100 
GEOLOGY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
well being, and to that variety and productiveness of industries which is 
most conducive to the collective prosperity of a people. 
Sanitary . — And as to salubrity, it must be evident to any one who has 
considered the topographical features of the State as hereinbefore de- 
scribed, and the prevalent climatic conditions, as developed in the present 
chapter, that the conditions of insalubrity cannot exist otherwise than 
locally and exceptionally. And the case becomes still stronger when the 
underlying geological structure is taken into account, which is almost 
every where favorable to ready and complete drainage, so that the waters of 
the most copious rains disappear from the surface in a few hours at most. 
And the sanitary statistics of the United States census reports show that 
the death rate for this State for 1870, for example, is much less than the 
average for the United States, — less than one per cent, against an average 
of more than one and a quarter, and if the comparison be carried back 
to include the reports for 1860 and 1850, the rates are still in nearly the 
same ratio, viz : 1.14 to 1.31 ; and as has been stated already iu another 
connection, so far as concerns one of the most prevalent and fatal affec- 
tions, consumption, one of the two small areas of total exemption in the 
whole United States is found in North Carolina ; and if the figures which 
express the ratio of deaths from this cause to total mortality, for the en- 
tire State, be compared with the average for all the states, the contrast 
will be found not less striking than that of the general averages above 
given. 
BOTANICAL. 
It has long been known to botanists that the territory of JSorth Car- 
olina presents one of the finest fields in the United States for collection, 
on account of the great variety and interest of its vegetable productions. 
Many plants of northern habit, such as are common in the White Moun- 
tains, for example, and along the northern lakes, find their southern geo- 
graphical limit in the mountains of this State ; and quite a number of others 
spread from the Gulf and the Mississippi Valley to the Cape Fear and 
even to Pamplico Sound. So that the flora of this State is continental 
in character and range, combining the botanical features of both extremes 
as well as of the intermediate regions. 
The results of the preceding discussion of the climatology of the State 
furnish ample explanation of the fact. The close connection between 
climate and organic life, and the decisive control which meteorological 
conditions exert over the whole character and range and form of its de- 
