64 RESOURCES OF SOUTHERN ALABAMA. 



places, and St. Elmo, in the southern part of Mobile County, 

 is said to be 160 feet above sea-level. 



Along some of the rivers and especially on the west side 

 of Mobile Bay there are extensive flat areas one to several 

 miles wide, probably to be classed as river terraces. Both 

 in these areas and on the level uplands there are many shal- 

 low ponds much like those in the lime-sink region, except 

 that they are less likely to hold water throughout the year 

 or to be devoid of trees. 



FIG. 22. Flat wet savanna with scattered cypress and slash pine, 

 innumerable pitcher-plants in foreground, and tyty bays in back- 

 ground, about three miles north of Bayou La Batre, Mobile County. 

 June 15, 1912. 



Excluding the large muddy rivers, the Alabama and Tom- 

 bigbee and their distributaries, which hardly belong to this 

 region at all, the streams may be divided into two or three 

 classes. First, such rivers as the Conecuh, Yellow, Pea and 

 Choctawhatchee, which rise in the red hills or farther in- 

 land and always carry a little mud in suspension and lime 

 in solution, and fluctuate a few feet with the rainfall. Sec- 

 ond, the smaller streams, few of them large enough to be 

 called rivers (e. g., the Escatawpa, Perdido and Escambia), 

 which originate within the pine hills, and are usually coffee- 

 colored from peaty matter in solution and suspension. These 

 are practically free from lime, mud, and other mineral sub- 



