54: NOKTH-CAKOLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



These sandy deposits were not laid down at one period, 

 though they are comparatively modern. They alternate with 

 a few beds of clay, but there is but one near the surface 

 which is extensively distributed. The last of the marine de- 

 posits was mostly a pure white sand ; and it not unfrequently 

 washes white when it is deprived of its vegetable coating. 

 The last or most recent bed of sand, is formed by waves of 

 the ocean into swells or undulations. A belt thus thrown up 

 and moulded by this agency, extends obliquely across the 

 country. One of the most distinguished features of this belt 

 is intersected by the Wilmington railway, at Everettsville, 

 ten miles S. "W. from Goldsborough. These swells of sand 

 are sufficiently large and extensive to give origin to perma- 

 nent mill-streams. They seem to have been derived from 

 the Atlantic side, and to have been cast up by waves which 

 in their operation have denuded all the eastern portions lying 

 between this belt and the Atlantic ocean, and hence it not 

 unfrequently happens that the upper stratum of sediment is a 

 stiff clay. 



(2.) The denuded clay is often a stiff brick clay, and is 

 about four feet thick. Shallow depressions are hollowed out 

 of it, which are always the receptacles of water, and have 

 also favored the growth of moss and small vegetables. To 

 the growth of these humble plants we attribute the origin of 

 the vegetable matter which is so extensively prevalent in 

 many of the eastern counties, and which are known by the 

 names ofpocosin and swamp lands. 



(3.) A slight elevatory movement of the whole coast of 

 North-Carolina, has reclaimed those tracts from water ; and, 

 though not dry yet, they are not submerged, and are no long- 

 er the recipients of sediment. 



While these lands were but half reclaimed from the do- 

 minion of water, they were subjected to inundations which 

 transported fine silt, and which required much time to settle. 

 This fine silt, or mud, is now the soil which is so productive 

 in corn in Hyde county and other parts of the Atlantic 

 border. 



This singular soil is characterized by its vegetable matter, 



