TOWNS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 605 



Port Royal island,* on a high sandy bluff, near the junction of Battery 

 and Port Royal rivers, eighteen miles from Port Royal bar. There are 

 three thousand feet of wliarf room fronting Battery river, and the track 

 of the Port Royal railroad terminating here, runs along the wharves 

 within twenty feet of the vessels' berths. There is a larire railroad ware- 

 house across the railroad track on the wharves, with a storage capacit}'' 

 of 13,000 bales of cotton, uncompressed, 55,000 tons of fertilizer, and 250 

 tons of merchandise. The steam cotton compress in this warehouse is 

 located within sixty feet of the wliarf, where the deepest draft steamships 

 may lie, and is one of the most powerful compresses in the South, and 

 has a capacity of 500 bales per day ; the grain elevator, adjacent, has a 

 capacity of 90,000 bushels. Five pilot boats attend Port Ro^^al and St, 

 Helena bars, with an average of three full branch pilots to each boat. 

 A'essels requiring water, coal or wood, can obtain them here. Towing 

 facilities ample. Towage rates the same as in Savannah and Charleston. 

 The town has a population of 387 ; three churches and a school ; two 

 hotels, and two boarding houses. The taxable valuation of real and 

 personal property is ^390,000. Town taxes are fifty cents on $100. Stores 

 rent for $8 to $25, and dwellings from $6 to $15 per month. The con- 

 nections by rail are, with Augusta, one hundred and twelve miles ; Yem- 

 assee, on the Charleston and Savannah railroad, twenty-five miles, this 

 point being sixty and a half miles from Charleston, and fifty-five and a 

 half miles from Savannah. There is an inland passage among the sea 

 islands, between Charleston and Savannah, and two steamers are on the 

 line, and touch at this point. A line of sea-going steamers run to New 

 York. The number of vessels arriving during 1882 was 429, tonnage, 

 219,050 ; ships of deep draft, with heavy freights, as railroad iron, cotton 

 ties, salt and fertilizers, find it convenient to deliver their loads here. 

 The shipments are, of upland cottons, about 22,000 bales (in 1880, 48,000 

 bales were shipped), yellow pine lumber, manganese ore, cotton seed meal 

 and Kaolin clay. The value of the exports from this port and Beaufort 

 for the year 1881 are stated as $1,461,807, against $2,678,893 for the year 

 previous. Customs receipts in 1879, $13,294. Port Royal has seven 

 stores, and the yearly sales are given as $45,000 provisions, $15,000 dry 

 goods, $10,000 hardware. Phosphate rock of the finest quality is found 

 in Battery creek and the Port Royal Fertilizing Company has extensive 

 works here. 



BEAUFORT, 



the county seat, settled about 1717, has a population of 2,549. It is built 

 on rising ground, on Port Royal island, about sixteen miles from the sea 



*Iii tlie Statutes of State, 179.3, this island is called Port-Republican island. 



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