TERTIARY STRATA. 
125 
fixed rocks were originally hidden by them quite up to the high¬ 
est limit of the sand, that it was all sand and clay as far as a line 
extending from the western part of Warren, through Franklin, 
the south-eastern part of Wake, the northern part of Cumberland, 
a corner of Chatham, the centre of Moore, the south-eastern part 
of Montgomery, northern part of Richmond, and eastern of 
Anson. This was, at least for some time, the line of the sea 
beach, but after the low country had emerged from the waves, 
by the combined agency of rain water, rushing into the streams, 
and of the streams themselves, acting upon their banks and 
beds, the original coating of clay and sand was swept off, and 
transported to some point lower down. The result was, the for¬ 
mation of a broad belt of unequal width, but generally from 30 to 
40 miles across, having sand especially, and some clay—the strata 
of the low country, and long leaved pine, on the high grounds, 
and stiff land of greater fertility, fixed rocks, and woods of oak 
and short leaved pine, in the neighbourhood of the creeks and ri¬ 
vers. We find therefore, granite, slate, and other rocks, spa¬ 
ringly distributed, and near the water courses in the interior of 
the sand. The small streams rise in the sand hills, and disclose 
the subjacent rocks only in the lower part of their courses. This 
is true for example of Upper and Lower Little Rivers in Cum¬ 
berland, Drowning Creek in Moore, and Hitchcock’s, Solomon’s, 
and IMarks’ Creeks, in Richmond. In descending the country from 
Raleigh towards Newbern, we strike the sand at the distance of 5 
or 6 miles from the city, and have entered fully upon it at the 
distance of ten miles, but the subjacent rock rises to the surface 
many mlloB below : at three puints at least aiuund W^aynesboro’, 
viz: at Micajah Coxe’s on the Raleigh road, on the opposite side of 
the Neuse a mile or two east of Falling Creek,and at the distance 
of seven miles on the road to Stantonsburg; so that Waynesboro’, 
though there are no fixed rocks immediately at that place, may 
be taken as a centre for the lowest limit of fixed rocks on the 
Neuse. From the Virginia line to Waynesboro’, this limit as very 
near to the route of the rail road ; at Halifax, on the Roanoke, the 
Falls, on Tar River ; and 6 miles above Stantonsburgh on the 
Cotentney. It is a little below Averysboro’ on the Cape Fear, 
near the southern limit of Moore on Drowning Creek, and a little 
below the South Carolina line on the Pedee. Loose slate rocks 
are so abundant near the Cape Fear, opposite to Fayetteville, that 
the existence of a body of them very near to, if not at, the sur¬ 
face, may be strongly suspected, and a discovery of them may 
hereafter carry the line farther down. 
This wide belt is to the geologist the lea.st interesting part of 
the state. The clay and sand contains, with a very few unimpor¬ 
tant exceptions, no organic remains, or imbedded minerals, whilst 
they cover the older rocks, and render it impossible to observe 
and study them. What those rocks are, will be stated hereafter. 
It aflbrds an excellent material for the manufacture of bricks, and 
