All soils were originally formed by the disintegration or decomposition of the different rocks. In the condition of things above supposed, each rock, or bed, of the Geological formation, thus exposed in succession, in the higher country, would be acted on by atmospherical influences and their changes, &c., according to the fitness of the several rocks to be so acted on, each, or its exposed surface, would be gradually converted to earth or soil. And if there were no transporting agencies, to remove and mingle these separate earths, or soils, each one would continue to be of the same chemical constitution with its parent rocks, until new causes came into operation, to produce mixtures and changes. In such cases, of isolated earths, the sandstones would, by disintegration only, become come and remain barren sands. The slates and other aluminous rocks, would be clays, or clayey soils, and the poorer in proportion to the purity, or freedom from all other matters, of the parent rock. The chalk and limestone, if such rocks had been there, would become almost pure calcareous soils. Of these, however, there were almost none, in the Piedmont region. It would have been only the rocks of mixed composition, containing lime, magnesia, or potash, as hornblende, soap-stone, granite, &c., that separately could have made compound soils, of even moderate fertility. The tide-water region would have been very different. Consisting of the upheaved marl, that i of sand and clay with abundant calcareous and some other fertilizing ingredients (phosphate of lime, common salt, and in some cases sulphate of lime,) the disintegration would have produced soils with abundant elements of fertility, and as much superior to those of the Piedmont region, as in later time, and by differently operating causes, the soils of the tide-water region were actually and generally worse than the others.

But, in point of fact, there cannot long remain any earth, or soil, formed by disintegration of rock, free from foreign admixtures.—Transporting and mixing agencies are never altogether wanting—and earths, thus formed by nature, cannot long remain separate. On a naked surface, (and much more after tillage has been introduced,) the winds have a very powerful agency in removing soil from every exposed space to every other neighboring locality.— Water is a much more powerful agent, in many cases, for transporting and intermixing soils. It is not necessary here, and for this case, to describe such effects—or of the more moderately acting powers of the atmosphere, rain, and changes of temperature—inasmuch as all such milder agencies and influences were superseded, in this case, by one immeasurably more powerful. This was the great flood which deeply washed away and denuded the surface and especially the higher portions of the upper country, and spread the removed earth, in drift, deeply over all the lower country, and carried off the finer, lighter and richer parts to be partly accumulated under eddying or tranquil water, or more generally wasted in the ocean.

Geologists have ascertained the former existence, and have traced in many localities the course and the effects, of an ancient and mighty flood of water, rushing from the north, and which has left abundent traces of its passage, and results of its transporting violence and power, and the later deposition of its burden of suspended and drifted earth. It is not needed to quote authorities for the former existence of such a flood, or to discuss any of its supposed causes and sources. I do not know whether any competent Geologist has examined, in reference to this flood, the particular regions here under consideration. But nowhere can evidences of the drift operation and formation, (as here understood,) thus produced, be more distinct and more generally manifest, than in the great area which is here termed the drift region.

Over the surfaces which now make the eastern portions of Virginia, North Carolina and the neighboring Atlantic States, the course of the flood was from north-west to south-east. In the same direction, or nearly such, also, is the general direction of all the rivers, passing through the tide-water region, or of the broad bottoms through which these rivers there meander. These wide bottoms were marked and cut out by the earlier and more violent currents of this great flood, while its later and less violent and shallower waters yet covered all the intervening spaces or intervals between the lower borders of the present rivers.

What was the height, violence, and duration of this flood can no more be known than its cause or source. It doubtless came from westward of the Blue Ridge mountains, and it may have even overtopped their present height. It probably was more than a thousand feet in depth, when rushing over the now Piedmont region—and during its long eastward passage, swept off some hundred or more feet in depth of earth and rock—depositing the transported earth over the lower lands, and in the ocean. I have had but small opportunity to trace the effects of this flood in the upper country, which is supposed to have been thereby generally denuded; though, in numerous lower places, it received and retained the materials removed from the still higher lands farther westward. If the general fact be true of such a flood having been poured in such a direction, every careful observer, in his own neighborhood, can find enough of facts for confirmation—or for contradiction, if the doctrine is not true. In a hilly part of the upper country, the evidences of such action may be sought for in various results, which would be modified by every different shape of surface. If the loose stones are rounded, it shows that they were water-rolled. If there are no rounded pebbles, except such as are of very hard material, it shows that these had been transported a long distance, in traversing which, all the softer aluminous and calcareous stones had been rubbed to powder, or so as to be suspended in, and floated off by water. If the hill-sides facing the north and west are always steeper than the sides towards the south and west—and still more, if the latter have on their lower slopes and at their bases, accumulations of rolled pebbles and rounded gravel, decreasing in size with increasing distance from the hill, all these would be striking evidences of the action of such a flood, and of its direction.

