TRAVELS IN 
guifhed talents and great liberality, who pofleffed 
the rnoft extenfive trade, connexions and influence, 
amongft the South and South- Weft Indian tribes, 
particularly with the Creeks and Chaclaws ; of 
whom I fortunately obtained letters of recommen- 
dation and credit to the principal traders refiding in 
the Indian towns. 
Silver Bluff is a very celebrated place. It is a 
confiderable height upon the Carolina more of the 
Savanna river, perhaps thirty feet higher than the 
low lands on the oppofite more, which are fubjeft 
to be overflowed in the fpring and fall. This fteep 
bank rifes perpendicularly out of the river, difcover- 
ing various ftrata of earth ; the furface for a confi- 
derable depth is a loofe fandy loam, with a mixture 
of fea {hells, efpeclally oftreae ; the next ftratum is 
clay, then fand, next marl, then clays again of vari- 
ous colours and qualities, which la ft infenfibly mix 
or unite with a deep ftratum of blackifh or dark 
flate coloured faline and fulphureous earth, which 
feems to be of an aluminous or vitriolic quality 2 
and lies in nearly horizontal lamina or ftrata of va, 
rious thicknefs 9 We difcovered bellemnites, pyrires ? 
marcafites and fulphureous nodules, mining like 
brafs, fome flngle of various forms, and others con- 
glomerated, lying in this black flaty-iike micaceous, 
earth ; as aifo flicks, limbs and trunks of trees, 
leaves, acorns, and their cups, all tranfmuted or 
changed black, hard and fhining as charcoal i we 
_alfo fee animal fubftances, as if petrified, or what 
are called marks- teeth, (dentes carcharise) ; but 
thefe heterogeneous fubftances or petrifactions are 
the moft abundant and confpicuous where there is a 
loofer kind of earth, either immediately upon this 
vaft ftratum of black earth, or in the divifions of 
the, 
