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North Carolina and its Resources:
Electronic Edition.

North Carolina. Board of Agriculture.

Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.

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First edition, 2001
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Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
2001.

        © This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.

Source Description:
(title page) North Carolina and its Resources.
State Board of Agriculture
xv, 413 p., ill.
Winston
M. I. & J. C. Stewart, Public Printers and Binders
1896
Call number C917 N87a (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998

Languages Used:

LC Subject Headings:

Revision History:

        

Illustration

        

Illustration

        

Illustration

1. W. F. Green, Chairman.
2. H. E. King. 3. J. R. McLelland. 4. W. R. Capehart. 5. J. H. Gilmer.
6. D. A. Tompkins. 7. E. A. Aiken. 8. Cyrus Thompson. 9. R. H. Wharton.
BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

        

Illustration

10. H. E. Fries. 11. W. S. Primrose. 12. Frank Wood. 13. N. B. Broughton.
14. J. B. Cottfield. 15. J. L. Nelson.
16. H. B. Battle, Director. 17. S. L. Patterson, Commissioner. 18. T. K. Bruner, Secretary.
BOARD OF AGRICULTURE AND OFFICERS.

        

Illustration

NORTH CAROLINA
AND ITS
RESOURCES.

ILLUSTRATED.

STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.
RALEIGH.

WINSTON.
M. I. & J. C. STEWART, PUBLIC PRINTERS AND BINDERS.
1896.

Page III

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page XI

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page XII

Page XIII

PREFACE.

        At the December (1895) meeting of the State Board of Agriculture it was agreed that a new edition of the Hand Book was a necessity, and the Secretary to the Board was charged with its preparation. This involved a complete revision of the former publication, the selection of suitable illustrations, the preparation of much new data, and the issuing during this year of a volume illustrative of the vast resources of North Carolina. All of this with the view of pointing out progress already made, and the possibilities presented for future development. The work has proved more exacting than at the time was contemplated, in that the changes necessary frequently required the rewriting of such portions of the former volume as were still considered in part available, and to make more complete the presentation whole chapters have been introduced presenting matter hitherto entirely omitted or to which but slight allusion was made.

        The remarkable development in all branches of industry, with corresponding increase in the volume of business, together with the varied and ever-widening conditions favorable to the avocation of the farmer, the trucker, the fruit grower, the lumberman, the miner and the fisherman, have all combined to induce the publication of this volume by the Board of Agriculture. The Board, always in the lead, is ever found promoting the best interests of the people of the State, lending encouragement to the development of her rich resource of forest, of mine, of soil and of sea. The State Constitution provides for an Agricultural Department, and its earlier reports date back to 1825. The present organization of the Board was effected under an act of the General Assembly in 1877. From the day of its organization it began the discharge of the duties assigned it with an earnest determination to foster and stimulate agriculture in all its branches, and to promote every legitimate attempt to develop the State's resources. It has aided in almost every movement in this direction, being in a certain sense a pioneer, by directing attention to the possibilities offered. It was first among the States to increase the catch of fish by means of fish hatcheries; it explored the phosphate beds of the eastern

Page XIV

counties; it surveyed the coal fields; it exhibited the ores of gold, silver, copper and of iron in great expositions, and in the same way advertised the forests; it surveyed the oyster grounds, and it promoted the development of the sand-hill region. By its assiduous and systematic effort North Carolina is becoming known as the most resourceful of all the Southern States.

        This is the fifth publication of its kind emanating from the Board; the first appearing in 1879, which was followed by an improved edition in 1883; this was exhausted by distribution at the Boston and New Orleans expositions, so that in 1886 a new and still better book was issued and did good service until the approach of the great Columbian Exposition, when it was determined to offer a more exhaustive treatment of the conditions presented in North Carolina for the profitable investment of capital. This volume was a departure from the ordinary Hand Book type, and proved a most acceptable résumé of the varied conditions so happily distributed in the State by the munificent hand of nature. So useful a volume was soon brought to the attention of the public, and so persistent was the demand that the edition of ten thousand had dwindled to as many hundred, when the Board took the action referred to above.

        It is most gratifying to note the advance made all along the lines of enterprise since 1893. The extent of progress in the industries and the manufactures; the extension of agriculture and horticulture; the widening of remunerative truck fields; the adaptability of hitherto worthless sand-hills and flat lands to the profitable production of peaches, grapes, berries and bulbs, and the expansion of the facilities for all forms of education--these all tell of the solid progress of our people and point with unerring conviction to North Carolina as the most progressive, most desirable and most healthful of all the South Atlantic States as a place of residence. Her homogeneous, hospitable population, conservative laws, light taxation, salubrious and temperate climate, and the great possibilities of her natural and improved conditions also present inviting fields to the investor or to the home-seeker.

        The subjects brought to view in this volume are presented with rigid regard to fact; they are under-drawn rather than otherwise, and described from a sober business point of view without exaggeration or untruthful illusion. The facts about North Carolina are sufficient in themselves; no coloring is needed. These facts are but imperfectly presented in the pages to follow; there are doubtless omissions and many under-drawn descriptions, but the work has been performed while in the discharge of regular official duties. The

Page XV

compiler has sought out facts in regard to all the State's resources obtainable by research, enquiry and from personal observation, and, subjecting all to careful examination, has arranged them in as succinct and coherent an order as the subjects will allow. A considerable portion of the facts are from official records and statistics, and the remainder from the most accurate and competent authority attainable.

        It is fitting here to give credit and make due acknowledgment to those who have so generously contributed in the preparation of the matter for the work. Much has been drawn from the very excellent and accurate work of Col. John D. Cameron, in the Hand Book of 1893. He has written much that is enduring, and from it the most liberal quotations have been made. For information relating to the ores, building stones, minerals, waterpowers and roads, I am indebted to Professor Joseph A. Holmes, State Geologist; for information in regard to taxation and the State debt, to Hon. R. M. Furman, State Auditor; for articles on Agriculture, to Hon. S. L. Patterson, Commissioner of Agriculture; for information prepared on horticulture, to Prof. W. F. Massey; for information relating to flora and the climate, to Dr. H. B. Battle, Director of the North Carolina Experiment Station, and to Professor Gerald McCarthy, Botanist, and Mr. C. F. von Herrmann, Meteorologist, of the Experiment Station staff, and to the following for information on the subjects annexed to their names:

        To all I beg to give assurance of hearty appreciation and the full credit for assistance rendered.

T. K. BRUNER,
Secretary.

        

Illustration

HICKORYNUT GAP.

Page 1

HISTORICAL.

EARLY HISTORY.
THE LANDING OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S COLONY.


                         "They were the first that ever burst
                         Into that silent sea."--Coleridge.

        On the 4th of July, 1584, two English ships hove in sight of the coast of North Carolina, somewhere about Cape Fear. They were the vessels of Sir Walter Raleigh, and were on a voyage of discovery, to take possession of some portion of the new world in the name of the crown of England. The day on which they first beheld the shores of our country has since become the great political holiday of the age, and is now distinguished as the anniversary, not of the origin, but of the downfall of the authority of England over the United States. The commanders of these two ships were Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe; and the ceremony which they performed upon the coast of North Carolina, and which I am now about to celebrate, is perhaps one of the most memorable events in the history of mankind. The fortunate results of the dominion of England over the territory of our Union are as innumerable as are the stars; and the free Anglo-American, in whatever forests he may be found, will turn reverently to the spot consecrated as its birthplace. The two adventurers loitered along the coast of North Carolina, in full view of the shore as it sweeps in a curve from Cape Lookout to Cape Fear. There was scarcely wind enough to ruffle the plumage of the two ships as they lay their gentle course, and the mild land-breeze was so fragrant, that the voyagers exclaimed that they seemed to be in the midst of some delicate garden, abounding with all kinds of odoriferous flowers. Thus making their liquid way, on the 13th of July, 1584, we find the two ships at anchor in the roads of Ocracock Inlet, within a few hundred yards of the island which lies to the south, and which the Indians called Wokokon. And this is the spot, of all the fair lands of our wide-spread country, which was first occupied by old mother England.


        NOTE.--Extracts from "Memorials of North Carolina" by Joseph Seawell Jones.


Page 2

        About midday on the 13th, when there was not a film of a cloud in the heavens, nor a breath of air to break the sea; when the tides were still, and the sunshine danced along the glittering sandbanks from Hatteras to Lookout; when the whole scene was so intensely tranquil, that those ships looked like "painted ships," and that ocean a "painted ocean;" when the crew stood about the decks in silent wonderment at the vast and solitary world before them--no scudding skiff, no rising smoke, no distant sound; at this hour, when solitude was most awful and most sublime, the sound of prayer broke the enchantment, and the first words of Christian suffrage were uttered in returning thanks to God that the lion flag of old England was about to be planted upon the coast of the new world. The boats were then manned, and the two captains, attended by the most noble gentlemen of the expedition, were pulled toward the shore; and as the boats grated upon the sand, they sprang upon the beach, and Captain Amadas shouted in a loud voice:

        "We take possession of this land in the right of the queene's most excellent majestie, as rightfull queene and princesse of the same, to be delivered over to the use of Sir Walter Raleigh, according to her Majestie's grant and letters patent, under her highnesse's great seale."

        This, then, was the birthday, and here, then, was the birthplace, of our great Anglo-American empire. And how fortunate was it for the cause of civil and religious freedom all over the world that England, and not Spain, France, or Portugal, colonized our splendid domain. Look to the South American States, already in the decrepitude of old age; their moral, intellectual, and physical condition alike unimproved; their governments unsteady and tyrannical; their private estates insecure; and the very liberty which, but a few years ago, they so proudly achieved, already degraded into popular despotism. Spanish blood corrupted the new world. The seeds of civil and religious despotism were sown, broadcast, from the City of Mexico to Cape Horn; and after a revolution of three hundred years, Spanish America can boast of but little that is either grand or sublime, in all her history, excepting the monuments of Montezuma's magnificence and the victories of Bolivar.

        But how different has been the career of the Anglo-American race. The seed which was planted on Wokokon Island has given birth to a new genus of men. Another and a hardier race than even the Anglo-Saxon has sprung into existence, and are now bearing onward to the Pacific, as they leap from the Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains, the language and the liberty of their forefathers. The

Page 3

general principles of human government have been simplified; the liberty of the people and their right to self-government, immovably established; a free, happy and powerful Republic, under the constitution and laws of which the rights of individuals are as inviolably sustained as is the glory of the national faith, now covers the fairest portions of the new world; and what is the proudest result of all, this new-born nation, in the purity of its government and in the happiness of its people, is now sending back across the sea, to regenerate and to reform the old world, the sublime lessons of her own experience. Happy proud Anglo-America. She has given to the world the great principle of a free government. She has extended the provinces of liberty, civilization, and of law. "The lightning of the heavens could not resist her philosophy, nor the temptation of a throne seduce her patriotism."

        Let us now return to the voyagers. As soon as they had performed the ceremony of occupation, the company penetrated a few miles into the interior, and, on reaching the summit of an eminence, they discovered that they were on an island, and not on the continent, "They behelde the sea both sides of them to the north and to the south, having no end any of both ways." They were on an island clad with vines, which reeled so full of grapes, "as that the very beating and surge of the sea had overflowed them, of which we found such plentie as well there as in all places else, both on the sand as on the green soil, on the hills as in the plains, as well as on every little shrub as also climing towardes the tops of high cedars, that I thinke in all the worlde the like abundance is not to be found." From the eminence which they had gained, they beheld the valleys replenished with goodly cedar trees, and having discharged their harque-buz shot, a flock of cranes (the most part white) arose under them, with such a cry, redoubled by many echoes, as if an army of men had shouted all together." The island is again described as having "many goodly woods, full of deer, conies, hares, and fowle, even in the midst of summer, in incredible abundance. The woods are not such as you find in Bohemia, Moscovia or Hercynia--barren and fruitless, but the highest and reddest cedars in the world, far better than the cedars of the Azores, of the Indies, or of Lybanus."

        The extracts which I have made are taken from the report of the two captains, Amadas and Barlowe, made to Sir Walter Raleigh on their return to England. The description is not too highly wrought, for we must remember that the ravages of man and of the ocean have, for more than two centuries, desolated and changed Wokokon Island. The beautiful name of Virginia was first applied to the islands of

Page 4

North Carolina, and I have seen, in the earliest maps and charts of the State at present bearing that name, Roanoke and Wokokon Islands laid off to the south under the somewhat boasted title of "Old Virginia." This, at least, was the Virginia of Sir Walter Raleigh, and of the Fairy Queen of England. His name is identified with no other section of our Union, and the name of the capital of North Carolina best betokens her proud remembrance of the character of her founder.

