188 Holmes's Notes on the Geology of Charleston. 



which are procured by boring, and known as " Artesian Wells/' 

 through which by hydrostatic pressure, the water is forced up to, 

 if not above the surface. 



This basin seems destined to become as famous in the eyes of 

 the scientific world as that of Paris, from the number of new 

 and interesting: fossil remains with which it abounds, while those 

 of them already exhumed claim for it a rank above that of the 

 London basin. 



The tongue of land upon which Charleston is built, was orig- 

 inally a flat peninsula, having Ashley River on the West, and 

 Cooper on the East ; these uniting to the south of the city form 

 the bay and harbor, which discharge their waters into the ocean 

 about six miles below. There were five creeks which emptied 

 into Ashley, four into Cooper, and but one at the point of the 

 peninsula. These have all been for the most part filled up and 

 built upon ; and the few slight ridges of yellow sands which 

 extended from river to river in lines from N.E. to S.W., parallel 

 to that of the sea coast of this state, have been leveled for the 

 same purpose. Strikingly developed in the Sea Islands, these 

 ridges are a characteristic feature of the lands bordering upon the 

 ocean, and are known as the yellow sand hills, which produce 

 the fine long cottons in such perfection. In appearance they re- 

 semble the ground swell of the ocean observable on our coast when 

 the wind is from the east. And it is to this ground swell that 

 I am disposed to attribute their formation ; and not entirely to 

 the drift sauds which compose the dunes or small islands found 

 between them and the ocean, and skirting nearly all the sea 

 islands. 



The sands of the dunes are white or grey, whilst these are 

 yellow, being colored by a slight mixture of yellow clay ; the 

 dunes are irregular, lying in every direction ; these form long 

 parallel ridges with valleys, which have been denuded of their 

 coverings by the action of the currents and easterly winds allu- 

 ded to above. 



As you approach the coast the hills are highest, and they grad- 

 ually lessen as you recede towards the main land, which is gene- 

 rally level except immediately upon the creeks and rivers. Some- 

 times these ridges are found slightly developed upon the main, 

 where the land is open to the sea ; but they are as inconsiderable 

 there as those which existed in Charleston. As the gray sands 

 do not produce the long cottons in perfection in adverse seasons, 

 the plantations of the interior and inner sides of the islands, and 

 those also of the main land are considered much less valuable. 

 The formation of these ridges must have occurred when the land 

 was gradually emerging from the sea. The dunes which com- 

 pose the small belts skirting most of the Sea Islands, serve as 

 barriers for the protection of the latter from the advances of the 



