a belt of country from 10 to 15 miles wide between the pine barrens and wire grass region on one side and the coast live-oak lands on the other, extends from the Savannah to the Saint Mary's river, and embraces nearly all of the counties of Chatham, Bryan, Glynn, and Camden, and large portions of Liberty and McIntosh. The surface of the country is very level and 10 or 15 feet above tidewater, and comprises what is known as the first terrace. Its northwestern limit is the bluff of the second or wire-grass terrace, passing through the lower part of Effingham (20 miles north of Savannah) into Bryan, where it is 50 feet high. Southward through Liberty county this bluff forms "the gravel hill," south of Hinesville, which has an elevation of from 15 to 30 feet above the sea; deep sands are found here. Thence the limit extends through McIntosh county to Waynesville, and, on the eastern side of the Satilla river, into and acros Camden county at a distance of about 15 miles east of Colerain. At this last point the rise is about 25 feet. Within this region, adjoining the marsh lands, there is a belt of live-oak land having a width of several miles which properly belongs to the savannas. This region along the first or lower terrace is noted for its beautiful meadow or savanna lands, which are broad, flat, and open plains, having no growth other than sparse and tall long-leaf pine and a thick undergrowth of saw-palmetto, with here and there bunches of wire-grass that has found its way down from the upper terrace. In the spring and early summer months these plains are covered with a dense growth of flowers, which give to them an enchanting appearance. The savannas at one time covered a large part of these counties, but the custom of burning off the lands to cause a growth of young grass for grazing purposes has also produced a scrub undergrowth of trees and bushes. The soils and subsoils outside of the live-oak lands are sandy and not much under cultivation. The streams are dark and sluggish.

Live-oak and Coast Lands.-Along the coast (as well as occupying the islands) from the Savannah river to Saint Mary's river there is an irregular and interrupted belt of yellow or mulatto sandy lands about 10 miles wide, whose characteristic feature is the growth of very large live oak trees. From their widely-spreading branches

there hangs a very great profusion of "long moss" (Tillandsia usneoides,) its long gray streamers reaching often as much as 10 or 15 feet toward the ground. Associated with the live-oak there is a growth of red and water oaks, hickory, chincapin, pine, red cedar, sweet gum, cabbage palmetto (Sabal palmetto), sassafras, and a tall variety of blue palmetto (Chamærops hystrix). There are properly three divisions of this live-oak belt, viz. upland or ridge, middle, and lower bottom lands, each comprising about one-third of the area. The first has sandy soils and subsoils, which are not considered as remunerative. The bottoms, on the other hand, are very rich, and have a dark soil underlaid by a blue clay.

These lands are well adapted to sea-island cotton, though but little attention is given to its cultivation. The yield is about 400 pounds of seed-cotton per acre.

The Coast Tide Swamp Land.-This occupies a narrow belt, not continuous along the Atlantic coast, but bordering on the various inlets and streams to the limits of tide water. In White's Statistics of Georgia appears the following:

On the Savannah river the bodies of tide swamp land are extensive, and are cultivated upward of 20 miles from the brackish marsh up the river. On the Altamaha these lands equal in width. those of the Savannah river, but from the marshes upward their extent does not exceed 16 miles, where the freshets forbid their being of any value except for timber. The soil has more of decayed vegetable mold than the land of the Savannah river, and is more easily cultivated. The tide lands of the Ogeechee extend from the marshes about 10 miles. Those of the Satilla, not as broad as those mentioned above, extend from the marshes 20 miles up the river, and are not liable to freshets.

On the Saint Mary's the swamp lands on the Georgia side extend only to the foot of the second terrace, some 15 miles east of Colerain, though tide-water reaches Traders' Hill. These are the rice lands of the State, being now alınost exclusively devoted to its cultivation, though other crops do well. Black seed or Florida Sea-island cotton was once one of the principal crops of these low swamp lands.

The soil of the swamp lands along the streams and island is ash-colored and clayey, from 1 foot to 6 feet deep to a blue clay

stratum. The growth is cypress, water oak, gum, ash, maple, beech, and saw-palmetto.

Marsh Land. There is very little of what may be properly termed sea marsh along the Georgia coast. Very small areas are found at the mouths of some of the rivers.

The Sea Islands.-Along the coast there lies from one end to the other a perfect net-work of islands, large and small, having a rolling surface, not exceeding 15 feet above tide. Their united areas amount to about 560 square miles. The growth is live oak, cedars, pines, and saw-palmetto, with some magnolia, gum, etc. The soil is usually sandy and well adapted to the production of sea-island cotton, corn and sweet potatoes. Lemons, figs, pomegranates, olives and oranges, grow finely. Cultivation of sea-island cotton has been nearly abandoned since 1861.

The cultivation of upland cotton (short staple) is now receiving more and more attention since the introduction of commercial fertilizers. Of sea-island cotton these soils formerly yielded from 400 to 500 pounds per acre in the seed when fresh and 300 pounds after the fourth year.

CHAPTER VII.

ECONOMIC MINERALS.

Under this head it is proposed to notice some of the more important and abundant minerals of the State that are susceptible of important uses.

The Mineral Map of the State, on a following page shows, with approximate correctness, the known localities of twenty varieties of minerals. There are doubtless other localities of equal importance with those given in which some of these may be found, and all that is claimed is a reasonable degree of accuracy consistent with the meagre available data for a map of this character.

METALS AND ORES.

IRON ORES.

The Red Fossiliferous or Dystone Ore occurs in vast quantities, in beds, outcropping in sandstone ridges, that encircle the coal measures, or extend parallel with their eastern and western limits. There are from two to four beds of iron interstratified with shales or sandstone, the thickness of which varies from a few inches to 10 or 12 feet. This ore is found in the Pudding ridges of Dade county, in the Shinbone ridges of Dade, Walker and Chattooga, and in Taylor's ridge, and Dick's ridge in Catoosa, Walker and Chattooga. The ore bed is well exposed again on the top of Dirt Seller mountain, in Chattooga. The outcrop of the ore beds has a linear extent of one hundred and twenty miles, agreeing nearly with the Devonian formation in these counties, as shown on the Geological Map. The areal extent of country underlain by the beds is not less than 350 square miles, including only that portion of country bordered by outcroping beds that are believed to be of workable thickness.

The ore of Dade and the more westerly exposures in Walker contains a considerable percentage of lime. This cannot be considered as an impurity, as it scarcely any where exists in excess of what

is required for a flux. Around Pigeon Mountain, and especially on its eastern side, where the beds outcrop at high angles of dip, the lime is leached out leaving the ore somewhat soft and porous. This, like the ore of Dade and other portions of Walker, will be found to contain lime at a depth below the surface. In the more easterly beds, in Taylor's and Dick's ridges and in Dirt Seller Mountain, the ore is much more compact and heavy, though the beds appear not to have an equal thickness. The ore is fossiliferous, as in Pigeon and Lookout Mountains, and shows a similar lenticular or concretionary structure, but, unlike that, the lime of the shells has been entirely replaced with iron, and the ore is heavy and compact in camparison with the weathered beds farther west. The line of outcrop is shown on the map and its relation to the coal, limestones and sandstones by the section on the following page :