        The two captains, after having surveyed Wokokon Island, returned to their ships and there remained for two days before they encountered the natives. It is not my design in this number to follow them in their adventures among the savages; I would rather ask the reader to come with me to the consecrated spot, and see how it now looks after a revolution of two hundred and fifty years.

        I have myself stood upon such an eminence on Wokokon Island as that described by the voyagers, but I sought a more poetical hour than midday, and I had, too, the benefit of a blustering March wind, which threw the waters all into a rage, and brought down the waves of the Pamlico all the way from Roanoke Island, as heavy as if they had been born in the Gulf Stream. It was a clear, cold day; and with the history of these voyages fresh in my memory, I had wandered about the island, and at sunset I placed myself as near as possible on the very eminence on which they had stood centuries ago. The view before me was indeed wild and startling. The glorious sunset gilded the crested waves of the Pamlico, as they broke in boundless succession afar to the west and to the north, and the narrow island that curves around to the northeast from Ocracock to Hatteras, all covered as it was with the mellow tints of the sun, resembled a rainbow resting on the face of the sea. The opposite towns of Portsmouth and Ocracock, and the old shell castle, stood before me amid the noisy waves, as if they had arisen to earth from the convulsive throes of the excited sea, and then there was the narrow island, with its naked woods and vines, and the waves bursting and thundering upon its shores, combing their foam higher and higher on each return, as if in the wantonness of their strength they would clap their hand over the very spot on which I stood. To me there is something especially fascinating in the scenery about Ocracock Inlet. I love it for its very bleakness; and historical association, too, hallows it in my memory. It is indeed a place of storms, for nature has there provided everything which can give fury to the winds, and, come from what quarter they will, they bring noise and strife. An easterly wind arouses the whole Atlantic, and the waves

Page 5

dash through the narrow straits, retreating from the fury of the storm; and then a westerly wind arises and, sweeping over the Pamlico, sends them all back to their ocean mother. A northeast gale will bring down from the banks of Hatteras sand enough to create an island; and oftentimes a ship, riding at her anchorage, is enveloped in a whirlpool of sand, and lifted high and dry out of the sea; but then a northern storm will send its ministers to the rescue, and the briny waves will soon ply their strength, undermine it, and sweep the ship away.

* * *


                         "The gentle children of an isle,
                         Who knew but to worship and to love."--Russell.

        For two days our adventurous voyagers saw no signs of man. The vine-clad and flowery isle before them seemed to have bloomed away its existence unenjoyed by man, and their minds were filled with the sublime thought--that in this virgin world the clamor of war had never been heard, nor the silence of its shores ever violated, save by the thunders of the waves and of the clouds of heaven. On the third day, however, this dream was broken. A solitary boat with three savages turned the northern part of Wokokon, and, gliding into an indenture in the shore, one of the party sprang upon the beach, and coming directly opposite the anchorage of the ships, he walked up and down along the water's edge, seemingly in wonder at what he saw. When Captain Amadas and three other gentlemen approached him in a boat, he made them a speech of much length, in his own barbarous tongue, and then firmly stepping into their boat, he manifested by signs his desire to visit their ships. How brave is innocence. It goes wheresoever it will, and triumphs where guilt would fall. It has survived the fiery furnace, and once walked upon the stormy sea, as upon the plains of the earth.

        The name of this Indian was Manteo; and the whole domestic history of England cannot boast a more perfect character. He was alike the firm friend of the English and the stern patriot and defender of his tribe; and whenever a strife arose among them, he held out the olive branch, and made peace upon the principles of justice. His savage birth and life were indeed but additional embellishments of his character; and while he restrained the inhuman vices of his tribe, he checked the not less odious avarice of his new and more civilized associates. . . . On reaching the ships, Manteo wandered about the decks, examining every part of them with the curiosity of ignorance; and having tasted of their meat and of their wine, and received a present of a hat and some other trifles, he departed again

Page 6

to his own boat and attendants. He then put off into the water and "fell to fishing, and in less than half an hour he had laden his boat as deep as it could swim;" and then he came back to the shore, divided his fish between the two ships, and departed.

        The next day Granganameo, the king's brother, with a fleet of canoes, entered Ocracock Inlet; and leaving his boats, as Manteo had done, in a small cove, he came down to the water's edge near the ships. He was attended by forty or fifty men, "very handsome and goodly people, and in their behavior as mannerly and civil as any of Europe;" and they spread down upon the shore a long mat or carpet, upon which Granganameo was seated, and "at the other end of this matte four others of his company did the like--the rest stood about him somewhat afar off."

        He showed no signs of fear or mistrust as the English, dressed in full array of armor, approached; but he sat perfectly unmoved, and bade them, by signs, to be seated near him, and then he made them "all figures of joy and welcome--striking on his breast and on his head, and afterwards on ours, to show we were all one--smiling and making shewe the best he could, of all love and familiaritie." After this welcome, Granganameo made them a long set speech, to which Captain Amadas replied by presenting him with divers things, which he joyfully received; and during the whole ceremony none of the company of attendants spoke a word audibly, but each in the other's ear very softly.

        During this visit the voyagers learned that the country was called Wingandaceo, and that the king was named Wingina, and that his majesty had recently had a fight, in "which he was shot in two places through the body, and once clear through the thigh, by reason whereof, and for that he lay at the chief town of the country, which was five days journey off, they saw him not at all." Thus, by the illness of the king, Granganameo was in authority, and when the captain went around making presents to the company of attendants, he rose from his seat and took them all away, and indicated to the voyagers that all things should be given to him, and that the men around were but his servants and his followers.

        In a few days the voyagers commenced trading with the savages for skins, and such other commodities as they possessed; and on showing all their merchandise, the article that most took the fancy of Granganameo was a large, bright tin dish, which he seized and "clapt it before his breast, and after made a hole in the brim thereof and hung it about his neck, making signs that it would defend him against his enemies' arrows; for these people maintain a deadly and

Page 7

terrible war with the people and king adjoining. They exchanged the tin dish for twenty skins, worth twenty crowns, and a copper kettle for fifty skins, worth fifty crowns."

        A few days after this, the captains gave a collation on board the ships, and Granganameo came with all his retinue, and they drank wine and ate of their meat and of their bread, and were exceedingly pleased; and in a few days more he brought his wife, his daughter and two or three children on board the ships. His wife is represented as having been a most beautiful and modest woman. She wore a long black cloak of leather, with the fur side next to her skin; her forehead was surmounted with a band of white coral, and from her ears swung, even down to her waist, bracelets of precious pearl. Her raven hair was streaming down from her coral crown, and intertwisting itself with her earrings of pearl, flowed gracefully back over her jetty robe in wild and unshorn luxuriance. Granganameo, too, on this occasion was dressed in state . . . . The civility and kindness of the voyagers were well appreciated by Granganameo and his wife; and they spread around the country such reports of their good will, that "a great store of people" came down to Wokokon to see the strangers, and to trade away skins, pearls, coral and dyes. During all this intercourse nothing occurred to give dissatisfaction on either side, and in a few days we find Captain Barlowe, with seven comrades, at Roanoke Island on a visit to Granganameo. The particulars of this visit deserve to be specially detailed, to illustrate not more the manners and customs than the hospitality of the uncorrupted American savage.

        On the north point of Roanoke Island there stood an Indian village of nine houses. Several were very large and commodious dwellings, being built of the best cedar, and containing as many as five rooms. The town was fortified by a circle of pickets, and the entrance through this, into the interior of the village, was over a turnpike path, which wound around from the water's edge, and entered the fortification through an avenue of these picketed trees. This was the town of Granganameo; and as Captain Barlowe and his company approached it in their boats, the wife of the good savage, being in the entrance near the water's edge, saw and welcomed them cheerfully and friendly.

        Granganameo not being at home, the civilities of the tribe devolved upon his wife, and generously did she acquit herself. She ordered a number of men to draw the boats out of the water, others she appointed to carry the voyagers on their backs, and when they were brought in the outer room, she gave them seats around a large

Page 8

fire. Their outer garments, which had been wet in a rain, were taken off, quickly washed and dried, and the women of the village came and brought warm water and bathed their feet. My reader, I have drawn this picture not from my imagination but from history, nor have I purloined from classic annals a description of the Golden age, and thrown it amid the scenery of Roanoke Island; but this good Indian woman deserves to live renowned in the history of North Carolina as a good Samaritan, who ministered to the sorrows of the weary and distressed.

        But Granganameo's wife was not satisfied even with these cordial attentions. She had prepared, in the words of Captain Barlowe, "a solemn banquet" wherewithal to refresh them, and as soon as they had dried themselves and reassumed their outer garments, they were ushered into an inner room to enjoy the feast. The tables were set all around against the walls of the house, and on them were placed "some wheate like furmentie, venison, sodden and roasted, fish sodden, boiled and roasted, melons raw and sodden, roots of divers kinds, and divers fruites." Their drink was wine made of the grapes of the island, and ginger-cinnamon and sassafras water. Captain Barlowe exclaims, "We were entertained with all love and kindness, and with as much bounty after their manner as they could possibly devise. We found the people most gentle, loving and faithful, and such as live after the manner of the golden age."

        The house of Granganameo comprised five rooms--the hall in which the voyagers first entered, the banquet room, and then came two sleeping chambers, and in the rear of them all was the sanctum in which they kept an idol to bend before and to worship, and "of whom they spoke incredible things." The feast went off gloriously. The voyagers gave many signs of their pleasure and gratification, and the good woman implored them to tarry for the night; but the prudent Captain Barlowe preferred lounging in an open boat near the shore during a rainy night, lest there might be some miscarriage. She, however, sent them mats to cover with, and brought down to the boat, with her own hands, some supper put in pots; and Captain Barlowe concludes his account of the feast by declaring that a more kind or loving people cannot be found in the world.

        Let us now see what information, as to the geography of the country, these voyagers acquired. The Indian name of the Albemarle Sound was Occam, and into it flowed a river named Nomopana, and near the mouth of this river was a town called Chowanook, and the name of the king thereof was Pooneno. The Pamlico shores of the County of Carteret were called Secotan, and those of Craven,

Page 9

Pomonick. Secotan was under the king of Wingandaceo, and Pomonick under an independent king named Piamacum. In the interior, towards the setting sun, the country was called Newisk, and through it coursed the river Neus. The king of this country was in alliance with Piamacum, and had aided him in a war against the Secotans. The journal of Captain Barlowe speaks too of a river called Cipo, which flowed into the ocean, in which were found "great store of muscles" producing pearls, and constant allusion is made to a great town called Shicock, which was said to be five days' journey from the banks of the Occam.

        There was a tradition about Secotan, that some years before the arrival of the voyagers a ship had been wrecked on the coast, and the unfortunate strangers had been preserved by the savages. They remained ten days on the Southern Cape of Wokokon Island, and afterwards put to sea in a rudely constructed craft and were seen no more. Some weeks afterwards their boat was found wrecked on a contiguous island, and these were the only people "well apparelled and of white color" of whom the Indians had ever heard.

        I will here conclude my notices of the voyage of Captains Amadas and Barlowe. The report which they made to Sir Walter Raleigh gave a powerful impulse to the adventurous spirit of the whole British nation, and was distinguished at that day as the very beginning of the authority of England over the present territory of the United States. A rich bracelet of pearl was carried home and worn by Sir Walter as an emblem of his new dominions; and Manteo and Wauchese, two of the native savages, were passengers back to England, where they became the companions of the noble Lord Proprietor of Virginia.

ROANOKE ISLAND.*

        * NOTE.--Extract from the "Picturesque History of North Carolina."



                         "Such is the aspect of this shore,
                         `Tis Greece, but living Greece no more;
                         So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
                         We start, for soul is wanting there."

        I have never wandered over the Island of Roanoke without a feeling of melancholy, as intense as that of Byron whilst contemplating the fallen greatness of Greece. The days of her glory are over, and gone with those beyond the flood; but still she is to me an island of the heart, for her shores are the graves of the warlike and the wise. The native Indian built his Machicomack on her hills; and there, too, stood the City of Raleigh, the birthplace of the Anglo-American; and

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thus was Roanoke known long before the beach of Jamestown was settled or the rock of Plymouth consecrated. She is the classic land of all English America, and will live in the future story of our Republic as the mother-earth of American liberty. The illustrious names of Raleigh, of Cavendish, of Grenville and of Drake--the heroes of the reign of Elizabeth--are a part and portion of her history. Hariot, the mathematician and philosopher of the age, for the space of a whole year studied its natural resources and Indian History; and nearly two hundred and fifty years since gave to the world a book unequalled for the accuracy and the interest of its details. It would seem, indeed, as if the chivalry and learning of that age had contributed this splendid representation, to give a dazzling brilliancy to the early history of that State on whose shores the flag of England was first unfurled, and in whose valleys, and over whose hills, the mountain Goddess Liberty first shouted the cry of American independence. Bear witness, Mecklenburg, on the 20th of May, 1775.

