No. 1 was from near Orangeburg village, the southern limit of the region under consideration, and near the line where the buhr-stone passes under the Santee marls.

No. 2 was from Lang Syne, the same plantation from which the samples analyzed by Dr. Smith, were taken.

No. 3 was from the "High Hills of Santee," near Statesburg, in Sumter county.

CLIMATE.

Having an elevation of four hundred to five hundred feet and upwards. above the sea level, the red hills enjoy a dryer and more bracing atmosphere than the regions to the south. While it is a notable fact that they are not so subject to the severer influences of storm winds as the lower lying lands, the ordinary movements of the air are more perceptible there than in the lower grounds. Thus, during the extremest heats of summer, there is rarely a night when the refreshing influence of a gentle south wind is not felt, blowing with a uniformity as though it had directly traversed the seventy miles intervening between these slopes and the ocean. Owing to this movement of the air and to its greater dryness, late spring frosts are of less frequent occurrence here than they are further south. Nor is vegetation destroyed by cold so early in the fall. In ascending these hills in the autumn and early winter at a certain elevation a stratum of warm air is encountered, which seems to cling about the hill-tops, while a much chillier night air fills the bottoms. These advantages at one time made this region famous for its fruits. During the severest winter of the last half century the banana and the sago palm in the open ground, protected only by a few handsful of cotton seed on their roots, though cut by the frost, retained sufficient vitality to throw up vigorous shoots the ensuing spring. This greater length of growing season has also made attempts at growing sea island cotton and sugar cane more successful here than lower down. The whole region is remarkably healthy, no taint of malaria approaches it and it is in an unusual degree free from epidemics of every description. For these reasons many localities here, especially the "High Hills of Santee," were formerly much frequented as summer and health resorts by planters from all parts of the State, as well as from other Southern States.

GROWTH.

The long leaf pine thins out on these hills and is sometimes replaced by short leaf pine of large growth. Their southern aspect is the upper limit of the long gray moss. The characteristic growth, however, is oak

and hickory of large size. All the oaks common to the section attain here an unusual size, including even the blackjack and the post oak, not conspicuous elsewhere for their growth; the red oak, however, surpasses them all in size, measuring sometimes as much as seven feet in diameter, while trees four feet and five feet through are not uncommon. The live oak when planted does well, the chinquapin is found wild in the woods; the Roman chestnut, the pecan nut, the English walnut, and the almond, bear abundant crops. So that the region is to a large extent suitable for the growth of plants natural to higher and to lower latitudes.

STATISTICS.

The red hill region contains about 1,620 square miles, and has a population of 44,866, being 27.6 to the square mile. Fifty-six per cent. are colored.

The area of tilled land is 234,682 acres; being 144 acres per square mile, or 22 per cent. of the entire surface; and five acres per capita of the population.

The number of farms is 4,568, being 2.8 per square mile, or a farm to nearly every ten persons; averaging for the whole, 228 acres to the farm, of which fifty is under culture; the remaining 178 being included and for the most part yielding no return whatever.

The crops are cotton, in which 84,939 acres are planted, yielding 34,249 bales of cotton in 1879. Averaging a yield per acre of 183 pounds of lint, or 348 pounds per capita for the whole population; which is the largest yield per capita of any region of the State, This is a little more than six per cent. of the area planted in cotton in the whole State, and yields six and six-tenths per cent. of the entire crop of the State. In grain of all sorts 114,425 acres are planted, yielding 804,443 bushels, a little over seven bushels to the acre, and seventeen bushels per capita of the population, a yield wholly disproportionate to the capabilities of the soil, which is particularly adapted to small grain. This area is a little over six per cent. of the total area planted in grain in the State, and the yield is four and seven-tenths per cent. of the total crop of the State. Of course very little rice is planted here, which in part accounts for the falling off, that being the most productive grain crop in the State; but lands which in 1825 made an average of eight to twelve bushels (see Mills, p. 660), and when well manured, thirty-four bushels of wheat per acre, and from ten to twenty-five bushels of rice to the 'acre, and still more when planted in rye and oats, are far below their normal production when yielding as above indicated. In fallow and other crops there is 35,318 acres, nearly fifteen per cent. of the land once under cultivation. The

culture of much of this land is abandoned as a consequence of the disasters that have overtaken the rich planters, who formerly lived here, incident to the results of the war.

The work stock numbers 7,663, not quite five to the square mile, one to every thirty acres of tilled land, and to every six of the population. The live stock is 61,569, chiefly hogs; thirty-eight to the square mile, and nearly one to every four acres of cultivated land.