In the tide-water region, the results now visible, at the surface, are not of denudation, but of universal covering by drifted matter—pebbles, gravel, sand, and more rarely, clay. Yet the denuding agency was in operation here, also, at first, and powerfully, before the abated violence of the flood permitted the deposition of sediment. The early denuding action may be seen in numerous cases. On the upper surface of many beds of higher-lying and firm marl, there are numerous narrow and deep depressions, either funnel-shaped, or cylindrical with nearly perpendicular sides, which were evidently cut out by the whirling currents of rapid water. These hollows in the marl are filled by a fine and loose reddish earth, of subsequent deposition. Such a whirl of water could not have existed at the bottom of the sea—or if existing, and strong enough to thus excavate compact marl, it would have been permanent, and must have prevented shell-fish living there, or the loose and light dead shells, and their small fragments, remaining there. The shells of other marl, and in numerous localities, have been abraded to coarse powder, and removed and deposited elsewhere, according to specific gravity, together with the sand and other materials of the bed. But the most striking illustration of this former denudation of marl may be seen along the Pamunkey river, where, for 20 or 30 miles, I have traced the different (now slightly inclined) layers of the original bed, successively rising to, and “cropping out,” or showing higher in the present bed, as the observer proceeds up the river; or otherwise, as going eastward (down the course of the river,) each such layer successively dips and disappears.*

* A description and figured illustration of this, in “Essay on Calcareous Manures” at pages 483-5 of 5th Edition.

The evidences, in visible exposures, of this early denuding action on the now tide-water region, are rare, because they were subsequently covered and concealed by the now overlying deposits of drift earth. But of the later and general deposition of the drift, abundant evidences are visible, some of which may be seen in almost every excavation, or surface of any exposed perpendicular section of earth. These appearances of the strata, serving as proofs of their origin, will be described hereafter.

It has been supposed and maintained above, that at the earliest time indicated by the geological facts observed, the ocean extended as far westward as the line of the present granite falls, and was of sufficient depth for the production, and successive living and dying of the shell-fish, whose remaining shells and fragments constituted the beds of the now remaining marl. Subsequently this area of tertiary formation, on its western side, was, by volcanic force, upheaved high above the surface of the ocean, and less and less so toward the east, if the eastern side (of former ocean bottom,) was not actually depressed. (Near the present sea-coast the marl lies much lower than the level of the ocean; at Norfolk, as much as 40 feet). Next, of this new raised surface of marl, where highest or otherwise most exposed, the upper portion was washed off by the violent current of the flood from the north-west; and the removed material of shells was again deposited either at short distances, and in new layers of marl, composed of the rubbish and small fragments of shells—or, otherwise, much of the more reduced and lighter calcacareous matter was floated far into the ocean, and lost. Next, by the first abating of the violence of the flood, its currents ceased to denude the lower and flatter surface of the now tide-water region, and then the flood began to leave thereon the earth torn from the higher country.

To trace the operation of the great flood, and the depositing its burden of drift stony and earthy matter, we have only to consider the enormous volume and power of the water, the general direction, and also the many variations of the currents, and then look to the existing condition of the drift region or the results, and also or the explanation of many (at first) embarrassing difficulties in particular facts and matters of observation.