        But it is not historic association alone which makes sacred the shores and the vine-clad forests of Roanoke. Nature seems to have exerted herself to adorn it as the Eden of the New World. The richest garniture of flowers, and the sweetest minstrelsy of birds, are there. In traversing the northern section of the island, in the spring time of the year, flowers and sweet-scented herbs, in the wildest luxuriance, are strewn along your winding way, welcoming you with their fragrance to their cherished isle. The wild rose bush, which at times springs up into nurseries of one hundred yards in extent, "blooms blushing" to the song of the thousand birds that are basking in her bowers. The mocking-bird, too, whatever ornithologists may say of its "chimney habits," makes this his favorite haunt; and I myself have seen him pillowed on the highest cluster of roses, and swinging with his weight the slender tree, as he warbled out his most exquisite song. It may be, however, that Roanoke is the very spot where, in imitation of the Eastern queen of song, the mocking-bird fell in love with the rose.

        There are stately pine forests extending along the centre of the island; but the most beautiful of its trees are what are commonly called dogwood, the laurel, and a delicate species of the white oak. I have seen a forest composed of these trees, the branches and limbs of which were literally intertwisted and knitted together by the embraces of the Roanoke vine, which here, in its native garden, grows with extraordinary exuberance.

        Within the deep shades of these reclining vintages, the spirit of solitude at times reigns in undisturbed majesty. At midday, when

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the heat of the summer's sun is too glowing for exertion, there is not the chirp of a bird to break the solemnity of the spot. The long and slender vine snake, which at other hours is seen industriously threading his way through the mazes of the vintage, has now suspended himself on a twig, and hangs as idle and as still as a black silk cord. If you hear the tread of footsteps, it is not of man, but the stealthy retreat of an unsuspecting fawn, which hath slept too long, and which now, like a woodland nymph, hies away on the approach of man. But in the morning and in the evening this scene of quiet and of repose is all changed. It is then the granary of the island, and the birds have all assembled and are warbling in bacchanal confusion their morning or evening hymn. The scenery of Roanoke is neither grand nor sublime. There are no Alpine summits to mingle with clouds, but a series of gentle undulations, and a few abrupt hills, in the valleys of which the richly dressed scenery I have described may be found. If it should ever be the lot of the reader to stroll under the vintage shades of Roanoke--made impervious to the rays of the sun by the rich foliage and clustering grapes above him--he will not venture to discredit the highly wrought sketches of Hariot, nor mock the humbler enthusiasm of the volume now before him. I remember once to have stood upon the loftiest eminence of the island, and to have watched the progress of a sunset. It was on a summer's eve which had been made peculiarly clear by a violent thunder squall the preceding night, and not a film of a cloud or a vapor was to be seen about the horizon or in the blue vault of heaven. There was not a breath of air to stir the slender leaf of the few lofty pines that straggled around me, and even the mocking-bird seemed to have hushed his capricious song, to enjoy the intense feeling of the moment. To the westward of the island, the waters of the Albemarle crept sluggishly along; and in the winding current of the Swash several vessels stood, with outspread but motionless wings. Away down to the south, the Pamlico spread itself out, like an ocean of molten gold, gleaming along the banks of the Chikamacomico and Hatteras; and, contrasted with this, were the dark waters which separate Roanoke from the sea-beach, and which were now shaded from the tints of the sunset by the whole extent of the island.

        A sea of glory streamed along the narrow ridge--dividing the inland waters from the ocean; and beyond this the boundless Atlantic heaved her chafed bosom of sapphire and of gold against the base of yon stormy cape. I enjoyed and lived in that sunset and twilight hour. I thought of the glorious destiny of the land on which I trod--as glorious as the waters and the earth then around me. I thought of

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the genius and the death of Raleigh--of the heroic devotedness of Grenville--of the gallantry of Cavendish and Drake--of the learning of Hariot--of the nobleness of Manteo, the Lord of Roanoke--of the adventurous expedition of Sir Ralph Lane up the river Moratock--of the savage array of the bloodthirsty Wingina--of the melancholy fate of the last of the Raleigh colonies--of Virginia Dare, the first Anglo-American--of the agony of her mother--and I then thought of those exquisite lines of Byron,


                         "Shrine of the mighty, can it be
                         That this is all remains of thee?"

ROANOKE COLONY MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION.

        The Roanoke Colony Memorial Association was organized in the Spring of 1894. The chief agents in its organization were Prof. Edward Graham Daves, of Baltimore; Dr. S. Weir Mitchell and Mr. Talcott Williams, of Philadelphia. Earlier than this Prof. Daves, who was a North Carolinian by birth, had made a tour in North Carolina, lecturing for the benefit of the scheme.

        At the first meeting, which was held in May, 1894, Prof. Daves was elected president; Mr. W. D. Pruden of Edenton, vice president; and Dr. J. S. Bassett of Trinity College, secretary and treasurer. In the succeeding July Prof. Daves died, and the vacancy thus made was filled by the election of his brother, Maj. Graham Daves, of Newbern, N. C.

        The Company has bought the site of the Raleigh Fort on Roanoke Island, which it has marked clearly, and it intends to preserve the site as it stands, and to erect permanent memorials of the Lost Colony.

VIRGINIA DARE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION.

        An organization under the above title has been effected in North Carolina. The object of the Association is to erect a permanent memorial to the memory of Virginia Dare. Mrs. Florence P. Tucker, of Raleigh, is president, and Mrs. Sallie S. Cotten, of Falkland, is secretary.

        Virginia Dare was the first white child born in North America, of English-speaking parents. It is also significant that the first Christian sacrament in America was the baptism of Manteo, an Indian, and Virginia Dare, infant native white American, which occurred on Roanoke Island. North Carolina, in August, 1587.

        

Illustration

VIEWS AT MOREHEAD AND BEAUFORT.

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THE REVOLUTION.

        North Carolina was most forward in resisting the arbitrary aggressions of the British Government. The first pitched battle against governmental tyranny was at Alamance, May 12, 1771. The first legislative body in defiance of the Royal Governor was at Newbern, Aug. 25, 1774. The General Assembly had placed on its seal May 20, 1775, as the date of the first declaration of independence.

        [The skirmish at Lexington on April 19, 1775, although insignificant in itself, fired the American heart; the news of the encounter reached Charlotte, in Mecklenburg county, on the 19th of May following, and on the next day, May 20, the patriots of Mecklenburg met in convention and declared the independence of the colonies. The cause of Massachusetts and of New England was theirs also, and a blow struck there in furtherance of British aggression must ultimately be repeated in North Carolina; hence this bold and patriotic action.]

        In the winter of 1775-76, North Carolina troops under Howe helped drive Lord Dunmore from Virginia. In February, 1776, the Tory Highlanders were crushed at Moore's Creek bridge. On April 25, 1776, North Carolina, first of all the colonies, empowered her delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence. In the next month her troops assisted to repel the British fleet at Charleston. In the same Summer her militia under Rutherford, marching over trackless mountains, effectively humbled the hostile Cherokees. Her troops fought gallantly under Washington at Brandywine, German-town and Monmouth and were among the picked men to storm Stony Point under Wayne. By their stubborn endurance and pluck her people thwarted Cornwallis' attempt to subjugate the Carolinas and Virginia. They furnished troops and leaders for capturing Ferguson at King's Mountain. They aided Green in crippling Cornwallis at Guilford Court House, and the virtual victory of Eutaw Springs.

        By the patriotism of Ex-Judge David Schenck, the battlefield of Guilford Court House has been purchased, and converted into a beautiful park, with appropriate monuments to the gallant heroes of the action.

AFTER THE REVOLUTION.

        After the Revolution the State steadily increased in population and wealth, albeit hindered by two causes. In the first place, as she then had no good accessible harbors within her limits, she was denied the striking evidences of prosperity which attend the building of great

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cities. The handling of her products enriched the merchants of Charleston, Norfolk, Richmond, Baltimore and New York. Then the opening for purchase at government rates of immense areas of fertile lands in the West and Southwest carried off many of her citizens with all their substance to build up Indiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and other States.

        The following table taken from the census books shows that there was no backward step:

        
YEAR. . . . . . POPULATION.
1790 . . . . . 393,751
1800 . . . . . 478,103
1810 . . . . . 555,500
1820 . . . . . 638,829
1830 . . . . . 737,987
1840 . . . . . 753,419
1850 . . . . . 869,038
1860 . . . . . 992,622
1870 . . . . . 1,071,361
1880 . . . . . 1,399,750
1890 . . . . . 1,617,947

        This population is of a singularly homogeneous character. The immigrants in early days, Virginians (mainly English), Pennsylvanians (mainly Scotch-Irish and German), Scotch-Irish, Scotch Highlanders and Lowlanders, Swiss, French, Huguenots, Germans from the Rhine and elsewhere, have fused by inter-marriages or business or social communication into a homogeneous people of steady, orderly and friendly habits. The relations between masters and slaves were singularly free from cruelty on the one side and insolent spirit of rebellion on the other. And after emancipation there was little friction in the adjustment of the new relation of employer and employee.

PROPRIETARY AND ROYAL GOVERNMENT.

        The attempts of Sir Walter Raleigh having signally failed, no further attempts at colonization were made for three-quarters of a century. In 1629, a charter was granted by Charles I. of England to Sir Robert Heath of the Southern part of Virginia, Latitudes 31° to 36°, under the name, in honor of that king, of Carolina. As Heath did nothing under it, a renewal was granted in 1663 to eight Lords Proprietors, and an enlargement to 36° 30′ and 29°, two years afterwards. The first permanent settlement in the limits of North Carolina was called the County of Albemarle. The Lords Proprietors appointed Governors of Albemarle, and then Governors, or Deputy

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Governors, of North Carolina until 1728. Seven of them then sold their interests to the Crown, Lord Carteret, afterwards Earl Granville, yielding the right of government, but retaining his one-eight interest in the land of all Carolina. In 1744 he obtained a grant in severalty of about one-half of North Carolina, next to the Virginia line. The colony was therefore under the crown from 1728 to the Revolution.

        The colonists have been charged by some historians as of a turbulent character, but it seems certain that their civil commotions were on account of real grievances, and were not more frequent nor violent than in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Virginia and South Carolina. They had the wisdom to discern attacks on their rights and bravery to resent them.

        The Tuscarora war of 1711 brought terrible losses of life and property to the young colony. By the aid of troops from South Carolina the uprising was quickly suppressed. Afterwards in the Yemassee Indian war, North Carolina repaid her neighbor by sending prompt and efficient succor under Col. Maurice Moore. She likewise sent troops to aid the unsuccessful attempt on Carthagena, and to Virginia and New York to fight against the French and Indians.

THE CIVIL WAR.

        North Carolina was not forward in adopting secession. The people by a small majority in February, 1861, voted down the proposal to call a convention to consider Federal relations. But when coercion by the United States Government was resolved upon, a convention was called, and, on May 20, 1861, an ordinance of secession was passed by unanimous vote, and it was supported by large levies of money and troops. It was not the policy of the Confederacy to defend seriously the North Carolina coast, and by the Spring of 1862 the whole of the country from Beaufort to the Virginia line was in the hands of the Federals. Plymouth was, however, recaptured with nearly two thousand prisoners by the Confederates under General Hoke, but in a few months it was lost again, the Confederates having previously been ordered to Virginia. Fort Fisher at the mouth of the Cape Fear was defended with conspicuous courage for many months, thus enabling Confederate vessels to evade the blockade and introduce large supplies of necessaries, such as cloth, blankets, shoes, medicine, &c., for the use of our soldiers. And this was brought about by the efforts of Governor Zebulon B. Vance, seconded by the votes of the Legislature in authorizing large increase of bonds and treasury notes. A sharp but indecisive battle was fought at Bentonsville near the close of the struggle, but the valor and the sacrifices of the soldiers

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of North Carolina were chiefly in the great campaigns of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and to a less extent in Tennessee and South Carolina.

