TRAVELS IN 
which the inhabitants call white marie ^ and this i$ 
the heart or ftrength of thefe fwamps : they never 
wear out or become poor, but, on the contrary., 
are more fertile by tillage ; for when they turn up 
this white marie, the air and winter frofts caufing it 
to fall like quicklime, it manures the furface : but 
it has one difadvantage, that is, in great droughts, 
when they cannot have water fufficient in their re- 
fervoirs to lay the furface of the ground under wa- 
ter, it binds, and becomes fo tough as to burn 
and kill the crops, efpecially the old cleared lands ; 
as, while it was frefh and new, the great quantity 
of rotten wood, .roots, leaves, &c. kept the fur- 
face loofe and open. Severe droughts feldom hap- 
pen near the fea coaft. 
We now rife a bank of confiderable height, which 
runs nearly parallel to the coaft, through Carolina 
and Georgia : the afcent is gradual by feveral 
flights or fteps, for eight or ten miles, the perpen- 
dicular height whereof, above the level of the 
ocean, may be two or three hundred feet (and thefe 
are called the fand-hills), when we find ourfelves on 
the entrance of a vail plain, generally level, which 
extends weft fixty or feventy miles, rifing gently as 
the former, but more perceptibly. This plain is 
moftly a foreft of the great long-leaved pine (P. pa- 
luftrrs Linn.) the earth covered with grafs, inter- 
fperfed with an infinite variety of herbaceous plants, 
"^and embellifhed with extenfive favannas, always 
green, fparkling with ponds of water, and ornament- 
ed with clumps of evergreen, and other trees and 
fhrubs, as Magnolia grandiflora, Magnolia glauca, 
Gordonia, Illex aquifolium, Quercus, various fpe- 
cies, Laurus Borbonia, Chionanthus, Hopea tinclo- 
ria, Cyrilla, Kalmia anguftifolia, Andromeda, va- 
rieties, 
