ELEVATIONS IN GEORGIA ASCERTAINED BY J. E. THOMES, C. E., IN MAKING A UNITED STATES RAILWAY SURVEY FROM THE TENNESSEE RIVER THROUGH FISHER'S GAP, on sand mounTAIN, ALABAMA, TO THE ATLANTIC COAST, IN GEORGIA, IN 1875.

The line of this survey enters Georgia in the neighborhood of the old Burnt Village, in Troup county, crosses the Thomaston branch of the Macon and Western Railroad, passes through Culloden in Monroe, Knoxville in Crawford, crosses the Ocmulgee above Hawkinsville, and passes through Eastman in Dodge county, and from there nearly follows the line of the Macon and Brunswick Road to Brunswick. The length of this line from the Tennessee river to Brunswick is 412 miles, over 250 of which is in Georgia.

The elevations above the sea level are as follows:

On this line, Eastman is 112 miles and Culloden 212 miles from Brunswick.

OKEFENOKEE SWAMP.

A line of levels was run by the Geological Survey in 1875 from Mixon's Ferry on Suwanee river to Trader's Hill on the St. Mary's, showing the following elevations above ebb tide:

A line of levels, which was run round the swamp and connected with the water in the St. Mary's river near Trader's Hill in 1857, by Colonel R. L. Hunter, furnishes the following information in regard to the elevation of the surface at different points:

The highest part of the swamp is its northern extremity, where it is 126 feet above tide-water. Coming south, in six miles it descends five feet, and then in thirteen miles from the last point it descends only one and a half feet on the east side-it being at that point (Mr. Mattox's) 120 feet above tide-water, while at an opposite point on the west side (the mouth of Surveyor's creek), it is only 116 feet.

A nearly uniform descent continues from Mattox's to the southeast corner of the swamp, where the elevation is 116 feet, while near Ellicott's Mound, where the branch of the St. Mary's runs out of the swamp, it is only 111.

From the mouth of Surveyor's creek to the extreme western angle of the swamp, it falls scarcely any, but on turning eastward towards the Suwanee river it gradually descends, and when that stream comes out of the swamp it is only about 1101 feet above tide.

At the northeast point of the pocket it is 114 feet. From that point it falls towards the place where Cypress creek runs out, where it is about 111 feet. Then it rises to 1183 feet when half way to the St. Mary's, and gradually falls again to it.

CHAPTER IV.

CLIMATE.

A stranger studying the South-with which section Georgia is centrally identified-is especially interested in three subjects, viz: the climate, the negro, and cotton. Of all matters connected with the Country, the climate most interests him. Of those connected with the People, the negro interests him most, for he feels that he already knows the whites. So of products. Cotton is the special product of the State; corn, grain, etc., he already knows. We shall therefore endeavor so to present each of these three subjects, as at once to gratify natural curiosity, and furnish full information.

Climate is perhaps the most important condition in the environment of a people. It embraces in its scope health and comfort, spirits, brain force, muscular force and vigor; in a word, nearly all our enjoyments and all our faculties. It affects profoundly our modes of living, our in door and out-of-door life, and comes home to us in a thousand ways.

And climate, moreover, is a gift of nature, not a product of art. It is peculiarly a datum; a bestowment. We can deal with a poor soil we can fertilize it--but it is hard to deal with a bad climate. We must submit to it.

Not less marked are its effects on production; on all that grows from the ground. Climate is a controlling condition on all vegetation, on trees and grasses and natural products, and not less so on cultivated crops, vegetables and fruits; equally so on animal life, on its vigor, its diet, its needs and its supply of food.

Climate, therefore, is the inexorable and indispensable condition of comfortable life. It determines race tendencies largely. It has framed the Esquimaux and the Patagonian, the Malay and Papuan, the white man, the yellow, red and black man. It, too, determines