TRAVELS IN' 
30 
which the inhabitants call white marie ; and ] this is 
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- 
fer voirs 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. 
W c now rife a bank of confiderable height, which 
runs nearly parallel to the coaft, through Carolina 
and Georgia: the afcent is gradual by feveral 
fights 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 vaft plain, generally level, which 
extends weft fixty or feventy miles, riling gently as 
the former, but more perceptibly. This plain is moft- 
ly a foreft of the great long-leaved pine (P. paluftris 
Linn.) the earth covered with grafs, interfperfed 
with an infinite variety of herbaceous plants, and 
embellifhed with extenfive favannas, always green, 
Iparkling with ponds of water, and ornamented 
with clumps of evergreen, and other trees and 
fhrubs, as Magnolia grandiflora, Magnolia glauca., 
Gordonia, Illex aquifolium, Quercus, various {pe- 
des, Laurus Borbonia, Chionanthus, Hopea tindio- 
ria, Cy rilla, Kalmia anguftifolia, Andromeda, va- 
