CHAP. XXIL] ROUGH TRAVELING. 35 



occasionally one sitting by the driver s side. We were ofter 

 called upon, on a sudden, to throw our weight first on the right, 

 and then on the left side, to balance the vehicle and prevent an 

 upset, when one wheel was sinking into a deep rut. Sometimes 

 all the gentlemen were ordered to get out in the dark, and walk 

 in the wet and muddy road. The coachman would then whip 

 on his steeds over a fallen tree or deep pool, causing tremendous 

 jolts, so that my wife was thrown first against the roof, and then 

 against the sides of the lightened vehicle, having almost reason 

 to envy those who were merely splashing through the mud. To 

 sleep was impossible, but at length, soon after daybreak, we found 

 ourselves entering the suburbs of Columbus ; and the first sight 

 we saw there was a long line of negroes, men, women, and boys, 

 well dressed and very merry, talking and laughing, who stopped 

 to look at our coach. On inquiry, we were told that it was a 

 gang of slaves, probably from Virginia, going to the market to 

 be sold. 



Columbus, like so many towns on the borders of the granitic 

 and tertiary regions, is situated at the head of the navigation of 

 a large river, and the rapids of the Chatahoochie are well seen 

 from the bridge by which it is here spanned. The vertical rise 

 and fall of this river, which divides Georgia from Alabama, 

 amounts to no less than sixty or seventy feet in the course of the 

 year ; and the geologist should visit the country in November, 

 when the season is healthy and the river low, for then he may 

 see exposed to view, not only the horizontal tertiary strata, but 

 the subjacent cretaceous deposits, containing ammonites, baculites, 

 and other characteristic fossils. These organic remains are met 

 with some miles below the town, at a point called &quot; Snake s 

 Shoals ;&quot; and Dr. Boykin showed us a collection of the fossils, 

 at his agreeable villa in the suburbs. In an excursion which I 

 made with Mr. Pond to the Upotoy Creek, I ascertained that 

 the cretaceous beds are overlaid every where by tertiary strata, 

 containing fossil wood and marine shells. 



The last detachment of Indians, a party of no less than 500, 

 quitted Columbus only a week ago for Arkansas, a memorable 

 event in the history of the settlement of this region, and part 