        The records of the War Department at Washington, comprising forty-nine volumes of about one thousand pages each, furnish a statistical history of the war. The result is impartial and represents the combined labors of five Federal and two Confederate officers. The casualties on both sides are recorded. The tables of dead and wounded show that on the Confederate side North Carolina lost more soldiers killed than any other Southern State, as follows: 14,522; and that she headed the list in the number that died of wounds, and that 20,602 of her soldiers perished of disease. Her military population in 1861 was 115,369, yet she furnished 125,000 to the Confederate cause.

GENERAL SKETCH.

        The State of North Carolina is bounded on the north by Virginia, east by the Atlantic Ocean, south by South Carolina and Georgia and west by Tennessee. It is included nearly between the parallels 34° and 36½° north latitude, and between the meridians 75½° and 84½° west longitude.

        The extreme length of the State from east to west is 503¼ miles; its average breath is 100 miles; its extreme breadth is 187½ miles. Its area embraces 52,286 square miles, of which 48,666 is land, and 3,620 is water.

        Its topography may be best conceived by picturing to the mind's eye the surface of the State as a vast declivity, sloping down from the summits of the Smoky Mountains, an altitude of nearly 7,000 feet, to the level of the Atlantic Ocean. The Smoky Mountains constitute a part of the great Appalachian chain, which here attains its greatest height; the greatest, indeed, in the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains. This slope is made up of three wide extended terraces--if that term may be allowed; the first a high mountain plateau--distinguished as the Western or Mountain Section; the second, a sub-montane plateau, distinguished as the Middle Section, or the Piedmont Plateau region; the third, the Atlantic plain, distinguished as the Low Country or the Coastal Plain region, and that part from the head of the tides downward as the Tide-water Section. From the first to the second section there is a sharp descent through a few

Illustration

SOUTHERN RAILWAY--ASCENT OF BLUE RIDGE--THROUGH TWO TUNNELS.

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miles only of not less than 1,500 feet; from the middle to the low country a descent of about 200 feet; through the two latter, however, there is a constant downward grade.

THE MOUNTAIN REGION.

        This is so sharply and distinctly defined, and embraces so large a portion of the territory of North Carolina, as to merit a somewhat extended reference to its magnitude, its elevation and its characteristics. Broadly considered it may be treated as a high plateau, bounded on the east by the irregular chain known as the Blue Ridge, extending across the State in a general direction from northeast to southwest, until, reaching the southeastern border of Henderson county, it turns to the west and forms for a long distance part of the southern boundary of the State, passing at length by a southwest projection into the State of Georgia, and again reuniting with the chain of the Smoky Mountains, to which it had made near approach on its entry into North Carolina in the counties of Ashe and Watauga.

        The average elevation of the Blue Ridge is nearly 4,000 feet, though on the southern and northern extremities it drops to 3,000 feet, its lower gaps being a little above 2,000 feet over the main level of the Piedmont country. Seen from the east, the chain presents the aspect of a steep and rugged escarpment springing suddenly from the Piedmont plateau to an altitude of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above it. From the west the appearance is that of a low and ill-defined ridge, in some places, as in parts of Henderson and Macon Counties, presenting almost a smooth, unbroken horizontal line; again uplifting itself in bold prominence, attaining the height of nearly 6,000 feet, as in the Grandfather, and the Pinnacle, the conspicuous summits so attractively visible near Round Knob, on the Western North Carolina Railroad.

        The western boundary of this division is that long chain known under the various names of the Iron, the Smoky, and the Unaka Mountains, and forming the dividing line between North Carolina and Tennessee, and enclosing with marked definiteness the plateau of Western North Carolina. The area of this division approximates 6,000 square miles. The plateau is the culminating region of the Appalachian system, and contains not only its largest masses, but also its highest summits. It is divided by a number of cross ridges, and consequently into a number of smaller plateaus or basins, each bounded on all sides by high mountains and having its own independent system of rivers or drainage. It is this connection or interlacing of the outside bounding chains by the agency of the numerous cross chains

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that gives Western North Carolina its marked mountain character, its alternation of high mountain ranges with corresponding valleys and their attendant rivers, and the numerous lateral spurs, penetrated also by their valleys and their mountain torrents, and all arranged with an order and a symmetry as rare as it is beautiful, and also presenting facilities for communication from the opposite sides of these chains of inestimable value in the construction of works of internal improvement not often possessed by mountain countries.

        The chief of these in exceptional elevation is known as the Black Mountains, consisting of a single short ridge extending in a northly direction from the point where it leaves the Blue Ridge. Its total length is only about fifteen miles, but within this short distance there are a dozen peaks that rise to an elevation of more than 6,000 feet above the sea, and one of these--Mitchell's Peak--the highest mountain on the eastern half of the continent, has an altitude of 6,711 feet. Between the French Broad and the Pigeon rivers stretches the long ridges of the Pisgah and the New Found mountains, interrupted by the valley of Hominy creek, the opening of which offers convenient passway to the next parallel ridge, the Balsam mountains, which extends in unbroken continuity from the South Carolina line on the south to the Smoky Mountains on the Tennessee border on the north. This range has a mean elevation of about 5,500 feet, with fifteen summits exceeding 6,000 feet; and across the range are only two pass-ways or gaps suitable to the passage of wheeled vehicles, one of which, traversed by the Western North Carolina railroad, is 3,357 feet above sea-level; the other, Soco Gap, being 4,341 feet high. Then comes the Cowee mountains, extending nearly across the State, and separated from the Great Smokies by the narrow valley of the Tuckasegee river. The mean height of this ridge is about 4,800 feet, the highest summit, at the southern end, being Yellow mountain, 5,133 feet. Then succeeds the massive and very bold double chain of the Nantahala and Valley River mountains, with a mean height of 5,000 feet, the two branches of which lie in close parallelism from the Georgia State line on the south as far as the Red Marble Gap on the north, where they separate, one branch directed westward and known as the Long Ridge, and uniting itself with the Smoky mountains in Cherokee county; the other extending to the northeast, under the name of the Cheowah mountains, and ending without definite connection in undefinable ridges or isolated peaks.

        On the east side of the Blue Ridge and extending into the Piedmont region are a series of short and irregular ridges or spurs. Among these are the Saluda, Green River, Tryon and Hungry

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mountain masses, which are more or less separated from the Blue Ridge by the deep valleys or gorges carved by the river torrents which have cut through them and thus unite with the waters flowing toward the Atlantic; the waters on the west of the Blue Ridge, on the contrary, all directing their courses toward the Mississippi or its tributaries. Two other and more prominent ridges extend into this Piedmont plateau for considerable distances. The South mountains, commencing as foot hills of the Blue Ridge in western McDowell, extend in a general easterly direction, south of the Catawba river to western Catawba county, a distance of some fifty miles. They reach their maximum development near the junction of Burke, McDowell and Rutherford counties, where several knobs have an elevation of near 3,000 feet. The other of these two ridges, the Brushy mountains, cut off from the Blue Ridge at the west by several tributaries of the Catawba assumes definite proportions in eastern Caldwell county and extends northeast more or less parallel to the Yadkin valley and Blue Ridge on the north, as far as the Sauratown mountains in Stokes county, a distance of some eighty miles. In Yadkin and Surry counties these mountains nearly disappear, but they reappear in Pilot, Eaton and Moor's Knobs to the northeast.

        The Linville mountains, though a distinct spur from the Blue Ridge, are so coincident with it in perspective and in general characteristics as to need no mention as a distinct ridge.

        The above embrace the whole mountain system of North Carolina, and in the western section unmistakably present the culmination of the great Appalachian system, as illustrated by the highest summits lifted up in all the territory of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and also as the source from which many large rivers radiate to flow towards the opposite directions of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mississippi river and its tributaries.

        Along the Blue Ridge, along the Smoky mountain range, and along the cross chains are found the following summits which exceed 6,000 feet in elevation:

        IN THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS--Mount Buckley, 6,599; Clingman's Dome, 6,660; Mount Love, 6,443; Mount Collins, 6,188; Mount Alexander, 6,447; Mount Henry, 6,373; Mount Guyot, 6,636; Tricorne Knob, 6,188; Raven's Knob, 6,230; Thermometer Knob, 6,157; Luftee Knob, 6,232; Cataloochee, 6,159; Roan (High Knob,) 6,313; Roan (High Bluff,) 6,287; Grassy Ridge, (Bald), 6,220; Cold Spring, 6,015.

        IN THE BALSAM MOUNTAINS--Enos Plotts' Balsam, 6,090; Jones' Balsam, 6,224; Rockstand Knob, 6,002; Brother Plott, 6,246;

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Amos Plott's Balsam, 6,278; Rocky Face, 6,031; Double Spring Mountain, 6,380; Richland Balsam, 6,370; Chimney Peak, 6,234; Spruce Ridge Top, 6,076; Reinhardt Mountain, 6,106; Devil's Court House, 6,049; Sam's Knob, 6,001.

        IN THE BLACK MOUNTAINS--Blackstock's Knob, 6,378; Potato Top, 6,393; Black Dome, 6,502; Mount Gibbs, 6,591; Mount Hallback, (or Sugar loaf,) 6,403; Mount Mitchell, 6,711; Balsam Cone, 6,671; Black Brother, 6,619; Cattail Peak, 6,611; Hairy Bear, 6,681; Deer Mountain, 6,233; Long Ridge, (middle point,) 6,259; Bowlen's Pyramid, 6,348.

        IN THE CRAGGY RANGE--Big Craggy, 6,068.

        In all forty-three peaks of 6,000 feet and upwards. And there are eighty-two mountains which exceed in height 5,000 feet, and closely approximate 6,000, and the number which exceed 4,000 and approximate 5,000 are innumerable.

        The general contour of all these mountains is gentle, the summits generally presenting smooth rounded outlines, occasionally rising into sharp pointed peaks, and, except on the southern border, presenting but few precipitous slopes. There, some of the most stupendous cliffs or precipices east of the Rocky Mountains present themselves, such as Cæsar's Head and Whiteside Mountain, the latter presenting a sheer perpendicular front of naked rock eighteen hundred feet in height.

        Otherwise the mountains are covered with deep rich soil, clothed with massive forests to their tops. To this general condition there is the remarkable exception presented by the locally named balds, natural meadows found on the rounded tops of many of the highest mountains. Their elevation is generally near, or above, 6,000 feet. The heavy forest growth of the valleys and lower slopes of the mountains is gradually dwarfed towards the bald summits, so that these are surrounded by a fringe of stunted, scrubby oaks, beeches, &c., the balds themselves being covered with a rich herbage of grass, pasturage to which large herds of domestic animals are annually driven to remain until the return of cold weather.

        The great elevation of these mountain heights is indicated by the botanical features of the vegetation, which shows a predominance of firs, hemlocks, white pines, and other trees of high latitudes.

        In respect to those timber trees found here, in common with the other sections, the Mountain region has the advantage of possessing an unbroken forest. In comparison with the extent of forest lands, the clearings here are mere patches.

        There is little hazard in saying that there is nowhere in any of the States an equal area of land covered with timber trees of such

Illustration

THE CRAGGY CHAIN--BIG CRAGGY.

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various kinds, and of such value. The walnut, tulip trees, (poplars), and oaks attain a size that would hardly be credited by one who had not seen them. The preservation of this magnificent forest is due to the fact that it has hitherto been inaccessible to transportation. Within the past few years much of it has been brought into connection with the markets of the world. One railroad line passes entirely through this section, and another branching off at Asheville and leading to the extreme southwest of the State, is now completed. Into the northwestern part of the State also a railroad has been completed and others projected.

        The cultivated productions of this section are the same as those of the Piedmont Plateau region, cotton and rice excepted. Its garden vegetables are the same, but the cabbage and the Irish potato grow here to a degree of perfection that cannot be excelled anywhere. Among the fruits, its apples are noted for size and flavor. Peaches and grapes grow well generally; but, for their highest perfection, nature has made provisions by a suspension to some extent of her ordinary laws. Throughout the mountains, in certain localities and at certain elevations, there are horizontal belts where frost is seldom known. Such localities are found not only in this section, but in the South mountains and in the Brushy range.

        The climate of this Mountain region differs less from that of the Piedmont Plateau region than would be inferred from its higher altitude. The difference is more perceptible in summer than in winter. In the former season, its cool and bracing air, together with its varied scenery, its mineral waters--sulphur, chalybeate and thermal--made this section one of the favorite resorts of the people of the South and Southwest when it could only be reached by private conveyances. Since it has been penetrated by railroads, the influx of health and pleasure-seekers has increased an hundred fold, and in future will add very largely to its resources.