Whatever was the cause or source, and also the duration of so mighty a flood, the violence of the current must have varied much at different times, and under changing conditions, so as to produce various effects, both in removing and depositing the materials of drift. At first, and when the current was most rapid, and its volume greatest, nearly its whole operation was denuding, or removing earth and stone, and below as well as above the present falls. As the first and greatest violence of the flood moderated, it began and continued to drop the transported matters on all the more eastern surface—and also to extend that surface more and more into and above the ocean, and making more and more of what is now the low-land, bordering on the present ocean beach. There was not only the general and gradual lessening of the volume and violence of the flood, serving generally to change the manner and kinds of its deposited earth, but also many changes of the direction and force of particular currents, producing at particular places successive and many changes of their power and effects. Thus, at one place, the covering water was at some times a violent and denuding current, and at other times comparatively tranquil, or eddying. And such fluctuations might return and be re-produced along the same course, as obstructions of hills, or high shoals, in the upper country served to direct and divert the currents, or as the subsequent removal (by washing away) of such obstacles, allowed the current to take a new direction and shorter course, and with renewed violence, to the ocean, and its former channel to be filled by comparatively tranquil water, and raised by its deposited sediment. The channel or passage-way of each of these particular and temporary currents, in the now drift region, would, for the time be deepened, by washing away the still soft and loose deposit of the then very recent soft sediment. In these deepened channels of the more rapid currents, the heaviest drift materials only could be left—either large or small pebbles, gravel or coarse sand, according to the then burden and action of the current—while in the more tranquil water, close on each side, the finer suspended earth only would be let fall, and there raise the bottom by the accumulation, even while the strong current alongside might be still deepening its channel, and bearing off the removed earth. Then, as the direction and positions of particular currents would be changed, the channels previously cut out, and then covered by more tranquil water, would be filled with the finer and lighter suspended earth—and the new currents would cut new and deep channels through the previously formed shoals, sweeping the fine drift much farther, or even into the ocean, and dropping into the new deep channels the drifted stones, or other materials too heavy to be carried farther by the slackening force of the water. While the great flood, yet covered deeply the whole land, both of the now denuded and the drift regions, of course the general operation of the water would be to drop the heaviest of the transported earth first, and the lightest, last—as large stones, smaller pebbles, gravel, coarse and fine sand, clay and lime, in succession. But this general manner of operation would be altered on almost every locality, by the changes of direction of the minor currents, and their cutting new channels in the previously deposited drift, and filling old channels. Thus, it would necessarily happen, (as may be seen in numerous exposures,) that an inferior stratum of fine and light drift material was sometimes overlaid by another of much heavier parts—as sand, or gravel, and even large pebbles lying over a bed of clay, or clayey sand.

So, far, the great flood, however abated in depth and power, has been considered as still covering the whole area of the now drift region. But later, as the water still diminished, its flow would be contracted to the last made channels of the latest partial currents—and the broader intervals between these channels would be gradually left bare, and be no longer subject to changes, either in losses by secondary denudation, or of gains by accession of drift. These high interval lands are now the highest ridge or table land of the drift region—of which the plane of their general outline and highest surface, is remarkably even, and nearly horizontal—but gradually and regularly dipping from the height above the falls of the rivers to the sea shore. The water, now confined to the channels of the last formed currents, within these passages still had great force, which was in part exerted in continuing to deepen the then channels. But the borders of these passage-ways would necessarily be higher, and the covering water, shallow and more tranquil; and on such places, the stiller water would begin to deposit its finer and richer suspended earth, while, where deep and swift, in the middle of the current, it would be still cutting its channel deeper, (into the previously deposited drift,) and bearing off the loosened earth towards the ocean. The water, continuing to decrease in volume, would next be drawn within narrower limits of breadth, and thus leave bare the outer and higher margins, after having previously covered these also with a deposit of the lighter and richer earth.—This process would continue to be repeated, until the flood entirely subsided. Then the latest and deepest cut channels, for the latest currents, would be left bare, and to serve as broad bottoms through which the present rivers flow, in meandering beds.

Instead of pursuing and describing the supposed progress of these changes, I will refer to existing facts of the drift region, open to present observation, and will concisely indicate the conformity of these facts with the supposed causes, as above presented.

1.—All the rivers, and also the estuaries and bays, which empty through the tide-water region, from New York to Georgia, have their general courses directing between south and west, and mostly nearer to the middle between these points than to either extreme. Such, or as nearly as could be, must have been the directions of the various separate currents of the great flood, which marked and excavated the bottoms through which these rivers and estuaries flow.

2.—The number and close vicinity of many of these rivers, and also the depths and widths of their channels or beds, have no relation or proportion to the amount of water now requiring channels for their discharge. This last fact, if considered without reference to the cause here supposed, would be a geographical puzzle. It would be incomprehensible, for example, why four great channels should have been provided, and so near together, for the lower waters of the Potomac, Rappahannock, York and James rivers. Still more incomprehensible would it be, why the five large rivers (or rather estuaries) which empty into the north side of Albemarle Sound, should exist, and in so small a space, and their head-springs so near together, nearly all rising in the Dismal Swamp, when all their very scant supplies of water would have ample room for passage through the smallest of these sundry channels. Of these rivers, the Chowan only receives, from the small head tributaries (the Meherrin, Nottoway and Blackwater), a moderate supply of water from the land, but not enough to need for passage-way, one-twentieth part of the broad Chowan, five miles wide near its mouth. Yet the next river coming from the north-west, the great Roanoke, discharges much more water than all the other five rivers, and yet its lower channel is more contracted than the least and shortest of the other rivers. Here, more marked than in other cases, it is seen that the passage-ways of the rivers bear no proportion to the volumes of water they now convey; and, therefore, the existing rivers could not have been the agents which cut out their valleys and passage-ways.

