CHAPTER VII. 



THE PIEDMONT REGION. 



LOCATION, PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



The Piedmont region of South Carolina coincides very nearly with 

 what is known as the upper country of the State. It includes the whole 

 of eight counties, to wit : Abbeville, Anderson, Newberry, Laurens, Union, 

 Fairfield, Chester and Lancaster. It also embraces the northern portion 

 of Edgefield and Lexington, and the northwestern portions of Pichland, 

 Kershaw and Chesterfield. The southern parts of Oconee and Pickens, 

 and the southern and larger portions of Greenville, Spartanburg and York 

 are within its limits. A line drawn from a point on the Savannah river 

 three miles above Hamburg to Columbia, and running thence northeast to 

 where the Great Pee Dee river crosses from North into South Carolina, 

 defines, in a general way, its southern border. Its northern boundary 

 follows, in the main, the direction of the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line 

 railroad, which lies on the edge of the Alpine region, just north of the one 

 under consideration. 



PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



The physical features of this portion of the State entitle it to the name 

 of the Piedmont Region. Its rocks are so similar to those of the Blue 

 Ridge mountains that, though they have been broken down, levelled off, 

 and worn away by exposure, during the countless ages, to the vicissitudes 

 of the seasons, they are, and always have been, the foot hills of the 

 Apalachian range, while the broken and mountainous region to the 

 north, usually spoken of as the Piedmont country, might be better called 

 the Alpine or Sub- Alpine region of the State. 