        The soils of the basins of the great rivers of this section, and its mountain valleys, are noted for their fertility. The capacity for the production of cereals and hay grasses is equal to that of any lands. As might be inferred from the heavy forest growth with which the entire surface is covered, the mountain sides are susceptible of profitable cultivation up to their summits.

        Among the valleys most noted for their beauty and extent are the upper French Broad and Mills river valleys, of Henderson and Transylvania; the Swannanoa, in Buncombe; the Pigeon river, Richland and Jonathan's creek flat lands, in Haywood; those of the Valley

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river and Hiwasse, in Cherokee; and portions of the upper Linville, in Mitchell.

        The entire transmontane country is well adapted to stock-raising. The cultivated grasses flourish everywhere with even ordinary care. But it is in the north-western counties--particularly in the counties of Ashe, Alleghany, Watauga, Mitchell, Yancey--that all the conditions are found necessary for its perfect success. The soil throughout these counties is a deep rich loam, up to the summits of the mountains. The whole country is covered with a dense vegetation, amongst which will be found some of the largest timber in the United States, and as yet the forests are comparatively unbroken, because they have been inaccessible to market. The clearing of the timber is a work of some difficulty, but when that is done the labor of the farmer is rewarded with the richest crops. After two or three crops are taken off, the land, if suffered to lie at rest, springs up spontaneously in timothy, herds grass, and other rich pasture grasses; and once established, the grass perpetuates itself upon the land. Nor is an entire clearing necessary to establish the land in grass. If the undergrowth is removed, the trees thinned out, and the surface stirred and sown in orchard grass (Cocks foot,) it flourishes luxuriantly even while the forest trees are left standing.

        Its capacity as a grazing country has long been known. But formerly the cattle were left to the resources of nature, which indeed, in such a country were abundant and rich. "Horses and horned cattle," says General Clingman in one of his publications, "are usually driven out into the mountains about the first of April and brought back in November. Within six weeks after they have thus been put into the range, they become fat and sleek. There are, however, on the top and along the sides of the higher mountains ever-green and winter grasses on which horses and horned cattle live well through the entire winter. Such animals are often foaled and reared there until fit for market, without ever seeing a cultivated plantation." Of late, attention has been turned to the breeding of fine stock, and some herds of cattle and flocks of sheep are found there which will compare not unfavorably with those of any country. This country is already penetrated by one railroad, and others are in course of construction. When fairly laid open to railroad communication it will offer--besides its rich mining interests and timbers--one of the finest fields for cattle and sheep breeding and for dairy products that the Union presents.

        Apart from its forests, nature has been prodigal to this section in shrubs and flowering plants. It has always been a favorite resort of

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the botanists. It is a field that has been assiduously cultivated by many of the most distinguished professors of that science. It was from these mountains that Bartram, the Michauxs--father and son--Fraser, Delile, Lyon, Nuttall, Von Schweinitz, Mitchell, Gray and Curtis, drew much of the material of their valuable contributions to botanical science. It was here that some of the most beautiful flowers that adorn the gardens of Europe and of this country were first discovered. It still yields rare flowers to the explorer, which though not conspicuous for their beauty, are deemed rare treasures by botanists.

        This section has also been one of the chief sources of supply of medicinal herbs. Immense quantities are gathered and shipped to the northern cities and to Europe. In travelling through the mountains bales of these herbs may be seen collected about the country stores as bales of cotton are seen in the middle and eastern regions. Ginseng in great quantities is shipped to China. The trade in medicinal herbs has grown into a large business.

        Corundum abounds in Macon, Clay and many other counties. Mica is abundant in Mitchell and Yancey, and those counties yield a large part of the world's supply. The largest and finest sheets of it seen at the World's Fair at Vienna were from the Ray Mine in Yancey.

        This section is rich in iron ores of the best grade. That of Cranberry possesses such excellence for making iron for special purposes--steam boilers for example, and steel of the finest quality, such as is adapted to making surgical instruments and the like--that a railroad forty miles long and costing more than a million dollars has been constructed through one of the most rugged parts of the mountain territory to reach it. Copper also is prominent among the metals of this region. The most noted mine is that of Ore Knob, in Ashe.

        The effect of these mining enterprises upon the prosperity of this section has been marked. Labor has found employment, a home market has been furnished to the farmer, and there has been some appreciation of property of every kind.

        The past few years have been remarkable for the success with which the difficulties presented by the want of transportation in this State have been grappled with and overcome. These achievements at once great and beneficent, will make this period a memorable one in the history of the State. Railroads are now entering the northwestern part of the State in several directions. The completion and connection of these, and the opening up of this region, so rich in

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elements of undeveloped wealth, is now regarded as the first and most imperative duty of the statesmen of North Carolina.

PIEDMONT PLATEAU REGION.

        The Piedmont Plateau region is intermediate between the Mountain region, already spoken of, and the Coastal Plain region, which extends to the ocean. It comprises nearly one-half the territory of the State. In passing into this region from either of the others, a marked change is at once observable in topography, in production, and largely in industrial pursuits. The tumultuous continuity of mountains subsides into gentle undulations, a succession of hills and dales, a variety and charm of landscape, alike different from the high, uplifted mountain elevations and the flat monotony of the plains or levels of the east. Every step brings to view some new charm, some new arrangement of the rounded hills, some new grouping of the tracts of forest which still cover so large a part of the country. The hills, indeed, in their gracefully curving outlines, present lines of beauty with which the eye of taste is never satiated. These are attractions which depend upon permanent features of the landscape, and which, though infinitely heightened in their effects by the verdure of spring and summer, are only brought into fuller relief by the nakedness of winter. The variations of surface, though less defined at first, become more marked towards the west, and towards the Blue Ridge the country assumes a bold and even rugged aspect.

        The hand of improvement is more visible in this than in any section in this State. Almost the entire region is now dotted over with thriving villages and towns. The homes everywhere indicate a high degree of thrift and comfort. An unusual proportion are built in modern style, and tastefully painted. Nestled amidst yards and gardens, enclosed with neat painted palings, flanked with orchards of fruit trees, in which a space is generally allotted to choice grape vines, they give abundant proof of ease, plenty, and, in many instances, of no small degree of luxury.

        It is in this section that the great water-power of the State--estimated by the late State Geologist, Prof. W. C. Kerr, at three million horse-power--finds its greatest development and employment. It is through this section that flow the upper waters of the Dan, the Roanoke, the Tar, the Neuse, the Cape Fear, the Yadkin, and the Catawba, and their numerous affluents. All of those have been partially utilized by the erection of corn, flouring and saw-mills in every neighborhood, and cotton and woolen mills on almost all of the rivers and their tributaries. Within the last few years the number of cotton-mills has

Page 25

largely increased. Those erected lately are spacious buildings, and equipped with the best machinery. Within the same period all or nearly all of the older ones have been enlarged and new machinery put in. The fact begins to be more and more recognized that within the cotton States there are advantages for the manufacture of that staple that cannot be found elsewhere. Here the cotton is at the door of the manufacturer, and the prime cost of the material is therefore less. Wages are less here than in the northern States, and a lower rate of wages here affords a more comfortable living than a higher rate there, for the necessaries of life are cheaper, and less of food, clothing and fuel are required. Less fuel, too, is required for heating the mill in winter. The laborer can make substantial additions to his means of subsistence from his garden, which is always allotted here to the head of the family. Here there is no obstruction to machinery from ice in winter, and no greater suspension of work from drought in summer, for our rivers are as long as those of New England and have as many tributaries. The original cost of the site and of the building here is very much less than the same cost there. The force of these reasons cannot be long resisted, and, indeed, the phenomenal growth of cotton milling now observed in the State fully asserts the truth of the claims set forth.

        In subsequent chapters in this volume the water powers and manufacturing will be treated at more length.

        The soil of this Piedmont Plateau presents a blending of the soils of the Eastern and Western regions, the tertiary formation of the first pushing itself sometimes far towards the west until it comes into proximity with the older formations of the Piedmont region, and often, in its extreme western extension, partaking of the character of the formations of the mountains. A soil so composed or diversified, in connection with favorable climatic conditions, offers great agricultural possibilities, and in this section we find the widest range of production. It is here that we find the largest area devoted to the cultivation of the most profitable varieties of tobacco, and it is here that the culture of cotton is largely extended and profitably pursued; and it is here also that all the cereals and all the grasses are cultivated in their highest perfection, enlisting the leading agricultural interest of the population. Here also the fruits of the temperate zone find congenial home--apples, peaches, pears, cherries, the small fruits and grapes being unexcelled in excellence, variety and abundance. In this section are also widely distributed the richest veins and deposits of the valuable ores and metals, including the precious metals, gold and silver, iron, copper and lead, and the only two coal

Page 26

formations found in North Carolina. These ores, and the mining operations connected with them, will be treated of in a chapter in this work. This region also abounds in varied and extensive forest wealth, which will be referred to in its proper place.

COASTAL PLAIN REGION.

        The whole eastern portion of the State consists of a vast plain, stretching from the sea coast into the interior of the country, a distance of from one hundred to a hundred and fifty miles. Traversing this section from north to south are tracts of country which vary little from a perfect level. The Carolina Central Railroad has a stretch of one hundred miles where there is neither curve, excavation nor embankment. From east to west the surface rises by easy gradations at the rate of a little more than a foot to the mile. The rise, however, is not perceptible to the traveler. But though level in parts, it is in general relieved by slight undulations. Along its western border, as in the county of Moore, it attains an elevation of about five hundred feet.

        The western boundary may be roughly defined by a line extending from the western part of Warren, through Franklin, Wake, Cumberland, Chatham, Moore, Montgomery and Anson. This line marks what, at an earlier period of the earth's history, was a line of sea-beach. Over this whole section the primitive rocks are covered with a deep stratum of earth, principally sand. Along the western border there is a broad belt of unequal width, but generally from thirty to forty miles across, where granite, slate and other rocks are sparingly distributed, mainly near water-courses, where the more recent formations have been removed by the erosian agencies. The belt of primitive rock here mentioned extends to the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, from the Virginia line to Goldsboro, and from thence to a line drawn through Averysboro to the South Carolina line about where the Pee Dee enters that State. From the line there indicated to the sea coast not a stone of any size, except along the water-courses, and scarcely a pebble, except at a few points, is to be met with.

        A bed of shell limestone underlies some portions of the region, cropping out at intervals. It forms a good limestone, sufficiently pure for all the common purposes of building, and in quantity large enough to supply a wide extent of country with quicklime. Examples of this are found nine miles below Waynesboro, in the north-west corner of Jones, in the northern part of Onslow, at Wilmington, and on the north-west branch of the Cape Fear to a distance of forty miles above.

        

Illustration

SCENES NEAR FAYETTEVILLE.

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        This section is made up of beds of clay and sand, with vast quantities of shells imbedded in them. The soil varies in character to the extent that the one or the other predominates; and to the extent that the shells, when intermixed with it, have undergone decomposition. The upland soil is for the most part a sandy loam, easily accessible to the sun's rays, easily worked and very productive in the crops there cultivated. There are, however, extensive areas of country where sand predominates to such a degree that the surface to a considerable depth is a bed of white sand. Yet this kind of land is the favorite habitat of the long-leaf pine. When cleared, it yields good crops of corn and cotton for a few years without manure, and always with slight help from proper commercial fertilizers, and considerable areas, as in Moore county, have been found to be valuable for small fruits and orchards. There are other extensive areas where clay enters so largely into the soil as to form a clay loam. The counties on the north side of Albemarle Sound--a very fertile tract of country--are examples of this class. The alluval lands of this section--lands always in the highest degree productive from the fact that all the elements of fertility are intimately intermingled by having been once suspended in water--are of unusual extent and importance. The grain grown there supplies food not only for people of other parts of the State, but large populations in other States. There are also extensive areas when the marls of the tertiary formation come near the surface and increase the fertility of the soil. This is the case from the eastern part of Jones county to the Cape Fear river, and in portions of many other counties. Another class of lands in point of fertility equalling any in the world is that reclaimed from some of the swamp and lake areas in the extreme eastern portion of this region. These lands seem to be well nigh inexhaustible. The cultivation of three-quarters of a century has made no change in their productive capacity. To the lands reclaimed from the borders of marshes--so frequent near the shore--the same remark may be applied.