3.—Another puzzle would be to discover, what has cut out and shaped the several successive broad and flat terraces which, on one or both sides, border all our rivers in the drift region, and which are termed “first,” “second” and “third low-grounds,” when there are so many as three flats below the highest or table land.—One or more of such terraces are seen on rivers whose highest waters can never approach the lowest surface of such land. Moreover, the breadths of these highest flats are entirely disproportioned to the sizes of their respective rivers, and the amounts of water they convey even at the highest floods. But, narrow as is the Pamunkey, (for example,) and slight the rise of its highest inundations, the size of the ancient current, which cut out this bottom, might, at first, well have required all the very wide space between the first cutting down of the now table land, (thereby shaping the third terrace, or highest “low-ground,”) and next, for the lowered and contracted current, the deeper and narrower depression of the second terrace, (usually there from three to five miles broad), through which broad bottom the present narrow river meanders, among smaller spaces of “first low-ground,” which latter only is subject to be covered by the highest freshes of the river.

4.—The strata of the drift region are nearly horizontal everywhere, and usually the divisions between the different strata, as of sand and clay, do not run into each other, by gradual change or intermixture, but alter suddenly, and at a well defined line of separation. Each stratum, separately, may exhibit in itself, and in the manner of its deposition, the operation of specific gravity; that is, in sand and gravel beds especially, the coarser and heavier parts are seen at and near the bottom of the stratum, and the grains are smaller and lighter as lying nearer to the top. But there is no such rule as to different contiguous strata; and the bed of heavier particles is as often above as below one of much lighter material. For example: near Richmond, along the Mechanicsville road, there is exposed to view a high-lying stratum of rounded pebbles, many of large size, compactly imbedded in gravelly sand, resting upon a stratum of clay, and in immediate contact with the clay. At the Tau river landing, at Tauborough, North Carolina, there is a deep gully, perpendicular to the course of the river, which exposes well to view an extensive cross-section of the bank. There a stratum of sand overlies another of clay, the lighter earth, which would be impossible, if both these earths had been suspended together in the same overflowing water, or deposited under the same circumstances. Like examples may be seen in almost every considerable excavation and exposure of different strata. And all such facts go to prove that each separate stratum, in one locality, was deposited under nearly uniform conditions of the flood, and therefore according to specific gravity. But the changes, from one to another of the strata were caused by changes of the conditions of the flood, and perhaps also by different supplies of drift materials, successively broken down and transported.

5.—Large stones, generally of granite, say from 100 to 2,000 pounds of weight, are seen rarely, and only along the margins of rivers, or on their terraces, between the falls and twenty miles below. Other rounded or rolled stones, extremely hard, and usually of smoothly worn surfaces, extend still lower down the country, and especially along the rivers. These latter stones lie mostly in distinct beds, compactly and closely imbedded in gravel and coarse sand; but in other cases, they are thinly scattered. These stones, where washed out by the river banks in quantity, have supplied the best materials for paving the streets of the towns. Rolled pebbles are rarely found, and only of small sizes, lower down the country; and at fifty miles below the falls, scarcely any small pebbles can be seen, and none at one hundred miles, and even gravel is there very rare. Within twenty miles below Augusta, on the Savannah, pebbles are entirely absent. All these facts obviously would be results of the various operations of the supposed great flood, in tearing up and bearing off the rocks of the higher country, rolling and rounding and reducing the harder, and grinding to powder the softer—and leaving the heaviest remains where the velocity of the current began to slacken, and the lighter in succession, in the farther moderated progress of the burdened waters.

6.—While the flood, at its greatest height and power was rolling along and depositing larger or smaller stones and pebbles, the silicious sand, derived from the same stony beds and materials, or otherwise washed out and separated from the previous earthy beds, would be borne along in much greater quantity, and successively deposited, in the order of the specific gravity of its particles, or as permitted by the abating violence of the flood, when over the most level bottom and nearly reaching to the sea. The gravel and coarse sand would stop first, and in least quantity. The finer sand would be suspended by the water longer, carried farther, and afterwards be deposited, more uniformly, and in greatest quantity, and as one of the earliest deposits there, on the then bottom, near to, or even beyond the previous margin of the ocean—and forming the lower bed of newly deposited earth, spread out by the flood into the ocean, and removing still farther eastward its former shore-line. Thus would be formed the existing lower sand-bed, which is general, but very irregular in thickness, and of coarse particles, on the higher parts of the drift region, and the sand becoming finer, and the deposit more thick and uniform, as extending farther from its sources, and dropped by more tranquil water, on the lowest and most level bottom. This great, and now underlying bed of pure sand, sloping very gradually downward towards the ocean (in the direction of the course of the former flood,) and subsequently covered more or less deeply by the later and usually more clayey deposits, is the great or universal water-bearing under-bed—and which, both when dry at top, or entirely filled and surcharged with water, (derived from a higher level of the sand-bed, in the higher country,) has most important relations to the natural wetness and the means for artificial drainage of the country. The existence and the remarkable features of this great under-lying sand-bed, are all manifest results of the supposed manner of geological formation, by the action of a great flood from the north-west—and no satisfactory explanation can be afforded in any other hypothesis, or reasoning.*

