large amount of marsh land, is the largest of any region in the State, the 

 ratio varying elsewhere from 11.7 in the sand hills, to 37.8 in the upper 

 country or region of the metamorphic rocks. 



The farms are 5,847 in number, and average 3.4 per square mile, which 

 is the largest average of any of the regions of the State except that of the 

 upper country, which is 3.7 per square mile ; but excluding the six 

 hundred *|uare miles of m^rsli on the coast, no similar tract of waste land 

 being found in the upper country, the ratio of farms to area is much greater 

 on the coast than elsewhere. This is not the case with the ratio of farms to 

 population, which here reaches a minimum of eight-hundredths of a 

 farm per capita, or twelve and one-half people to the farm, while in the 

 sand hills it reaches fourteen-hundredths of a farm per capita, or seven 

 people to the farm. This shows that here the population is in excess 

 even of the small farms ; and there being no other occupation, except, 



