3 12 
TRAVELS IN 
guifhed talents and great liberality, who poffeffed 
the moil extenfive trade, connexions and influence, 
amongfl the South and South-Weft Indian tribes, 
particularly with the Creeks and Chadtaws ; of 
whom I fortunately obtained letters of recommen^ 
darion 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 fhore of the 
Savanna river, perhaps thirty feet higher than the 
low lands on the oppofite fhore, which are fubjedt 
to be overflowed in the fpring and fall. This fteep 
bank rifes perpendicularly out of the river, difcover- 
ing various ftr ata of earth ; the furface for a confi- 
derable depth is a loofe Tandy loam, with a mixture 
of fea fhclls, efpecially oftreae ; the next ftratum is 
clay, then fand, next marl, then clays again of vari- 
ous colours and qualities, which laft infenfibly mix 
or unite with a deep ftratum of blackifh or dark 
flate coloured faline and fuiphureous earth, which 
feems to be of an aluminous or vitriolic quality, 
and lies in nearly horizontal lamina or ftrata of va^> 
rious thicknefs. We difcovered bellemnites, pyrites, 
marcafttes and fuiphureous nodules, fhining like 
brafs, fome fingle of various forms, and others con- 
glomerated, lying in this black flaty-like micaceous 
earth ; as alfo fticks, limbs and trunks of trees, 
leaves, acorns, and their cups, all tranfmuted or 
changed black, hard and fhining as charcoal : we 
alfo fee animal fubftances, as if petrified, or what 
are called fharks’ teeth, (dentes carcharise) ; but 
thefe heterogeneous fubftances or petrifadHons are 
the moft abundant and confpicuous where there is a 
loofer kind of earth, either immediately upon this 
yaft ftratum of black earth, or in the diviftons of 
the 
