142 PROCEEDmGS OF THE [Julj, 1887. 



The damage to dwellings on Cooper Kiver, ( Western branch.,) has been slight 

 where they were of wood. Brick buildings have in every instance suffered, 

 some of them severely. Strawberry Church is also badly cracked. The cracks 

 here, the worst of them that is, are at the four corners of the building and are 

 open from ISouiJi to North. One feature of the disturbance which has attracted 

 wide-spread attention, is the innumerable mud spouts that occurred all through 

 this, and the country below it. The pinelands are full of them, and they oc- 

 curred also on the highlands on the riverside plantations, and in the rice-fields, 

 both tide swamp and inland. Some are mere fissures in the earth, extending 

 in various directions, others have the appearance of inverted cones. From all 

 came a slippery, slimy, blue-grey mud, which seems to have been shot up in 

 great volame, and with considerable force, judging from the extent of ground 

 covered. On Dr. Barker's South Mulberry plantation, a low spot in the corn- 

 field had been planted in rice. The extent of ground was, I suppose, an acre. 

 The whole space had evidently been overflowed with the blue-grey stuff above 

 mentioned, and the place was full of cracks and holes. From some of them in 

 one part of the field the discharge was of the same slippery, slimy character, 

 but the color was different, resembling the flesh of a pumpkin in appearance. 

 The sand thrown from some of the ' cone holes ' was filled with shining parti- 

 cles of some substance like mica, and had a more or less sulphurous smell. 

 Another curious effect of the disturbance was observed a few miles below Oak- 

 ley. On the Dean Hall plantation the wells overflowed, and all the sand at the 

 bottom, old tin cans, and various things which had been thro\ATi into them 

 from time to time were ejected, and the wells thoroughly cleaned out. The 

 same thing occurred at Dr. O. C. Khame's ' Cote Bas ' plantation, and on an- 

 other place in the neighborhood of Strawberry Station. " 



Mr. Wm. B. Guerard states : , 



•'On August 31st the thermometer indicated at 12 m., 86°, at 2 p. m., 88°, at 

 4 p. M., 84°, at 6 p. M., 84°, at 8 p. m., 82°, and at 10 p. m., 80°. The barome- 

 ter at ihe U. S. Signal Oflice registered 29. 799. There was no wind, a dead 

 calm existed at 9.25 and 11.45 p. m., with clouds of a stratified-cumulus forma- 

 tion. 



Of the effects of this tremendous and unfamiliar force upon the various 

 structures of the City and environs, the writer speaks with some confidence in- 

 asmuch as he was one of the Engineer Commission appointed to inspect build- 

 ings and in that capacity entered some 2300 edifices. 



Charleston is situated upon a peninsular of land between the Ashley and 

 Cooper Rivers, and its highest elevation is about 20 feet above mean low water. 

 The immediate formation of the land is quaternary, and one finds the nearest 

 rock below the City, as indicated by the boring of the Marion Square Artesian 

 Well, to be an 11.5 feet stratum of limestone at a depth of 454 feet, and at the 

 depth of 1230 feet, a stratum of sandstone 80 feet thick. 



The nearest surface rock is the well defined line of granite some 110 miles 



