AGriCULTTrr.AL IMUSEUM 287 



bag's and trees, whose decay serve again to fix the fluidj 

 JVMfi to give to this new made land a yearly coat of loam, 

 ^vMhh iiici"eases its iVrtiiity and consequent deposits. 



'riijs th,> grav,th and decay of aquatic, vegetable and 

 at'.!:na! substaiices, and the fall of leaves and trees, the 

 a iriiul decay ot herbage, and we may add the mortality^ 

 of aniiDals^ assist in the formation of the alluvial region. 



The extent of this region is great, and the surface va- 

 rious and capable of many and great divisions. The 

 first division tinit presents itself, and that may be 

 traced by a strong line, is that tract of land which com- 

 mences at tiic miiuths of all great rivers, and is bounded 

 by a regular mound or ridge, shaping its coui'se in con- 

 formity to the course of the rivers and of the inlets and 

 creeks that make into the rivers. The surface of this 

 land is almost a perfect level, and not raised many feet* 

 abovethe water ; on the surface very little stone is to be 

 found. The soil of this division which for sake of dis- 

 tinction, may a;jpropriately be called " The flat stone- 

 less" division, is almost in all its parts an even mixture 

 of sand and clay, interspersed with calcareous substan- 

 ces in a great state of division, together with a considera- 

 ble proportion of decayed vegetable matter, just as it was 

 dep jsited by the water, and in the ways already men- 

 tioned, without having existed centuries suiiieientto be- 

 come completely amalgamated. Tiiis fiat stoneless re- 

 gion on the eastern a.id western shores of Virgiuia and 

 JMaryland, occupies a considerable space at tlie mouths 

 and along the banks of the princi[)al rivers and creeks, 

 aiKJ is nearly all Oiie antl the saiue soil ; occasionally in- 

 terspersed with ridges of sand : a great portion of it is a 

 stiii' soil, and from its stitiness it is supposed by supei'fi- 

 cial observers to be a clay soil, or to have w hat is called 

 a clay foundation ; this is on examination found to be 

 erroneous, though it has a suifieiency of clay for every 

 agricultural purpose, and for making of bricks. It may 

 properly be termed a loam — by loam I mean a soil of 

 clay, sand and decayed vegetable substances, mixed. It 

 was np doubs a very fertile soil untilit was impoverished 



