TOWNS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 699 



Kingville and Acton, one store each. Of this number thirty-two keep 

 liquors, seventeen hardware, seventeen dry goods, eighty-three miscella- 

 neous articles, and thirty general merchandise; three are kept by colored 

 persons. The estimated wealth of the storekeepers is given at $1,308,000. 



Columbia, the county seat of Richland, and the capital of South Caro- 

 lina, is situated in lat. 33° 59' 58" N. Long. 81° 2' 3" W. It has a level site 

 elevated some two hundred feet above the east bank of the Congaree, at the 

 confluence of the Broad and Saluda rivers, and three hundred and thirty- 

 six feet above the sea. It stands upon a promontory of granite, which 

 extends from the crystalline rocks of the Piedmont Region along and 

 between the Broad and Saluda rivers, and at their union juts out into the 

 Sand Hill Region of the State. 



The great falls of the Congaree begin at the upper end of the town, and 

 terminate a little below the lower end. The fall in this distance is thirty- 

 six feet, and the greatest width of the river is eighteen hundred feet. 



Originally these lands were covered with a magnificent growth of im- 

 mense oaks, hickories and j^ines. Colonel Thomas Taylor, whose de- 

 scendants still reside here, was their first owner. The city was laid out 

 and incorporated in 1787, and the Legislature met here for the first time 

 in 1789. The town is two miles square, regularly laid out in streets one 

 hundred and one hundred and fifty feet in width, most of them planted 

 with beautiful shade trees. The streets aggregate sixty miles in lengthy 

 and are neatly kept. The roadways of the main thoroughfares are Mac- 

 adamized, the sidewalks paved. They are maintained, including lamps, 

 at a cost of $8,000 annually. Facilities for transportation of all kinds are 

 ample and cheap. Natural springs, issuing from a valley between the 

 town and river, afford an ample supply of excellent water, which is 

 raised one hundred and twenty feet by steam power, for use, at the rate 

 of one million gallons a day. The soil is porous, and its elevation above 

 the river offers every facility for thorough drainage. There are eight 

 hotels and first-class boarding houses, with moderate charges, and the 

 place is much frequented by invalids from the North during winter. 

 The public buildings are the State House, built of enormous blocks of 

 granite, quarried in the vicinity, and to cost five millions of dollars when 

 completed. The U. S. Court House and Postoffice is built of Fairfield 

 granite, which at a distance might be mistaken for marble. The large and 

 extensive fire-proof buildings of the Insane Asylum. The numerous 

 buildings of the State University, and those of the Presbyterian Theo- 

 logical seminary. A large and handsome City Hall and Opera House 

 (800 seats ; rent and license fee $40 a night). The Court House and Peni- 

 tentiary, with some fine blocks of business houses, banks, &c. The ag- 

 gregate cost of the public buildings exceeds six millions of dollars. Co- 