        Another class of land remains to be mentioned which will be a resource of inestimable value in time, perhaps not distant. Bordering on the sea and sounds are extensive tracts of country designated as swamps. Though so-called, they differ widely in their characteristic features from an ordinary swamp. They are not alluvial tracts, neither are they subject to overflow. The land covered by many of them lies for the greater part quite low; but this remark seldom applies wholly to any of them--to some does not apply at all. On the contrary many of them occupy the divides or water sheds between the

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rivers and sounds, and are elevated many feet above the adjacent rivers of which they are the sources. These latter are susceptible of drainage, and when reclaimed some of them have every element of exuberant and lasting fertility. Bay River swamp, between Pamlico and Neuse rivers, and Green swamp, in Brunswick and Columbus counties, may be mentioned as examples. The elevation of the latter is forty feet above the sea level. The work of drainage is simple. From the border of the swamp, which is always the highest land, the bottom slopes in every direction gradually, almost imperceptibly, to the centre. A canal cut through this border into the swamp, and carried to some neighboring stream, lays bare an extensive belt along the entire border. The aggregate territory in the State known as swamp lands is between three and four thousand square miles. When drainage shall be properly carried out over this great territory--a work which on account of the slight difficulties to be encountered as compared with those which they encountered and overcame, would be deemed trifling by the laborious North German and the indefatigable Hollander--hundreds of square miles of land of surpassing fertility will be added to the area now in cultivation.

        Throughout this entire section cotton, corn, oats, sorghum, peas, peanuts, potatoes, especially sweet potatoes, are the staple crops; the culture of tobacco has been lately introduced with success. Upon the rich alluvions and the reclaimed lake and swamp lands, corn, with peas planted in the intervals between the corn, forms the exclusive crop. Occasionally on the broad low-grounds of the Roanoke, wheat is grown to a considerable extent. In the counties on the north of Albemarle Sound it is one of the staple crops. On the low-grounds of the lower Cape Fear rice has long been the staple crop, and during recent years its culture has been extended northward along the low lying lands of the rivers and sounds. The upland variety of rice has been introduced within a few years past with entire success. This section is everywhere underlaid with marl--a mixture of carbonate of lime and clay formed by the decomposition of imbedded shells--sufficient in quantity, when raised and applied to the surface, to bring it to a high pitch of fertility and maintain it so.

        In the counties of Duplin, Sampson and New Hanover valuable deposits of phosphates have been discovered, which are now being mined and ground for fertilizing purposes. They are known to exist in the adjoining counties, but to what extent has not been yet ascertained. From the similarity of the geological conditions throughout

Illustration

BEAN FIELD--ATLANTIC COAST LINE.

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the Eastern Section, there is little doubt that a systematic exploration there will lead to further extensive discoveries.

        The use of marl, on account of its lower value in comparison with its bulk and consequent cost of transportation, must be mainly, if not wholly, confined to the section in which it is found. Phosphates, on the other hand, on account of their high fertilizing power, admit of transportation to any distance, and may be used anywhere.

        Dr. Emmons remarks: "The swamp soils of North Carolina show a greater capacity for endurance than the prairie soils of Illinois, notwitstanding the annual crops are somewhat less per acre; and, on the score of location, we are unable to see that the Illinois soils have the preference. Nor, as regards health, are our swamp soils more subject to malaria than the country of the prairies." He refers to the remarkable fact that "persons live and labor in swamps with impunity or freedom from disease." This statement is fully sustained by the reports of our engineers who have had charge of the construction of railroads in that section, as well as by the general healthfulness of the inhabitants of the region, and especially so by those who use cistern water.

        The swamps, in their natural state, afford abundant pasturage. They are covered in part by a dense growth of reeds, which supply excellent food for cattle, winter and summer.

        That eminent agriculturist, Mr. Edmund Ruffin, of Virginia, who studied this section of the State with care, expressed a high appreciation of the tidewater region for the cultivation of grasses. He said: "There is no better country for grasses east of the mountains. In small lots I saw dry meadows of ochard grass and clover that would have been deemed good in the best grass districts." It is evident, from the humid character of the climate in that region, and from the fact that the heats of summer are tempered by sea-breezes, owing to the proximity of the ocean, that the conditions are such as to favor the growth of this family of plants.

        Among the resources for future use along the seaboard country, peat is entitled to a prominent place. It exists over hundreds of square miles in area, and to the depth of many feet. At no distant day it will be extensively used, both as a fuel and fertilizer.

        If the indications of nature are to be relied on, North Carolina was plainly marked out as the land for vineyards. In the sober narrative of the voyage of Amadas and Barlowe, made in 1584, to North Carolina, then an unbroken wilderness, the author tells us, in most graphic language of the abundance of grapes: "so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them."

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        Upon the visit of the voyagers to the house of the Indian King, on Roanoke Island, wine was set before them by his wife. It is further mentioned that, "while the grape lasteth, they (the Indians) drink wine;" they had not learned the art of preserving it. Harriot, a distinguished man in an age of distinguished men, of whom it was justly said that he cultivated all sciences and excelled in all, visited the same coast in 1586, where he was struck with the abundance of grape vines, and he was impressed with the fact that wine might be made one of the future staples of the State. "Were they," he writes, "planted and husbanded as they ought, a principal commodity of wines might be raised." This State has proved to be far richer in this respect than it is probable even he suspected. Grape vines were found in equal profusion in the original forest throughout the State. They often interlaced the trees to such an extent that they were a serious impediment to the work of clearing away the forest, catching and suspending the trees as they were felled. At this day, if a tract of forest is enclosed, and cattle of every kind excluded, they spring up spontaneously and thickly over the land, Some of the finest wine grapes of the United States, the Scuppernong, the Isabella, the Catawba and the Lincoln, are native to this State. But it was long before the bounty of nature in this regard was improved. This was probably due to the fact that the State was settled almost wholly by emigrants from the British Isles, who knew nothing of the culture of the vine. It was planted here and there to yield grapes for table use; but it was not until within thirty years that a vineyard was known in the State. Within that period several of large and a great number of small extent have been planted. Grapes in season are abundantly supplied for domestic consumption, and shipped in hundreds of tons. The wines of the established vineyards are held in high and just repute. In a broad commercial sense, the possibilities of the Scuppernong, as a wine grape, is yet to be developed: North Carolina should supply the bulk of the wine used in this country.

        All the cultivated fruits and berries grow here in great perfection with the exception of the apple. This, though by no means an inferior fruit, is yet not equal in size and flavor to that of the Piedmont Plateau and Mountain regions. Among the swamps the cranberry is found in profusion. The melons are of every variety and of peculiar excellence.

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CLIMATE.

        It will be conceded without question that the influence of climate on human progress is supreme, because its happy or adverse conditions affect all that relates to comfort, health, energy and success in the occupations of life. Those regions most abounding in fertile soil and exuberant vegetation, which favor the growth of many valuable productions of nature, often have those treasures closed against the efforts of industry by unfavorable climatic conditions, an excess of heat and moisture, and an air poisoned with miasma, leading to loss of vigor, health, or of life itself. On the other hand the frigid regions of the north are equally unsuited for the permanent abode of man.

        The greatest nations have all developed in the regions of the temperate zone, which possess the most variable climate. Variations of heat and cold, of moisture and dryness, within extremes not too great, are essential to the best development of vegetable as well as animal life. Man especially, requires the inspiration of the changing seasons, the summer, warm enough to assure the rewards of labor by the abundant yield of the fruits of the soil, the winter, with its bracing cold, giving a period of rest and renewal of vigor.

        It is common to find the most extravagant claims made for the climate of favored localities. The splendid climate of North Carolina will be best described by presenting to the seeker for a new home a few facts in regard to the chief climatic features, which may be easily verified by reference to the excellent publications of the North Carolina State Weather Service, where more detailed information may be sought.

        North Carolina lies on the same parallel of latitude as the central Mediterranean basin, that climatically most favored region of the globe. Though this position in the warm temperate zone determines the chief climatic features of the State, these are modified by various causes, most important of which are the proximity of the ocean in the east and the mountain system in the west. The State is naturally divided into three regions: the Coastal Plain, Piedmont Plateau and Mountain. The effect of the prolongation of the first into the Atlantic is to give the climate of that region a more insular or marine character, the effect of the presence of the sea being to lessen the changes in temperature both diurnal and seasonal and to increase the amount of precipitation. Contrary to the prevailing impression, the nearness of the Gulf Stream has a minimum effect on the climate in

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the east, both because the Gulf Stream is separated from the land by fifty miles of cold water, and because the prevailing winds are from the southwest or northeast and do not blow the moist air of the Gulf Stream over the land, as is so often stated. The annual mean temperature of Southport, situated in the southeast corner of the State, is 64 degrees. Here vegetation of semi-tropical origin, as the palmetto and magnolia flourishes and rice is cultivated. The decrease in annual mean temperature towards the north is only to 59 degrees at Coinjock and Weldon. The land is level and fertile, and the earlier and more rapid development of vegetation has led to one of the most important industries of the State, that of truck farming. The shipments of truck and strawberries to northern markets begins before the middle of April.

        On the other hand in the Mountain region the influence of elevation predominates; the land rises in summits higher than any east of the Rocky Mountains; the summers are cooler, the winters more severe, but the dryness of the air renders the climate more salubrious. The highest point in the Blue Ridge, Mount Mitchell (elevation 6,711 feet) has probably a mean annual temperature of 38 degrees, but the annual mean at Asheville (elevation 2,250 feet) which is 54 degrees, is nearer the average for the district. The white pine and the spruce, whose natural habitat is lower Canada, are abundant in the forests of the Blue Ridge. There are many picturesque and charming valleys, looked down upon by lofty peaks, which have a climate as mild as the less elevated Piedmont region on the east of the range. In certain mountain localities occur the remarkable thermal or frostless belts, regions where the season is known to be a month earlier in spring and later in autumn than in the valley below them, and where, above and below, frost works its blighting effect, leaving in vivid contrast horizontal belts of untouched foilage and blooming flowers. The Blue Ridge acts also as a barrier to all except the most severe cold waves from the northwest, which frequently advance around the south end, affecting the Gulf States before they reach North Carolina.

        Intermediate between these sections may be found all gradations in climate, as in soil, products and scenery, suited to every individual taste. The climatic conditions are favorable for the growth of a great variety of crops, as cotton, corn, tobacco, and small grains, which are the staple crops of North Carolina, as well as almost every kind of fruit and vegetable. Invalids also may find returning health at many of the now well known summer and winter resorts, while the pleasure seeker frequents the watering places along the east coast.

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TEMPERATURE.

        From records extending over a period of twenty five years the mean annual temperature of the State has been determined to be 59 degrees Fahrenheit. The means for the three regions for the different seasons of the year are as follows:-

        
  Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter. Year.
Coastal Plain . . . . . 58 . . . . . 77 . . . . . 62 . . . . . 45 . . . . . 61.
Piedmont Plateau . . . . . 59 . . . . . 77 . . . . . 59 . . . . . 43 . . . . . 60.
Mountain . . . . . 56 . . . . . 72 . . . . . 56 . . . . . 40 . . . . . 56.
For the State . . . . . 58 . . . . . 76 . . . . . 60 . . . . . 43 . . . . . 59.

        For convenience of comparison the annual mean temperature at some of the most important places in the State is presented in the following table:

        
Asheville . . . . . 54.
Charlotte . . . . . 60.
Chapel Hill . . . . . 60.
Franklin . . . . . 54.
Fayetteville . . . . . 61.
Greenville . . . . . 61.
Greensboro . . . . . 59.
Goldsboro . . . . . 62.
Hatteras . . . . . 62.
Highlands . . . . . 50.
Kitty Hawk . . . . . 60.
Lenoir . . . . . 56.
Murphy . . . . . 56.
Morganton . . . . . 58.
Newbern . . . . . 62.
Portsmouth . . . . . 62.
Raleigh . . . . . 60.
Southport . . . . . 64.
Tarboro . . . . . 60.
Weldon . . . . . 59.
Wilmington . . . . . 63.

        In the summer months the southern portion of the Piedmont Plateau presents higher monthly means and greater extremes than either the Coastal or the Mountain regions, probably in part due to the sandy nature of the soil. The warmest month is July, and a few stations sometimes have for that month a mean of over 80 degrees; the coldest month is January, and in the mountains the mean for that month sometimes is as low as 30 degrees. The extremes in temperature for the State are considerable, but rarely does the temperature reach zero, except during such extraordinary cold periods as occurred in 1873, 1886 and 1893. During a normal winter the minimum temperature in the central portion of the State will sink to 10 or 12 degrees, but such cold is usually of very short duration. During a normal summer the temperature will perhaps on two or three days reach 100 degrees.