7.—Besides, in regard to the rounded stones, which have been carried to various distances below the falls, the kinds of earth deposited, and the shape of the present surface of the land, are both much more varied in the country next below the falls, than much nearer to the sea. In the former, there is no obvious depression of level of the table land. Far back from the tide-water rivers, the interval ridges, or table lands, between them, are generally level, and the depressions and beds of streams are shallow. But within a few miles of the larger rivers, the table land is cut down by numerous deep and narrow ravines, obviously formed by the passage of the smaller but yet powerful former currents, though now serving only to convey rivulets. The soils of the higher part of the drift region, next below the falls, are various. The level surface of the high table land, is generally of very fine particles, mostly silicious, but of closer texture, and stiffer than any other neighboring soil, or than most of true clay soils elsewhere. This fine and stiff sandy soil, was the last deposited at that place, by the then shallow and retreating, and nearly tranquil water of the flood, while the deeper and divided currents were still rushing furiously, and deepening the broad bottoms in which the present rivers flow. When the last covering waters left the table land, they, in passing off, cut down, through the previously deposited (and yet soft) drift, the most considerable of the deep and narrow ravines just described. But some, and these the steepest ravines, have been opened, or extended, through high ground, in eastern localities within very recent times, and under the eyes of persons now living, without the aid of more water than was supplied temporarily by rains. To this cause (and mostly in long passed times) may be ascribed the excavation of all the narrow and deep, and very steep-sided ravines which traverse the highest borders of our tide-water rivers, and empty therein—while the much more extensive and broader valleys with gently sloping hill-sides were still earlier scooped out by the later currents of the great flood, and the sides were subsequently sloped and smoothed over by later operations of natural causes. But in either case, every valley or ravine was cut down through the previously deposited drift, and must have exposed, on each side, a section of all the various strata before deposited, from the surface of the table-land and later deposited drift, to the oldest at the bottom of the ravines. The sloping sides of such valleys must necessarily have soils composed of these several strata intermixed by rains and winds, and subsequently by tillage. Such mixed soils, though far from rich, are usually richer than the surface of the table land, with its one general soil of fine and close silicious sand.

The entire mass of earth, of various strata, excavated by the flood—not only from these narrow ravines, and small valleys, but from the broad valleys cut out by the greater currents, and in which the rivers now flow—intermixed, and transported by the later currents, served as materials to be deposited on the successive terraces, or elsewhere to fill depressions. This mixture of various materials, with other and richer matters from the upper country, served to make the good soils of the lower country, which are called “low-grounds,” and usually and improperly designated as “alluvial.” If the valleys had been cut through beds of marl, as generally was the case below the falls, then enough of the admixture would certainly have made material for rich soil. But if no such supply of calcareous material was intermixed in the valley of a river, the flat lands, bordering thereon, would probably be comparatively poor.

8.—As proceeding towards the ocean, the present surface of the drift region declines in elevation more and more, and becomes more and more level. These conditions are the necessary results of the out-spreading of the flood, and of the finer sand and the clay being carried farthest. There was no longer enough height of the deposit, above the level of the ocean, to permit the cutting down of any but shallow valleys and ravines. The soil of the higher ground is almost uniformly sandy and poor. The shallow depressions are more external, and level, and by accessions of vegetable matter, became rich swamp soil—a formation of soil later than the drift. Where nearest to the ocean, and to the neighboring estuaries and sounds, the surface of the land is but a few feet above ordinary high tide—and large spaces, even of firm ground, are too low for safe cultivation.

