346 W. ©. Kerr—Action of Frost in the 
face, but fails at the depth of four or five to eight or ten feet 
or more, the materials above this being quite homogeneous. 
This thin top layer is well nigh universal, and always recog- 
nizable. A little attention suffices to show that it owes its dif- 
ference in structure and appearance to the penetration and the 
mechanical and chemical action of the roots of forest trees. 
he mechanical action of these roots has broken up and oblit- 
erated the lines of bedding and commingled the different mate- 
rials, and their chemical action, living and in decay, has 
changed their composition and color, sometimes bleaching the 
whole mass in a degree which decreases with the depth, and 
not unfrequently in a very irregular manner, so that a section 
presents a pied surface,—red, of various shades, mingled with 
splotches of a gray, or pipe-clay color. 
A second division of the superficial beds in question under- 
lies (or replaces) the preceding, but is much less extensive, 
being found chiefly on the hill slopes and occasionally arching, 
in thinner mass, over the tops of flattish ridges and swells. It 
is found throughout the hill country and the mountain section 
of the State, being most conspicuous in the Piedmont, and pass- 
ing, eastward, insensibly into the Quaternary deposits. The 
thickness varies from a few inches to twenty, thirty and even 
fifty feet, and the beds are very irregular in form. These depos- 
its are best developed and may be most successfully studied 
in the gold gravels or placer beds of the State ; but their struc- 
tural features may be seen in the railroad cuts almost every- 
where. 
This and other features of these beds be best under- 
stood from a few diagrams. Figure 1 represents a section seen 
1. : 2. 
in a railroad cut near Henrv Station, not far from the eastern 
base of the Blue Ridge in McDowell County. We have here 
