084 TOWNS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



There is a large business in foreign and domestic exchange and in dis- 

 counts carried on by merchants in the city, employing a capital three to 

 four times as great as that of the banks. 



The most recent improvement in the railroad facilities offered by 

 Charleston is the extension since July, 1882, of the South Carolina Rail- 

 way track to deep water on the Cooper river, in the northeastern portion 

 of the city. The railroad company has built here, on creosoted piling, a 

 wharf 931 feet long and 100 feet wide, with two slips for loading lighters, 

 and a slip on the north for loading lumber. Besides a number of sheds 

 on this wdiarf, there are two storage sheds for fertilizers, each 400 feet by 

 60 feet. The wharf is furnished w^th ten electric lights. West of the 

 wharf, and separated from it by double rows of railway tracks, are two 

 warehouses, 410 by 60 feet each. There is a hoisting engine, and an 

 automatic bucket and dump car, two automatic railways, wdth switch 

 and chute to facilitate the handling of heavy freights. Immediately 

 west of the southern section of the wharf is the freight depot, 400 feet 

 long, and two business offices. Other wharves are being constructed. 

 The}^ w^ill consist of a number of piers, with docks from 200 feet to 30i ) 

 feet long. Railroad tracks will run to the head of the piers, enabling 

 vessels to load directly into the cars. 



GEORGETOWN COUNTY. 



Georgetown, the county seat, the only seaport on the South Carolina 

 coast north of Charleston, is situated at the head of Winy aw bay, on a 

 slightly undulating sandy and clay loam, on the north bank of the Sam- 

 pit river. Immediately above the town, the Black, the Pee Dee and the 

 Waccamaw rivers enter Winyaw bay. The Santee river was also for- 

 merly connected with Winj^aw ba}^ by a canal six miles long. To avoid 

 the shoals af the mouth of this river and to render it more accessible, 

 the United States government has made an appropriation to reopen a 

 canal here. When this is completed, Georgetown will be at the outflow 

 into the sea of a system of rivers having a drainage area of 31,000 square 

 miles. These streams are now navigable b}'^ steamboats for a distance of 

 799 miles. Surveys and appropriations for perfecting their navigation 

 have been made by the general government. The status of this work, 

 up to the 1st July, 1881, may be briefly summarized as follows : 