If the differences of agricultural character between the soils of the tide-water region and of most of the Piedmont lands, (as stated in an early part of these remarks,) result from their different geological conditions, as being respectively drift-formed and denuded soils, then it will be important to ascertain precisely the line of separation of these great areas. If sundry points in this line were ascertained and made known, by resident observers, it would be easy, by drawing a line on the map through all these points, to designate the eommon boundary of both the denuded and drift regions. In the latter, the whole of the tide-water district is included. If the primitive rocks and soil, in place, are to be found eastward of the falls, they are overlapped and concealed by the drift formation. Only one obvious instance of this has been observed by me, at the Halifax ferry, on the south side of the Roanoke, and about seven miles below the falls. There, in the steep river bank, the drift, in horizontal layers, is seen overlying the denuded, stony and greatly inclined strata, and the exact line of separation between the two is distinctly marked. The drift formation may be always known, where sections of earth are exposed to view, by the strata of different earths, as sand, clay, gravel or rounded pebbles, being nearly or apparently quite horizontal, and usually separated from each other by precise lines of demarkation. And in each bed of earthy material, there are manifest evidences of the earth having been suspended in (or rolled by) and then deposited from water. The rocks of the igneous regions either exhibit no stratification, or otherwise strata contorted, or if straight, the lines of separation are greatly inclined. In exposed sections, the earth often shows its origin from disintegrated rock, of which the process is not yet completed. Where the fragments of rocks whether in or lying above the earth, are angular, and none rounded, that will show that they have not been water-borne, or rolled—as is always the case with stones in the drift-region. Still, within the denuded region there are probably many places, which were formerly basin-shaped depressions much lower than the former general surface, and which therefore were filled with drift, and so remain, though with their present surfaces raised to the level of the surrounding denuded lands. It is an interesting question whether these spots exhibit the same agricultural peculiarities as do the lands of the great lower drift region. There must, however, from the nature of the case, be this difference: In these limited spaces of depression and subsequent covering by drift, the transported materials were brought from the adjacent high land, and could not have been much altered by attrition and suspension—whereas, the drift that covers the lower land had been completely changed, chemically as well as in mechanical texture, by its long transportation, attrition or suspension in water.

The differences between the soils of these different regions, in physical and also the more obvious agricultural characteristics, striking as they are, are less important than differences of chemical constitution, which no chemist has yet ascertained by tests or analysis of the different soils, or has otherwise thrown any light on the obscurity of the subject. Though I endeavored to invite the attention of scientific men to these difficulties many years ago, I am no more able now than then, from any such source of information, to supply the still needed explanations.

As stated concisely before, on the whole of the tide-water region, lime, or carbonate of lime, as manure, has never failed to act beneficially and profitably—and in the far greater number of cases, (and on all the high ridge, or table or other naturally poor land,) this manure has produced beneficial effects more speedy and remarkable than have been obtained on any other known lands, in any part of the known world. And on nearly throughout this same tide-water region, and on all these lands where lime and marl have been found most operative, if gypsum is applied before marling or liming the same land, it has no profitable, if any even perceptible effect. Yet on the same land, gypsum, before of no effect, if applied after good marling or liming, has been often found effective—and I suppose, would be generally effective.

In the denuded region, (within that portion of the Piedmont region, in Virginia, embraced in these remarks,) lime is said to be generally of no effect—and in but few of the many experiments of its application is it reported as producing any benefit, either early, or in any after times. Such total failures have been mostly on red soils. The few cases of evident benefit were on gray soils. Gypsum is said to be more or less operative on most of the lands in the denuded region.

If then, as seems probable, the soils of drift formation are especially deficient in lime, and will be especially improved by its application, the fact may serve to indicate where lime may be tried, above the falls, with a prospect of success—and on what other soils and localities there might be expected failure.

Besides the sure mode of determining the upper limits of the drift, by noting the appearance of the stratification, I believe that there may be found another test, in the presence, and thrifty growth of the lablolly pine, (pinus tæda). One of the most striking of the general differences of the country below the falls, and that above, (but not precisely to that line of division), is the very general growth (and exclusive second growth,) of pine trees in the former, and the general absence of pine in the latter region—and the almost entire absence of pine on the most fertile natural soils. These general facts, led me long ago to infer (erroneously) that the free growth of pine was, in itself, a sure indication of unusual deficiency of lime in the soil. And this I still deem correct, in the main, and as to the particular species of pine, (p. tæda) which formed the exclusive and luxuriant second growth of nearly all the lands below the falls, within my then range of observation. I had not then learned that different species of pines, probably indicating different kinds of soils, exclusively occupied different localities, of the same region and climate. Much of the worn land in the upper (or Piedmont) countries, is occupied as exclusively by second-growth pine, (though not so speedily,) as the lands below the falls. And in both the upper and lower country, these trees of second growth are alike designated as “old-field pines;” and the difference of their appearance and growth are supposed by most persons to be the effects of difference of soil on the same species of tree. But these growths, of the lower and upper localities are generally of different species. The almost universal second growth of the lower country being the loblally pine (pinus tæda) and of the upper country, as in the counties of Amelia and Cumberland, &c., in Virginia, and Orange, in North Carolina, as exclusively of the short-leaf pine, (pinus variabilis) which is the best and ordinary timber pine, of original forest growth of most of the tide-water region of Virginia. The latter has very short leaves, growing generally two, but often three from one sheath, and very small cones. The former has much longer leaves, growing three from a sheath, except in some rare cases, on luxuriant young trees, on which some leaves grow four from a sheath. This latter tree is a more southern plant, and is not seen generally north of Fredericksburg, nor at all much farther north. As these two species, where equally favored by climate, severally and exclusively occupy the abandoned fields of different localities, it would be interesting to observe whether the common pine of the low country, (p. tæda) when found occupying land above the falls, does not indicate the presence of drift-formed soil and under-beds—and whether the change to second growth exclusively of the short-leaf pine, (p. variabilis) does not indicate a portion of the denuded or primitive formation.

