8 EXPEDITION ON HAND-CAR. [CHAP. XX. 



supplied me with a hand-car and three negroes, 

 so that I was able to perform the journey at my 

 leisure, stopping at all the recent cuttings, and ex 

 amining the rocks and fossils on the way. I was 

 desirous of making these explorations, because this 

 line of road traverses the entire area occupied by the 

 tertiary strata between the sea and the borders of 

 the granitic region, which commences at Macon, and 

 the section was parallel to that previously examined 

 by me on. the Savannah river in 1842. When I 

 came to low swampy grounds, or pine-barrens, where 

 there were no objects of geological interest, my black 

 companions propelled me onwards at the rate of ten 

 or twelve miles an hour by turning a handle con 

 nected with the axis of the wheels. Their motions 

 were like those of men drawing water from a well. 

 Throughout the greater part of the route, an intel 

 ligent engineer accompanied me. As there was only 

 one line of rail, and many curves, and as the negroes 

 cannot be relied on for caution, he was anxious for my 

 safety, while I was wholly occupied with my geology. 

 I saw him frequently looking at his watch, and often 

 kneeling down, like (i Fine-ear &quot; in the fairy tale, so as 

 to place his ear in contact with the iron rails to ascer 

 tain whether a passenger or luggage-train were within 

 a mile or two. We went by Parramore s Hill, where 

 the sandstone rocks detained me some time, and, at the 

 ninety-fifth mile station from Savannah, I collected 

 fossils, consisting of marine shells and corals. These 

 were silicified in the burr-stone, of which mill-stones 

 are manufactured. Near Sandersville I saw a lime 

 stone from which Eocene shells and corals are pro- 



