On the Low Country of North Carolina. 339 



cavation is made. When a well is dug, a bed of shells is 

 sometimes struck. The natural well in Duplin is ten miles 

 from any large river. It has been found by the sinking of a 

 cylinder of earth about ninety feet in diameter, in the midst 

 of the flat piney woods, where there was nothing at the sur- 

 face to create a suspicion that any thing besides clay and 

 sand would be found below. The covering of sand is here 

 about five feet in thickness, and is succeeded by a layer of 

 shells, resting upon a bed of marl of unknown depth. 



The shells are sometimes intermixed with, and imbedded, in 

 large quantities of clay and sand, and sometimes constitute 

 nearly the whole stratum. They are in a state of decay ; 

 many of the smaller ones, especially, are easily crumbled be- 

 tween the fingers. Such as are thick and heavy retain their 

 firmness. 



4. In the southern and south eastern part of the State, 

 there are large bodies of rocks, sometimes made up entirely 

 of shells, sometimes containing pebbles imbedded, constituting 

 a siliceo-calcareous conglomerate or pudding stone, and 

 sometimes presenting only the siliceous casts of shells, with a 

 small portion of lime. These rocks are older than the remains 

 spoken of in the last article. They are generally covered up 

 by the clay and sand, so that it is difficult to reach them for 

 the purposes of observation. They are well exhibited with 

 the more recent shells resting upon them, about the town of 

 Wilmington. Where they have not been covered by the clay 

 and sand, but left to form by their decomposition, a soil of 

 their own, it is wonderfully fertile. Rocky point on the north 

 east branch of the Cape Fear, is an instance and the only 

 one that I have examined. They appear to be the exuviae 

 of races of animals bearing little resemblance to those now 

 inhabiting the waters of North Carolina, They, however 

 stand in need, and are worthy of a more minute and careful 

 examination, than it has been in my power to give them. 



Of the mode in which the low country has been formed. 



1 . The low country has not been produced by the action of 

 Causes that are still in operation. — When our ancestors land- 

 ed on these shores, they were struck with the peculiarity of 

 their appearance, and observing that they were made up of 

 strata of sand and clay that had evidently been deposited 

 from water, and that contained marine organic remains in 



