CHAP. XX.] GEOLOGY OF GEORGIA. 9 



cured, as well as the teeth of sharks and the bones of 

 the huge extinct cetacean called Zeuglodon. Here 

 I had ample opportunities of confirming the opinion 

 I had previously announced as the result of my 

 labours in 1842., that this burr-stone, with its red, 

 yellow, and white sands, and its associated porcelain 

 clays or kaolin, constitutes one of the members of the 

 Eocene group, overlying the great body of cal 

 careous rock, once supposed by some to be cretaceous, 

 but which really belongs to the same tertiary period.* 

 Although the summit level of the railway attains 

 an elevation of about 500 feet, descending afterwards 

 somewhat abruptly to Macon, which is only 300 feet 

 above the sea, it is surprising how we stole imper 

 ceptibly up this ascent, as if on a perfectly level 

 plain, every where covered with wood, following 

 chiefly the swampy valley of the Ogeechee river, 

 in such a manner as to miss seeing all the leading 



o o 



features in the physical geography of the country. 

 Had I not, when at Hopeton, seen good examples 

 of that succession of steps, or abrupt escarpments, by 

 which a traveller in passing from the sea-coast to the 

 granite region ascends from one great terrace to 

 another, I should have doubted the accuracy of Bar- 

 tram s description, f 



I had many opportunities, during this excursion, of 

 satisfying myself of the fact for which I had been 

 prepared by the planters &quot; on the sea-board,&quot; that the 

 intelligence of the coloured race increased in the 

 interior and upland country in proportion as they 



* See Quarterly Journ. of Geol. Society, 1845, p. 563. 

 t Ante, vol. i. pp. 345, 346. 



