cha.:pter IX. 



WATER-POWERS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Between the years 1816 and 1826, $1,712,626 were expended by the State 

 of South CaroUna in internal improvements. A large portion of this 

 amount was appropriated to building nine canals around the rapids of 

 the Wateree, the Catawba, the Congaree, the Broad and the Saluda rivers, 

 with a view to the improvement of their navigation. From time to 

 time surveys of these streams, especially by engineer officers of the 

 United States army, have been made with the same object in view. In 

 the absence of anything like a general or detailed account of the water- 

 power of the State, it was upon reports regarding these works that per- 

 sons interested in the matter chiefly relied for information. Quite re- 

 cently, however. Gen. Francis A. Walker, Superintendent of the 10th 

 United States Census, as a part of the census work, has had a survey of 

 the water-power of the Southern Atlantic water-shed made by Mr. George 

 F. Swain, S. B., Instructor in Civil Engineering in the Massachusetts In- 

 stitute of Technology, Boston, Mass. Mr. Swain's report, just published 

 l)y the census office, contains a large amount of new 'and very valuable 

 information ; so far as South Carolina is concerned, it is the first attempt 

 to give a systematic account of its water-power. In the endeavor here 

 made to condense a statement of the points of chief interest in this report 

 relating to this State, the reader is informed that Mr. Swain's report is so 

 closely written and so full of facts that it is not susceptible of such treat- 

 ment satisfactorily, and those interested in the subject are referred to 

 the report itself 



Mr. Swain divides the Southern Atlantic water-shed into tlireo belts, 

 running in a northeasterly direction, parallel for the most part with each 

 other, and also with the sea coast on the southeast, and with the general 

 trend of the Appalachian mountain chain on the northwest. These are : 



I. The eastern belt, reaching inland from the coast one hundred to one 

 hundred and forty miles, and formed by the slowly descending slope of 



