781 J, SI 2, 813, 814] PASGAGOULA BOTTOM SOILS. 367 



the surface, it ought to be mixed with the soil by deep plowing. The growth of 

 the bottom as well as that of the hollows, proves these clays to be rich in min- 

 eral nutritive ingredients ; and they will very essentially improve the physical 

 condition of the soil. 



The banks, and the portion of the bottom immediately contiguous to them, 

 are quite sandy ; it seems that all the deposits now forme 1 by the Pascagoula 

 river, are of this character. It might be practicable therefore, by judiciously 

 regulating the overflows, to improve the heavy soil by allowing the sand to 

 spread over it, which might then be mixed in by deep plowing. 



811. Crossing at Judge Fairley's Ferry, we find the hills on the right side 

 coming close up to the bank, without, however, forming a washed bluff. Yet, 

 on the ascent, we find about halfway up, an outcrop of heavy gray clay (f245), 

 which might be suitable for pottery. It overlies, no doubt, the strata of the 

 lignitic tertiary ; and is in its turn overlaid by yellow sands of the Orange Sand 

 formation (H<>,\ to which these clays themselves seem to belong (at present), 

 being as they are without any definite structure. The hills immediately 

 bordering the river, on which Judge Fairley's plantation is situated, bear a stout 

 growth of the Long-leaf Pine, mixed with a good deal of Spanish ("Red") 

 Oak and Scarlet (" Spanish ") Oak. This land is moderately productive, and 

 had a good louking corn crop when seen by me. But the intermixture of the 

 oaks with the pine lasts scarcely more than J£ of a mile inland ; and then, as 

 we proceed on the Ocean Springs' road, dreary Pine Hills with scarcely an 

 occasional scrubby Black Jack or Post Oak, intermingling with the Pine, reign 

 absolute. 



812. The road runs on the dividing ridge between Black Creek and the 

 Pascagoula at the distance of several miles from the edge of the bottom, in 

 which the river meanders to and fro, most generally, however, keeping near the 

 W. side. Steep hollows, filled with a growth of Bay and not unfrequently, 

 Magnolia also, fall off from the ridge towards the river bottom. These hollows 

 frequently contain copious springs, which issue from the hillside, generally 20 

 to 30 feet below the top of the ridge ; they are evidently shed here, at a level 

 nearly uniform, by the impermeable clays of the tertiary. 



813. The pines on the ridge, up to about 4 miles below Fairley's, 

 are stout and vigorous, and would afford fine timbers. But as we 

 pass on, approaching Black Creek, the road diverges further inland : 

 the ridge flattens, and ponds appear on its very summit. The 

 quality of the pine timber rapidly deteriorates, the trees becoming 

 slender and stunted in height, especially in the neighborhood of 

 the ponds. The first of these are pretty deep, showing small but 

 clear sheets of water, bordered by a poor growth of rushes. But 

 further on, they become shallow, until at last they turn into mere 

 wet flats or bogs, covered at times with a rank growth of grass, 

 sparsely timbered with the poorest specimens imaginable of Long- 

 leaf Pine — with trunks 15 to 25 feet high, and 2| to 4 inches tn 

 diameter ; their leaves also sharing the general degradation, being 

 in sparse tufts scarce 6 inches long. 



814. Others of these ponds, or bogs, whose soil is almost a pure, white, wet 

 sand, bear no grass, but a scattered growth of peculiar herbaceous plants, among 

 which several beautiful red blossomed Orchideae, the Side-saddle flower, 

 (Sarracenia purpurea), Pitcher plant or Wild Poppy (Sxrracenia variolaris) 

 the curious long-leaVed Sundew (Drosera filiformis) with its long, spirally 

 coiled, wiry leaves, covered with glandular hairs, and two species of Cord-rush 

 (Eriocaulon decangular e, and villosum) as well as the common Sundew (Drosera 

 brevifolia), are the most prominent. But the most singular feature to a North 