The lands of the Piedmont region, (including all the surface here treated as part of the denuded region,) in their natural state of fertility, as found when first settled by the white race, and subjected to tillage, (or before the lands were subsequently again denuded, superficially and partially, by washing rain-water, acting on the tilled and carelessly ploughed slopes, and were further worn out by exhausting tillage—) were, in general, far more fertile than the great body of the lower drift-formed lands. And further—after most of the lands of both regions had been reduced to their former lowest state of exhaustion, by long continued tillage, and the washing off of all hilly surfaces, the lands of the lower country, in general, were still much the poorest. Again—since the recent course of improvement and resuscitation has been begun, and was extensively in successful progress in both regions, and wherever no marl or lime has been used, the lands of the denuded region have been found the most capable of being enriched by putrescent manures alone, and restored to a productive condition. Yet, between a region which had formerly been denuded of its surface earth, and another over which that removed earth had been spread, their comparative conditions as to fertility might be expected to be reversed—and that the formerly denuded lands would have remained the most impoverished, and the lands covered with the transported earth, would have been enriched by the spoils of the higher lands. Such, undoubtedly would have been the results, if the upper region had been merely stripped of its richer surface soil, or, in addition, of no great depth of subsoil—and the removed earth, in mixture, had been equally distributed over all the surface of the lower lands, and whether these had first been also denuded, or not. But this was very far from being the case, as appears from the existing geological indications and evidences. Not only was the soil of the upper lands swept off, but the inferior earth, and stone, to great depths, were torn up and removed from the denuded region. After losing the richer surface soil, it mattered little, for the fertility of all below, whether a greater depth of 2 or 10, or 100 feet, was also removed. Whatever remained as the new surface, after the denuding process had ceased, and at whatever depth below the original surface, was composed of the same rocks, of igneous origin, which had served to form the original upper or surface layer—and which, by the subsequent disintegration, &c., had served as materials for the first formed earth and soil. Now nearly all these igneous rocks contain some lime, magnesia, or potash; and these, and also other of the ingredients, by their intermixture, are well fitted to constitute soils capable of acquiring and retaining fertility. And in sufficient lapse of time, and under Nature's care and operations only, these rocks would become earth and soil, and such soils would have capacity, (from their constitution,) to reach a high grade of fertility. Precisely such results do we find of these soils, after their being again denuded and exhausted by tillage, and afterwards manured and well nursed under good culture. The impoverished soil, and even the former subsoil, washed bare and left at the surface naked and barren, are improved by putrescent manures, aided, at most, only by a little gypsum, to an extent impossible to be be approached, by like means only, on the great body of the exhausted lands of the drift region. In most of the upper country, (and most remarkably on the south-west mountain lands,) the sub-soil, if washed bare, is still improvable, and to profit, by putrescent manures and atmospheric influences. The like naked subsoil, or washed slopes of the lower or drift region, whether of red clay or sandy, is incapable of being thus enriched, without the previous application of calcareous manure, in lime, marl or wood ashes.

Now let us consider whether the addition of the transported drift to the lower lands, was likely to furnish good soils, such as materials were left for in the new surface of the denuded region.

