336 On the Low Country of North Carolina. 



Art. IX. — On the Character and Origin of the Low Country 

 of North Carolina; by Elisha Mitchell, Professor of 

 Chemistry , Mineralogy, and Geology, in the University of 

 North Carolina. 



TO PROFESSOR SILLIMAN. 



Dear Sir — I was a good deal surprised on looking over the 

 last number of the Amer. Journal, to find an intimate agree- 

 ment betwixt the conjectures of the author of a recent work 

 on volcanos, (with an abstract of which you have favored us) 

 and some conclusions which seemed to be forcing themselves 

 upon me whilst engaged in examining the low country of 

 North Carolina. I beg leave to quote the following passage 

 from his letter to yourself: — 



" May I take the liberty of hinting a few observations con- 

 nected with this subject, to which if the attention of some of 

 your numerous geological friends and correspondents were 

 directed, it must, I conceive, elicit some very important in- 

 formation. The volcanic force seems to have developed it- 

 self very rarely, if at all under its most usual form, on the 

 eastern side of the great longitudinal axis of America, wheth- 

 er north or south. But this fact would lead to the supposi- 

 tion, that the general subterraneous force of expansion must 

 have exerted itself the more conspicuously, in this direction 

 under its other mode, viz. the elevation en masse, of solid 

 strata. Is not this view corroborated by observations ? Does 

 not the ocean seem to retreat more rapidly than can be ex- 

 plained by the accumulative action of the Gulf Stream on its 

 shores ?" 



My views were, in part, exhibited in a communication made 

 to our board of Agriculture, in January last, but as there is a 

 call for information respecting the appearances presented by 

 the Atlantic coast of the United States, I may be excused 

 for entering into the subject somewhat more in detail, than 

 could with propriety be done at that time. As there appears 

 to be, even amongst geologists, some degree of mistake and 

 misapprehension about the constitution of what is commonly 

 denominated the alluvial district of our country, at least of 

 that part of it which lies within the limits of this State, I 

 have thought it necessary to state a few facts respecting it, 

 such as must have direct and positive influence upon our 



