RIVER ALLUVIONS. 



57 



It is a fact well known, says Mr. Morse, that 

 marine shells and other substances, which are pecu- 

 liar to the sea-shore, are almost invariably found in 

 the southern states, by digging eighteen or twenty 

 feet below the surface of the earth, A gentleman 

 of veracity told the author, that in sinking a well 

 many miles from the sea, he found, at the depth of 

 twenty feet, every appearance of a salt marsh, that 

 is, marsh grass', marsh mud, and brackish water. In 

 ail this fiat country, until we come to the hilly land, 

 wherever a well is dug, water is found at a certain 

 depth, fresh and tolerably good ; but if we exceed 

 that depth, two or three feet, we come to a saltish or 

 brackish water that is scarcely drinkable; and the 

 earth dug up resembles^ in appearance and smellj 

 that which is dug up on the edges of salt marshes. 



On and near the margin of the rivers are fre- 

 quently found sand hills, which appear to have been 

 drifted into ridges by the force of water. At the 

 bottom of some of the banks in the rivers, fifteen or 

 twenty feet below the surface of the earth, are 

 washed out from the solid ground, logs, branches 

 and leaves of trees ; and the whole bank, from bot- 

 tom to top, appears streaked with layers of logs, 

 leaves and sand. These appearances are seen far 

 up the rivers and from eighty, to a hundred miles 

 from the sea, where, when the rivers are low, the 

 banks are from fifteen to twenty feet high. As you 

 proceed down the rivers towards the sea, the banks 

 decrease in height, but still are formed of layers of 

 sand, leaves and logs, some of which are entirely 

 sound, and appear to have l>een suddenly covered to 

 a considerable depth. 



