54 TJIIC LOWKR I'IXE V.VA.T, OR SAVANXA RKGIOX. 



<^eiuis nris{a(l(( and sjiardolns, llic wire and dro}) seed grass. The j)almetto 

 reaches only a lew miles inhind from salt water, but the live oak is found 

 as much as sixty miles from the shore line. The magnolia, tulip tree, 

 sweet and l)lack gum, the whifee and red bays, the white oak, the black 

 walnut, the elm, hickory and cypress are among the largest and most 

 conspicuous trees of the sAvamps; the undergrowth, commencing with a 

 fringe of gall berry {jiruioH (/laber) on the margin of the swam])s, and 

 consisting of a great variety of gra})e, briar and other vines, myrtles, &c., 

 is very dense. 



CLIMATE. 



In the absence of weather records, it is difficult tg express the difference 

 between the climate of lower pine belt and that of sea coast, already 

 descriljcd, more definitely than to say that it is such difference as is to 

 be found between the conditions favorable for the growth of the cabbage 

 palmetto, which barely touches the southern border of the belt, and of the 

 live oak, that just extends to its northern or inland margin. A low, flat 

 country, intersected by numerous swamps, might naturally be thought 

 very sickly. This region, however, has one advantage. Almost every- 

 where there are found small tracts, islands, as it were, of dry, sandy soil, 

 heavily timbered with the long leaf pine, which is a barrier to the in- 

 vasion of malaria. These retreats furnish places of residence as healthy 

 as are to be found anywhere; such a place is the village of Summerville, 

 on the 8. C. li. R., a liealth resort that divides with Sullivan's island the 

 patronage of the citizens of Charleston during the warm weather. 

 McPhersonville, in Hampton, and Pineville, in Georgetown, are villages 

 of tlie same character, and there is scarcely a neighborhood that has not 

 some such healthy spot as a place of residence during summer. The 

 dread of malaria is mucli less than it was when the opinion that the 

 colored race was exempt from such influences was adduced as an argu- 

 ment to show the providential nature of their location here to develop 

 these fertile lands. The reverses of fortune, sustained as a result of the 

 war, have forced many wliite families to reside the summer long W' here it 

 was once thought fatal to do so, and the experiment has been successful, 

 thus exploding the idea that white people cxjuld not enjoy health here 

 during the summer months. Rei)lies from twenty-three townships state 

 without excei)tion, that the inhabitants enjoy good health, and that a 

 considerable i)ortion of the field work is j)erformed by whites — a great 

 change since the war. Tln' census returns give hfteen deaths per one 

 thousand i)Oi)ulation in the i)Oi'tions of Charleston and Colleton counties 

 lying in this reiiitni, for the vear 1880. 



