198 WATER-POWERS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



having so small a drainage area. This result is likewise promoted by 

 the extensive woodlands of the middle and western belt, which occupy, 

 according to the census of 1880, something more tlian seventy-five per 

 cent, of the surface. The larger streams of the Piedmont region, in ad- 

 dition to their drainage area within the State, receive the rains from 

 3,058 square miles of water-shed in North Carolina. The rocky beds of 

 these streams afford everywhere good sites and permanent foundations 

 for mill dams, while the high angle at which they cross the ledges of rock 

 increases the perpendicularity of the fall, and presents a clean smooth 

 edge, adding to the facility with which the water-power is made available. 

 Thus, at ^'^anPatton's shoals, on the Enoree river, so very even is the edge 

 .of the rock that a single plank bolted to it, forms a sufficient dam by which 

 1,550 honse-power maj*^ be utilized. " The facilities for storing water are 

 on the whole good." — Swain. Besides the resources of the neighboring- 

 pine forests, building material is furnished everywhere in the excellent 

 clay for brick-making that is found. In addition to these, the metamor- 

 phic rocks laid bare on the banks of the streams furnish material for dams 

 and buildings of the best quality. Besides soapstone, gneiss^ talc and 

 mica slates, there are few localities where a fine-grained and easily split- 

 ting granite is not to be had. The last named rock extends even into the 

 sand hill region, forming the shoals and rapids in the streams there, and 

 has been utilized in the structure of the large cotton mill at Graniteville 

 on Horse creek. 



Speaking of the climate, Mr. .James E. Calhoun writes: "Blessed with 

 sunshine and showers throughout the year, there is just winter enough 

 to keep the insects in check, while the pomegranate and the fig do not 

 require to be sheltered. Destructive storms of wind, rain or hail never 

 occur here. Living immediatel on they banks of a river half a mile 

 wide (Trotters's shoals, on the Savannah), I am never troubled with mos- 

 quitoes. Nowhere can there be found a larger percentage of the popula- 

 tion of seventy 3'ears and upwards. I am an octogenarian, with the fresh 

 vitality of twenty -five." Low water from snow-fall or freezing, and fresh- 

 ets from ice gorges are unknown here. It has been argued that in more 

 bracing climates, as in ]\Iaine, the operatives in factories can accom})lish 

 ten per cent, more work than in these warmer latitudes. It is possible that 

 unacclimated Northern operatives might experience some such degree of 

 languor here. Nevertheless there are few better workers than the Southern 

 factory hand. The climate does disincline the Southern white to out-of- 

 door employment, and, surrendering, in a large measure, farm labor to 

 the colored race, they eagerly seek employment in factories. "Thus it 

 happens that factory hands are much more abundant than would be an- 

 ticipated from the density of the population. Northern mill owners have 