        In respect to temperature Dr. Kerr stated:

        "Middle and eastern North Carolina correspond to middle and Southern France, and Western North Carolina to Northern France and Belgium. All the climates of Italy from Palermo to Milan and Venice are represented."

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PRECIPITATION.

        The normal average precipitation for North Carolina is 53.29 inches. The State therefore forms the northeastern limit of that region in the United States characterized by the largest amount of rainfall, the centre of which lies in the middle Gulf coast. Long records show a belt of minimum precipitation extending through the Piedmont Plateau; at the same time certain valleys west of the divide also have a small amount. On the east coast and over the southern portions of the Mountain region the annual precipitation becomes very large, over 70 inches. No station has a normal less than 40 inches.

        The average for the different regions are as follows:

        
  Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter. Year.
Coastal Plain . . . . . 12.85 . . . . . 17.04 . . . . . 13.10 . . . . . 12.24 . . . . . 55.23.
Piedmont Plateau . . . . . 12.18 . . . . . 13.99 . . . . . 11.35 . . . . . 12.28 . . . . . 49.85.
Mountain . . . . . 13.69 . . . . . 14.95 . . . . . 10.61 . . . . . 14.07 . . . . . 53.32.
For the State . . . . . 12.94 . . . . . 15.87 . . . . . 11.71 . . . . . 12.77 . . . . . 53.29.

        One advantage must not pass unnoticed, namely that the rainfall is uniformly distributed throughout the year, and that during those months when growing crops require the most moisture, the amount is greatest. The largest amounts occur in July and August, when the averages for the State are respectively 5.44 and 6.09 inches; the least amounts occur in October and November (3.66 and 3.40 inches) during which the weather is especially favorable for the final work of the farmer, before the much needed rest of winter begins.

        As illustrating extreme years with respect to total precipitation, it may be mentioned that the wettest year recorded occurred in 1877, with an average of 64.88 inches for the State. September, of that year, had the only average of over 10 inches for one month. During the year 1890, the total annual rainfall was 46.49 inches, and November of that year had an average of only 0.35 inch.

        A few records of normal annual precipitation are presented below:

        
LOCATION. INCHES.
Asheville . . . . . 42.77
Franklin . . . . . 57.11
Hatteras . . . . . 62.26
Lenoir . . . . . 51.64
Mount Airy . . . . . 48.95
Raleigh . . . . . 45.67
Weldon . . . . . 46.84
Chapel Hill . . . . . 46.11
Greenville . . . . . 50.66
Highlands . . . . . 76.29
Murphy . . . . . 64.05
Newbern . . . . . 59.29
Southport . . . . . 50.03
Willeyton . . . . . 52.90
Charlotte . . . . . 52.72
Goldsboro . . . . . 55.00
Kitty Hawk . . . . . 58.82
Morganton . . . . . 47,96
Portsmouth . . . . . 69.14
Tarboro . . . . . 53.65
Wilmington . . . . . 55.95

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SNOWFALL.

        As a matter of comfort in winter, snowfall is of more importance than rainfall. The amount of precipitation occurring as snow is rarely sufficient to serve as a protection to small grain crops, the amount being both too small and remaining too short a time on the ground. The average snowfall for the State is about 5 inches. During severe winters much larger amounts occur, and may remain on the ground for a week or ten days, but during a normal season the ground will rarely remain white for more than two days at a time. Snows occur in the Piedmont and Coastal regions, most frequently with northeast or north winds, during the passage of storms up the coast.

FROST, ICE AND STORMS.

        Considering Raleigh, the capital city, as representing the average with respect to the probability of the occurrence of frost, it may be stated that the average date for the last frost in spring is April 10th, though killing frost have occurred on rare occasions in May. In autumn, the first frost will generally occur about October 26th. Necessarily in the mountain region these dates are both much advanced, while in the east, the modifying effects of the many arms of the sea penetrating the land greatly diminishes the danger of killing frosts at the season when crops are growing.

        The formation of ice to any thickness only occurs during exceptionally severe winters. Ice has formed, however, as far south as Wilmington, to a thickness of half an inch, and even Albemarle and Currituck Sounds have been frozen over. But the normal winter yields opportunities neither for sleighing nor skating, except for very brief periods.

        There remains to be considered one special advantage possessed by the State, due to its position with reference to the prevailing course of cyclonic storms. The great path of these "weather breeders" is across the lake region and thence northeastward up the St. Lawrence Valley. North Carolina lies entirely out of this general path. Of the total number of storms charted from 1874 to 1890, only 16 per-cent. crossed North Carolina. There are, therefore, longer periods of pleasant weather than can be experienced in more northerly states. Of destructive tornadoes, North Carolina experiences not one in ten years.

        On the other hand, the State does lie in the path of the so-called sub-tropical storms which move up from the coast of Florida. These storms occur most frequently during the months of August, September and October, and are usually accompanied by heavy rains and

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much wind. The damage to crops and property is generally small, but they give to Hatteras a deserved reputation for gales dangerous to the ships and lives of mariners.

FORESTS.

        The forests of North Carolina have for many years been one of the chief resources of revenue to the people of the State, the value of their products, including domestic fuel, timber for construction and such forest by-products as turpentine and its derivatives, amounting in 1893 at least to $25,000,000, and probably much exceeding that amount in the year ending March 1st, 1896. The forests in their original distribution extended compact and unbroken throughout the length and breadth of the State, with the exception of unimportant savannas in the eastern section, covered with coarse grasses and sedges, and isolated mountain summits in the extreme western counties, which, bare of trees and shrubs, produced a close turf of vigorous and hardy but tender grasses; and at the present time, after the encroachment of field and pasture for over a century, nearly two-thirds of the area of the State is still under forest cover.

        The forests, which extend from the sea level in the eastern and southeastern sections to altitudes of 6,600 feet along the State's western borders, where the Appalachian upheavals reach their culmination, are made up of more or less distinctly marked regions having different kinds of trees, the different growth being due to the changes of temperature as the elevation varies and to the succession of different soils. There are three of these regions most clearly marked: the Coastal Plain with upland forests chiefly of pines; the Piedmont Plateau with forests of pine mixed with hardwoods, or belts of hardwoods with pine, alternating with belts of hardwoods without pines; and the Mountain, the forests of which lying above 2,000 feet elevation are destitute of pine.

        The coastal forest region, in extent nearly coincident with the Coastal Plain and embracing about three-eights of the area of the State, lies east of a line drawn from Weldon to Raleigh, and from Raleigh to Wadesboro, the line being nearly southwest in direction and almost parallel with the Atlantic Coast Line. Its surface is undulating along the seaboard where it is usually raised only slightly above high water mark, ten to forty feet, and where there are numerous and extensive swamps; but it becomes rolling and even hilly adjacent

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to the water course along its western limits, where altitudes of 500 to 600 feet are encountered. The upland soils of this region are sandy loams, rarely stiff, moderately fine and even grained. To the north of the Neuse river loams and loose loams are the more frequent upland soils and the growth is loblolly pine (North Carolina pine*

        * Lumbermen's name.


), with a subordinate growth of small oaks; while to the south of this river the upland soils are more sandy and the forests are of long-leaf pine, often to the exclusion of almost every other tree, but near the streams and larger swamps there are belts of loams having for the chief growth loblolly pines, often of a large size (rosemary and slash pines*

        * Local name.


). The lowlands, which are either narrow strips of alluvium contiguous to the streams or, in the vicinity of the coast, are large and poorly-drained basins, have soils that are silty and clayey and compact, or sandy and loose with a large percentage of organic constituents. Where the soil is mellow throughout the year the lowlands have forests of loblolly pine, which is the tree of chief commercial value, mixed with many kinds of hardwoods, particularly ash, maple and gums. If the soil is more compact, the growth is chiefly oaks-water, willow, Spanish, swamp, white and overcup oaks, with elms and some gums. Where the soil is wet through a large part of the year, the largest sweet and black gums are to be found, and where flooded for a considerable part of the year the finest cypress occur, in places to the exclusion of other large trees. On peaty soils or sandy soils underlaid with marl occur white cedar and various bays forming "cedar" or "juniper bays." The lowlands form a large part of the timber yielding lands of this section of the State.

        The Piedmont forest region, which extends westward from the Coastal region to the foot of the Blue Ridge has a surface varying from gently rolling to rugged and broken near the larger streams, along most of which are narrow strips of alluvium. The upland soils vary from sandy and loose loams, superficially so at any rate, to stiff and rarely clayey loams, and are characterized by forests of hardwoods, particularly of oaks, hickories and dogwood, mixed with the short-leaf pine. There are occasional belts of hardwoods containing no pine, as the one which passes through Orange, Alamance, Granville and Person counties; the belt of magnificent oaks and hickories passing from Greensboro southwest to Charlotte; and the similar belts in the western parts of Lincoln and Catawba counties. In a few places, as in the southern parts of Union county and in parts of Durham county, there is much more pine than oak in the forest, the post oak,

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black-jack and Spanish oaks of the original growth forming a lower story beneath the pines.

        The Mountain forest region has a topography that is broken and rugged, most of its area lying within the Appalachian plateau, the eastern boundary of which is the Blue Ridge. The valleys are generally narrow, circumscribed, and largely under cultivation. Most of the forest lands lie on the mountain slopes, where up to the present, but little land has been cleared for cultivation. The forests are largely of hardwoods; red, chestnut and white oaks, yellow poplar and chestnut all of which on the lower mountain slopes reach the largest size that these trees attain in the United States, and with these, particularly on the north slopes and at higher elevations, are lindens (the northern basswood or whitewood,) birches, hard and soft maples, beech, ash and wild cherry. On cold north slopes there are forests of hemlock, and on many of the mountains above an elevation of 4,000 feet compact forests of spruce and fir are found. On the lower hills of the river basins, and especially on those lying near the Blue Ridge, white pine is found which is now being utilized for shingles and building material and more largely for box boards. No yellow pine occurs on the mountains although, south of the French Broad river, it grows along the river hills and is used to a considerable extent for lumber and in construction.

        The richness of the sylva of North Carolina, almost unequalled in the variety of hardwoods and conifers by that of any other region in temperate climates having an equal area, is unapproached by that of any other State or Territory. The great variety of soils and climate has brought together trees from all parts of eastern America so that 24 kinds of oaks are to be found in the State, which is three more than occur in any state to the north of this one, and two more than are to be found in any state to the south of this one; of the nine kinds of hickories known to occur in the United States, eight are to be found in North Carolina; here are all six maples of the eastern United States, all the lindens, all six of the American magnolias, three of the birches, eight pines out of eleven, both species of hemlock and balsam-fir, three elms out of five, six arborescent species of plumb and cherry and three of pyrus (apple).

        In the eastern, and particularly in the sontheastern part of the State, at the mouth of the Cape Fear river, the warm air, seldom below freezing, enables numerous trees which extend farther south, to Florida, Texas and even Mexico, to here make their northern limits, or to extend but little farther to the northward. This is the case with the palmetto, prickly ash, American olive (devil wood),

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mock orange and live oak, trees which, in this State, occur only along and near the coast, but extend southward to Florida or to Texas. The bleak and exposed mountain summits, on the other hand, bear forests of trees which there find their southern limit, but extend northward through northern New York and New England to Canada. Such trees are the black spruce (he balsam), striped and spiked maples, mountain sumac, which is really an apple, balsam-fir and aspen, all, unless sheltered by other trees or by the slopes of the mountain above them, rugged and dwarfed from the cold and constant winds to which they are exposed.

        Between these extremes, lie the commercial forests trees nurtured under no such adverse conditions. Some of these trees have wide distribution to the north of this State or to the south of it, or in both directions, and some of them are restricted in their distribution to North Carolina or to the region around the southern Appalachian mountains. In the coastal region, the pond pine, the great tupelo, barren willow oak, fork-leafed black-jack, over-cup and laurel oaks, are trees which extend farther to the south. The same is true of the long-leaf and loblolly (North Carolina) pines, the first of which trees can be worked for turpentine longer in this than any other State, and the later forms here more compact forests and reaches a larger size than elsewhere. The southwestern red oak and water bitter-nut hickory (rice field hickory), trees common in the lower Mississippi valley, occur sparingly in this State. The mossy cup, yellow and shingle oaks, white linden and big shag-bark hickory, prominent trees of the central states, extend as far to the southeast as central North Carolina; while trees of the north, like the hemlock, sugar or hard maple, northern red oak, cherry birch and white pine and of the northeast, like the pignut hickory, chestnut, northern pitch pine and balsam enter more or less largely into the composition of the forests of the western parts of the State.