If all of the materials removed from the higher lands had been deposited, in mixture, on the lower, and no matter of what depth, the result, in time, would have been to produce as good or better soil than much longer time would serve to produce of the new surface of the upper and denuded region. But it is obviously impossible for the various ingredients of the drift to have thus remained in mixture, and to be so deposited. The lower stones, pebbles, gravel, and other next heavier parts, (not yet rubbed down to fine earth by the moving power,) and moved in largest masses by the flood down its steepest course, would stop first and nearest below the falls, and in something like mixture with each other, and with the accompanying earth. These heavier stony parts by their subsequent disintegration would constitute soils the nearest in quality to those of the denuded region whence these materials were brought, with but little change. The like inference may be drawn as to the isolated patches of drift which fill former depressions in the since generally denuded region. The flood, having dropped these heavier parts of its burden, would next, (having less violence of current, because then passing even a less inclined surface,) drop the coarser sand in the stronger currents, and finer sand in the less rapid waters. This sand was spread over the whole of the gently inclined planes of the first surface, and far past the previous shore line of the ocean. At later times, and in broad spaces of more tranquil water, the finest sand, with a very little clay intermixed, was deposited, in other and higher beds; and in the still rapid water, this fine earth was carried much nearer to the present ocean, and thence spread over broad spaces of the present surface of low land. This mainly silicious mixture is commonly known as clay, or clayey soil. There is very little of true clay soil in all the drift region. The pure clay, and all other of the lighter parts of the transported earth, including most of the lime and organic matter, and parts of original fertile soil, were mostly floated off into the ocean, and so lost to the land over which it had passed. Even the pebbles of limestone, soapstone (containing magnesia,) the slates and other clay-stones, all being of the softer rocks, were rubbed down, by their long rolling and attrition, to the finest particles, which remained suspended as long, and were floated as far, and were as generally lost, as the most fertile parts of the previously existing soil. Under such circumstances, of removal and suspension of the materials, and the manner and places of their final deposition of the drifted earth—or any conditions to be supposed, if in accordance with the operating cause, in a great and violent descending flood—how was it possible that any earths could be deposited generally over, or even under, the latest formed surface, which would be fit materials to become subsequently fertile soils, or improvable sub-soils? Or was it possible that the actual materials for soils and sub-soils so deposited, could, on the general average, be equal in fertilizing ingredients, to either the average of the whole transported earth, or to the igneous rocks still remaining as the new surface of the upper denuded region, and serving to produce new soils by their subsequent disintegration and mixture? On the contrary, everything in the supposed process of the removal and transportation of the drift materials, was conducive to the production of the actual low degree of fertility formerly and naturally existing on the far larger portion, including all the table lands and high surfaces, of the now tide water region.

But there were, on the narrow margins of the high lands bordering on the rivers, and still more in their lower and broader terraces, and in sundry other low depressions of surface, many exceptions to the general rule of the depositions of sterile earth over the drift region. Many bodies of such lands were formerly of great natural fertility, and have continued to be of very superior agricultural value. These exceptional rich soils may be easily accounted for.—First: all the more fertile and lighter particles of the original soil, or of fertilizing materials, were not carried to and lost in the ocean.—Some would be retained by eddies, and deposited during the more tranquil conditions of the water. Secondly and mainly: After the flood had subsided so as to leave bare the highest broad intervals of table land, and the water, reduced as much in violence as in volume, was divided into as many separate currents as overspread the courses of the present great rivers, these currents, while still cutting down and lowering their deepest channels, were at the same time depositing their suspended earth wherever the water was shallow, obstructed, and of course more tranquil. These conditions were necessarily offered over all the outer spaces, or shallow margins of the then separated currents. The action of the upper waters, in tearing up and bearing off earth, and grinding down rocks, though absted, had not ceased, and the turbid water, still brought down vast quantities of earth, into the lower currents. The lighter, finer, and richer of these materials would be directed to the shallow and slower-moving waters, and there be deposited, and produce rich soils. The earliest soil so deposited, would be when the separated currents still covered the now highest river banks or borders, and which are generally rich for more or less distance, rarely more than half a mile, from the river or from its lower grounds. These high surfaces, to slight observation, seem as elevated, and as belonging to, the nearest and always poor table land. Hence, the marked superior fertility of the margin, or highest river land, has seemed strange and unaccountable. But I infer that these much richer strips along the high river banks are invariably of somewhat lower elevation than the adjacent table land, and therefore were covered by the shallow and comparatively tranquil waters of the subsiding flood, and so received a share of its rich deposit. As the currents subsided still more, and successively were confined to narrower limits of breadth, the lower terraces, (or surfaces of “low grounds”) were successively cut down out of the previously deposited and poor drift earth, and their new surfaces were again added to by the much richer deposit of the water, when it had there subsided so as to be shallow and comparatively sluggish. Thus the river terraces were enriched, and made the most fertile and valuable land of all the tide-water region.

When the water had subsided to within the present beds of the rivers, and the sources of supply were reduced to springs and rain-floods, as now in operation, then the drift deposition ceased, and alluvial agency first began—which has since continued, and will continue to raise and enrich the bordering low ground which may be overflowed, by the deposits of mud left there by the turbid freshes. The higher terrace, or “second low-grounds,” is commonly and erroneously called alluvial land, and its unequal formation ascribed to alluvial agency. In no possible case, in the present condition of the earth, could the rivers have risen high enough to overflow and deposite transported mud on their “second low-grounds,” or higher terraces of the tide-waters. Thes