INDIANS. 27 



originally of a produptive character, and one- well adapted to 

 both grain and cotton. 



On approaching the higher hills, these deposits become 

 thinner, and the soil consequently less productive ; but fortu- 

 nately, the inferior fertility is compensated for by an abundant 

 water-power, rich minerals, and a salubrious climate, all of 

 which mark out this part of the State as the future seat of ex- 

 tensive manufactures. 



Leaving the primary rocks at the western base of the 

 Blue Ridge, a new formation occurs, in which limestone, and 

 clay schists prevail. Here again the fertilizing influence of 

 lime becomes conspicuous; and it is to the presence of this 

 rock, that the richness of the valleys of the Cherokee counties 

 is to be ascribed. Their peculiar adaptation to the growth of 

 small grain and grasses, if experience had not already proved 

 the former, might have been predicated in the constitution of 

 the soil, and a knowledge that their rock formations are similar 

 to those of the wheat-growing counties of the Genesee of 

 New- York, the middle counties of Pennsylvania, and the She- 

 nandoah valley of Virginia. The discovery of a bed of anhy- 

 drous limestone, belonging to the upper Onondaga Salt group, 

 at the Red Sulphur Springs, in Walker county, authorizes the 

 hope, that at no distant day, plaster of Paris may be added to 

 the agricultural resources of Georgia. 



INDIANS. 



At the death of Col. Benjamin Hawkins, who was for many 

 years the agent for the United States Government in its trans- 

 actions with the Creek Indians, there were found among his 

 manuscripts, some valuable accounts of their manners, cus- 

 toms, and civil polity. 



The compiler of this work has in his possession a sketch of 

 the Creek country, prepared by Col. Hawkins, from which the 

 following extracts are made : 



The origin of the name Creek is uncertain. The tradition 

 is, that it was given by white people, from the number of 



