18 
GEOLOGY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
Both these sub-divisions are fringed in part by an irregular border of 
fertile, heavily timbered and cane-brake land, while the interior is gen- 
erally sandy or gladey, and oflittle value. Considerable tracts, however, 
even of these less valuable parts, are covered with an indigenous growth 
of cranberries. 
Ilolhj Shelter and Angola Hay, in Onslow, Duplin and New Hanover 
counties, are swamps of the same general character as the last mentioned, 
but have a larger proportion of barren soil covered with brambles, gall- 
berries, bay and stunted pines. Their area is about 150 square miles. 
The drainage is westward, chiefly by way of Holly Shelter Creek which 
separates them, into North East River. On the margins of these swamps 
are some line heavily timbered white oak flats. South of the Cape Fear 
river is 
Green Swamp, mostly in Brunswick county, but partly also in Co- 
umbus ; it is nearly circular in form, and has an area of more than 250 
square miles. It contains vast quantities of cypress and juniper, which 
have for many years yielded a large product of shingle and bucket tim- 
ber for the northern market. The timber tracts are separated by long, 
flattish ridges or hummocks of firm soil, which are available for roads and 
habitations, and are found even in the most ^interior parts of the swamp. 
The timbered tracts near the margins are often covered with a dense 
growth of reeds. One of these is crossed for a distance of nearly two 
miles by the Wilmington & Manchester Railroad. There is a large 
amount of fine agricultural land in the timbered and canebrake tracts, 
but very little of it has been reclaimed, although readily drainable, as the 
elevation above sea level is above 40 feet. This swamp encloses one of the 
largest lakes in the State, (Waccamaw), already described, through which 
and the river of the same name issuing from it, about half of the swamp 
is drained in a southeasterly direction, the remainder sending its waters 
mostly into the Cape Fear, but partly also eastward into the narrow 
sound which here belts the coast. 
There are several other swamps of small size around this larger one 
and disconnected from it, as Beaverdam on the southwest ; Caw Caw , 
south ; and White Marsh, and Brown Marsh northwest, the latter be- 
ing drained through the southern edge of Green Swamp by way of Wac- 
camaw Lake and Waccamaw River. The area of these two almost con- 
tiguous tracts is, together, about 50 square miles. 
Big Swamp, in Robeson and Bladen counties, about 20 miles long and 
1 to 3 miles wide, is drained by Lumber River. It is, for the most part, 
covered with reeds and a heavy growth of cypress, ash, maple and 
gum, and has a black, rich, peaty soil of great depth. There are other 