At Wedgefield, on the Columbia and Wilmington Railroad, these lands are well cultivated and sell as high as twenty-five dollars an acre. At Fort Motte, on the Columbia and Charleston railroad, the prices are fifteen dollars to twenty dollars an acre, and in Millbrook, Aiken, by the South Carolina railroad, they sell for fifteen dollars to twenty dollars, and in Beech island, in the same county, near Augusta, Georgia, they have recently brought over forty dollars an acre. The great body of these lands, however, lying off the railroads, are to be had at much lower prices. Large tracts, by no means inferior to those already mentioned, except as regards accessibility, are offered at from three dollars to ten dollars an acre. It is remarkable that mere accessibility should affect prices to this degree. For, while the lands themselves produce every variety of crop, they are well adapted to cotton, of which a two-horse wagon can transport as much as two hundred dollars worth at one load; the roads are excellent and there is scarcely a point that is a day's journey removed from a market. That not one-fourth of these lands, capable of supporting, in health and abundance, as large a population as land anywhere, are under cultivation, illustrates how much is wanting in capital and population to develope the resources of this section.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SAND HILL REGION.

The sand hill region of South Carolina stretches across the State from the Savannah river, opposite to Augusta, to the intersection of the North Carolina line by the Great Pee Dee river. The average distance of its lower border, among the Red Hills, from the sea, is about ninety-five miles. Its length is one hundred and fifty-five miles. Its width is variable; the maximum, which is reached in Lexington county, is about thirty miles, and the average width will hardly reach twenty miles. It occupies the larger portion of five counties, viz: Aiken, Lexington, Richland, Kershaw and Chesterfield. The upper pine belt, ascending the eastern bank of the Congaree river, in Richland county, until it touches the granite rocks of the Piedmont region at Columbia, divides the sand hill region into two portions, an eastern and a western portion.

THE PHYSICAL FEATURES.

The physical features of this region are of a monotony aptly charac-terized by the term "pine barren," applied to it. The hills slope up from the Savannah river to a plateau, having an elevation at Aiken C. H. of about six hundred feet above the sea level. Beyond the North Edisto river the gradual ascent is resumed, until an elevation exceeding seven hundred feet is reached in Platt Springs township, in eastern Lexington, whence there is a rapid descent of more than five hundred feet in a short distance to the Congaree river. East of this stream the rise is again gradual, and the maximum elevation is reached on the northeast border of Richland county, where the hills again descend abruptly to the Wateree river. Beyond this river there is no data as to levels, except that on the water shed of the Great Pee Dee there is evidence as to extensive denudation of the surface to a depth of at least one hundred and fifty feet. The evidence is furnished by a conical hill rising in central Chesterfield one hundred and fifty feet above the surrounding country, and known as Sugar Loaf

mountain. This hill consists of horizontal layers of sand and kaolin clays, similar to the prevailing formations of the sand hills, and has been preserved from denudation by blocks of ferruginous sandstone covering its top and sides, identical in character with the same sandstone, known as ironstone, found on the summit of these hills in many other localities. The following diagram presents a view of the relative elevations of this region:

H

WEST

SEA LEVEL.

AIKEN.

LEXINGTON.

G

EAST

RICHLAND. KERSHAW. CHESTERFIELD. SEA LEVEL. A Savannah River; B South Edisto River; C North Edisto River; D Congaree River; E Wateree River; Lynch's River; G Pee Dee River; H Aiken Court House; I Sugar Loaf Mountain. SCALE-35 miles per inch. Elevation 100 feet per

inch.

This longitudinal section of the sand hills illustrates once more the law already noticed as prevailing elsewhere-that the long slopes face west and south, and the short slopes face east and north; and, also, that the western portion of the State is more elevated than the eastern. It will also be noticed that, notwithstanding their just reputation for great dryness, these pine barrens are well watered. They are crossed by seven rivers of considerable size, having an aggregate length among these hills of more than two hundred miles. Of creeks, not counting lesser streams and branches, there is an aggregate length in this region of eleven hundred and seventy miles, capable of furnishing a large amount of water power. For instance, one average creek out of the seventy-eight found here, Horse creek furnishes in the single township of Gregg, in Aiken county, power for a large paper mill and three cotton mills, being 1300 horse power utilized, and estimating the power not employed, the stream can furnish 2500 horse power. Showing that the streams of medium size in this region have a capacity for work, now scarcely utilized, greater than that of all the work stock of the State. On the margins of these streams there are more than 100,000 acres of bottom lands, for the most part uncleared, but capable of being rendered, by drainage and irrigation, in the highest degree productive. The water of these streams, which are little subject to freshet, but maintain a flow of great uniformity throughout all the seasons of the year, is as clear as that of the purest springs. Spring branches, and even streams of considerable. size, sink sometimes into the loose sands of this region and disappear, to appear at distant points as "boiling" springs, that is, springs bubbling