SOUTH CAROLINA, a South Atlantic State of the United States of America, one of the original 13, and popularly called "The Palmetto State," lies between lat. 32° 4' 30" and 35° 12' N. and between long. 78° 30' and 20' W. Its area is 30,989 square miles, of which 494 square miles is water. The State of North Carolina bounds it on the north; the Savannah River, the eighth river in length in North America, on the southwest and west ; the Atlantic Ocean on the south, southeast and east forms the base of an irregularly shaped triangle with its apex resting on the Appalachian Moun tains 200 miles to the north.
Topography.—Coast Region.— The coast region has an area of 1,700 square miles. The average elevation above sea-level is 10 to 15 feet, rarely 25 to 30. South of the Santee River the mainland is bordered by numerous islands, formed from the detritus brought down by the rivers and banked up south of their outlets by the currents and waves of the sea. They are fringed between high and low tide by salt marshes and extensive beds of oysters peculiar to this latitude. The mean rise of the tide in the Savannah River is 6.9 feet, and diminishes eastward to 3.5 feet at the Georgetown entrance. The tides push the fresh water of the streams before them on the flood, 15 to 30 miles inland, and render tide-water irrigation of the rice fields practicable. The salt water rivers sepa rating the islands from each other and from the mainland furnish navigable waters for a length of 400 to 500 miles for steamboats and might, with little work, be converted into a continuous inside passage from one boundary of the State to the other.
The Lower Pine Belt.— Immediately north of the coast region the Lower Pine Belt, with a width varying from 20 to 70 miles, crosses the State from east to west, covering an area of 10,226 miles. These low-level lands bear a strong resemblance to those of the coast. The uplands, the so-called "pine barrens," represent the sea islands, the numerous large fresh-water rivers replace the salt rivers and arms of the sea, and the swamps, over 2,000 square miles, recall the salt marshes. Eight large
rivers conveying all the rainfall of South Caro lina, with a considerable portion of that from North Carolina and Georgia, together with sev eral smaller rivers and innumerable lesser streams, traverse the region. The maximum elevation, 134 feet, is reached at Branchville, making the fall to tide water in a direct line 2.8 feet per mile. In the extreme west the fall is greater, 5.8 feet a mile; in the Pee Dee section it is less than a foot to the mile. With proper engineering the fall is sufficient to drain the swamps and bring into cultivation what are per haps the most fertile lands in the State.
The Upber Pine Belt.— The Upper Pine Belt, or central cotton region, lies north of the Lower Pine Belt and south of the Sand and Red Hill region. It covers 6,230 square miles. The ele vation, 130 to 269 feet. There are extensive bodies of very fertile swamps in the rivers, sub ject, however, to occasional overflows, and back swamps equally fertile but needing drainage.
Sand and Red Hills.— A range of sand hills rises from the gentle slope of the Upper Pine Belt and attains an elevation of 500 to 826 feet. It is interrupted by hills and elevated levels of red clay lands. Its northern boundary is the °fall line') of the rivers. It covers 4,061 square miles. Extensive quarries of kaolin clay are worked here ; works for the manufacture of porcelain ware from them have been success fully operated, and many thousand tons are annually shipped to• the paper manufactories. Fuller's earth is also found. A "cement gravel" has been much exploited for road material, being shipped by rail to distant points for that use. Roads covered a few inches with it become hard and withstand the weather and much travel. The long slopes of these hills face south, and the short slopes north. The latter are the most fertile. Besides rivers, the large clear swift running creeks, not counting smaller streams and branches, aggregate 1,100 miles in length. Their average fall is 15 to 20 feet to the mile.