        Many trees of wide distribution, and among them some of the most valuable, extend from the State in all directions, the white, post, black, scarlet and Spanish oaks, the red and white maples, the white hickory and brown-heart and shag-bark hickories, short-leaf pine, yellow poplar, red cedar, black cherry and black walnut. The cypress, water and willow oaks, downy poplar, swamp-white oak (Q. Michauxii, Nutt.) southern elm, and planer tree are trees having a great range to the south and southwest. A few trees are found only in this State, or extend but a short distance beyond its boundaries, the yellow-wood, the large-leaved umbrella tree, the Carolina he lock, the clammy locust, the last being entirely confined to this State.

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        But if nature has been lavish in the variety of forms it gave, it has been no less prodigal in material wherewith to build them, for an equitable climate and an abundant rainfall have vied in rearing trees no less magnificent in size than valuable for the quality of their timbers. No less than twenty trees reach in North Carolina the greatest size which they attain, among them some of the most important trees of the American forests, viz: the white and rock chestnut oaks, the cucumber, black cherry, yellow poplar, the hemlock and chestnut. All of these attain their greatest dimensions on the cool moist slopes of the mountains. One species the loblolly (North Carolina) pine, reaches its greatest size, and forms its most compact growth, along the lowlands or on the moist uplands of eastern North Carolina.

        Altogether there are 153 kinds of woody plants, which form a simple upright stem and attaining arborescent proportions growing naturally within the State; and of these over seventy are trees of the first size, and fifty seven are trees of great economic value. Fourteen of these are known to attain in this State a height of over 100 feet, three of them a height of over 140 feet, sixteen of them reach in this State diameters of five feet or over; and five reach diameters of seven feet or over. The largest aud finest specimens of individual development are to be found in the extreme eastern and western regions in places where the soil is not only deep and fertile, but where during the greater part of the growing season it remains moist or at least mellow. Such conditions are furnished by the lower slopes of the higher mountains, particularly the northern slopes and by many of the swamps of the coastal region.

THE FOREST TREES.

        Pinus palustris, Mill., the long-leaf pine, occurs commercially in the fifteen counties of the coastal region lying south of the Neuse river, where it is found on the driest and most sandy soils unmixed with other trees, or on better soils with a lower story beneath the pine of dogwood and small post and Spanish oaks, the oaks being suitable for cross ties. From this pine, by boxing it, that is removing a thin layer of the sap-wood so that the resin contained in the tree may exude and be caught in a hole or "box" cut in the trunk of the tree near its base, crude turpentine, as the resin is called, is obtained. By the distillation of the crude turpentine spirits of turpentine is gotten as the volatile part, while rosin is the residue left in the retort. This industry of tapping the pine for resin and the distillation

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of that, gives employment to several thousand men in this State, and the annual value of the resinous products sold from this State aggregate over $1,500,000, being, in fact, about one-third of the entire product of these commodities in the world. Tar is obtained from this tree by slow combustion in a closed kiln of pieces of its heartwood impregnated with resin; and from tar, pitch is made by boiling it with a fixed proportion of crude turpentine.

        The long-leaf pine is a tall and slender tree, with a long clear stem, the trees frequently being 100 feet high, but rarely three feet in diameter. The wood is even grained and strong, stronger than that of any other American pine and nearly twice as strong as that of the white pine. It is exceptionally free from knots, wind-shakes, heart-cracks, red-heart and other timber defects, takes a good polish and is particularly suited for flooring, wainscotting and outside work; and on account of its resistance to decay, for tank plank, trestles and framing. The sap-wood is very thin.

        Pinus taeda, L., the loblolly pine, occurs from the coast as far west as Granville and Anson counties. Although it makes its best development, reaching its largest size and forming its best wood, on the moist land bordering streams and swamps, mixed with hardwoods of various kinds, it nevertheless grows well on fresh uplands, particularly in old fields, where, unmixed with other trees it grows rapidly and forms a good timber. It is the largest of southern pines, reaching a height of 140 feet and a diameter of 4.5 to 5 feet above the swollen base and forming a long, clear, tapering trunk. The wood is coarser grained than that of the long-leaf pine and is especially suitable for panneling, wainscotting, and ceiling. It also makes excellent flooring when rift sawed as it does not sliver. For such uses the smaller and "sap trees" make the best lumber as the kiln dried sap-wood lumber takes paint better than the heart-wood. The large trees, which in a great part are heart-wood, are used for heavy framing and in naval construction. The lumber is marketed largely in eastern cities and chiefly as North Carolina pine, but the common field name for the tree in North Carolina is short-leaf or old-field pine, though swamp and slash pine are frequently applied and rosemary pine is the name given to the largest stocks with a small proportion of sap-wood. The sylvicultural possibilities of this tree make it one of the most important of eastern American trees as it has a strong and valuable wood, rapid growth, is liable to but few injuries, is readily reproduced, and grows well under divers conditions of treatment and on various soils. Young trees where they occur should be protected as they soon become large enough for use, and the

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growth should be kept as thick as possible that the lower limbs may be shaded of and clear stems formed. From 3,500 to 4,000 feet, board measure, per acre is considered an average yield for this pine.

        Pinus echinata, Mill., the short-leaf pine or yellow pine, as it is usually called in this State, occurs throughout the Piedmont forestal region, and south of the French Broad river in the Mountain region. It is found as a forest tree, neither on the most fertile uplands nor on the lowlands, but occupies soils which are poor or of medium fertility. It reaches its largest size, however, on the better class of loamy soils, often being 80 to 90 feet high and 2.5 to 3 feet in diameter, where it is associated with the white oak and various black oaks, the red and white-heart hickories and dogwood, but it is far more abundant on close or shallower soils growing with the post and black-jack oaks, which often form a lower story beneath the open upper story of pines. The wood is yellow, soft, rather light, even grained and easy to work and is largely used as a building material where ever the tree occurs. It is sawn for shipment but not to so large an extent as either of the pines previously described. The timber of the regrowth of this tree in old fields and waste places is largely sap-wood, and when kiln-dried, makes a lumber in no way inferior to that of the loblolly pine. Although there are many places where this tree does not occur in the forests, yet its young growth is generally disseminated where ever fields have been abandoned or woods closely culled, so that the significance of the term "oak lands" no longer holds strictly true. These old-field sap pines, when allowed to grow and reach a large size, form a heartwood as large and equally as good as that of the original growth of pine in the forest. Although this pine makes a fair growth when growing alone, unmixed with other trees, its most rapid growth and the largest stocks, freest from knots and limbs and with the greatest yield of timber from each tree, are secured when the tree is associated with the white and black oaks and the hickories. When associated with these trees the crown rapidly pushes upward to get to the light, leaving behind a slender, clear stem, which, when suitable light conditions are assured, rapidly enlarges. When growing unmixed with other trees the trunks are apt to be knotty and limby.

        Four other yellow pines occur in North Carolina; one in the Coastal region, Pinus serotina, Mx., the savanna pine, and three in the Piedmont and Mountain regions, Pinus Virginiana, Mill., the cedar or scrub pine, P. rigida, the northern pitch pine, and P. pungens, Michx. f., the Table Mountain pine. These are sometimes sawn into lumber, but the trees are small or not common, so the wood is little used.

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        Pinus strobus, L., the white pine, occurs along and near the Blue Ridge and over local areas to the west of it. It is locally used for building and especially for making shingles and box lumber.

        Taxedium distichum, Rich., the cypress, is one of the largest trees of Eastern America. It grows along the margins of streams or in swamps, with the sweet gum and black gums, but reaches its largest size in swamps along and near the coast, too deep for these trees to reach their largest dimensions. Trees are often cut which are five or seven feet through above the swollen base. The wood is dark brown in color and only slightly resinous. It stands exposure remarkably well and shrinks and swells but little when subject to alternations of temperature or of moisture and dryness. Such characteristics make the timber peculiarly suitable for shingles, doors, sashes and exterior trimming, and a large amount is manufactured in this State for such purposes. Much is also sawn for boat and tank plank, buckets, tubs, etc. On account of its durability in contact with the soil, it is adapted for telegraph and telephone poles, ties, posts and similar uses. Taxodium distichum imbricaria, (Nutt.,) Ashe,*

        * Cupressus disticha var. imbricaria, Nutt. Gen. ii, 224.


is a smaller tree growing in ponds which dry up during summer. Its timber is rarely used, where better can be secured.

        Juniperus Virginiana, L., the red cedar, is frequent throughout the State except in the higher mountains. It is most abundant on and near the coast and there reaches its largest size sometimes being fifty feet high and three feet through, generally, however, it is far smaller. The wood, in contact with the soil, or when exposed, resists decay a long time and for this reason is largely used for buckets, posts and ties. It is of slow growth, but reproduces itself abundantly and young trees are to be found where ever there are old ones.

        Chamaecyparis thyoides, (L.) B. S. P., the white cedar or juniper, occurs in swamps in the Coastal region having a sandy or peaty soil in the eastern zone. It is not generally diffused, but where it does occur is quite abundant, often forming a great part of the growth, small bays and gums usually growing with it. The wood is light, soft, white, very durable, the sap-wood lasting nearly as long as the heartwood. It is largely used for woodenware, shingles, telegraph poles. It grows rapidly and is one of the most valuable of American trees, being put to many uses for which no other wood is so well suited. No where in the United States is it common and the supply of it is rapidly being exhausted. The young growth where found should be protected as it soon becomes large enough to be used.

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        Tsuga Canadensis, (L.) Carr., the hemlock, is one of the largest trees in the State, being frequently over 100 feet high and sometimes as high as 140 feet. It is very common along the brinks of streams in the high mountains. The timber is of the same quality as that of the tree farther north, coarse grained and suitable only for framing and for coarser uses. The most valuable part of the tree is the bark, from which is obtained one of the best and most widely used tanning extracts. Except around Cranberry, in Mitchell county, but little timber has been cut in this State for this purpose. It is one of the most wasteful practices, as, after the bark is removed, no use is made of the rest of the stock.

        Tsuga Caroliniana, Engel., the Carolina hemlock, is a much smaller tree than the preceding, and while resembling it some in general appearance, instead of having its light, graceful aspect, is stiffer and looks more like a spruce or fir. It is quite rare, being found at intervals along and near the Blue Ridge from Georgia to Virginia, growing on dry ridges and exposed cliffs. The bark has tanning properties similar to those of the true hemlock. Both of these trees are known under the local name of spruce pine.

        Picca Mariana, (Mill.) P. S. B., the black spruce, or he balsam as it is called in the mountains of this State where it occurs, is found along many of the high mountains, forming on them dense sombre forests. The trees are as a general thing not large, though occasionally specimens may be three feet through and eighty or ninety feet high. It has been used to some extent in the mountains for a building material but it is too inaccessible for general use at the present time.

        Abies Fraseri, Pursh, the Carolina balsam is found on many of the highest mountain summits. The wood of this tree has considerable resonant properties, and is eminently suitable for the manufacture of sounding boards to musical instruments. The balsam or fir resin is found in blisters in its bark. It is used medicinally and is gathered to some extent.

        Nine white oaks occur in North Carolina; seven of these are large trees, one is a medium sized tree, and one is a shrub.

        Quercus alba, L., the white oak is decidedly the most valuable oak which occurs in this State. It is found in every county but is most abundant in the Piedmont region, though it reaches its largest size on the lower slopes of the mountains, where however above an elevation of 3,000 feet, it seldom occurs. In the Coastal it is rare except on moist loamy soils, being altogether absent from the river and swamp lands and equally so from the loose

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sandy pine lands. But throughout the Piedmont region it is to be found on nearly all soils, either in company with other oaks and hickories, or with pine, and is very often the most prominent feature in the forest, particularly in second growth woods on a good soil. Trees four feet in diameter with clear stems of from forty to sixty feet are not infrequently cut. The qualities of its timber are well known: tough, compact and elastic, light brown in color, with a thin sap-wood. In contact with the soil it is one of the most durable woods and cross ties made from it last from seven to eight years. Some rims are made from it and a great many felloes and wagon spokes. Quarter-sawed to show the silver grain, it is used for furniture and office finishing. Its bark is considered one of the best for tanning and it is largely used for that. When the wood is to be bent or split young and vigorous trees are preferred as being tougher and more elastic, many barrel staves being split from it, for which purpose it is preferred to the other oaks. Its growth is rapid and it reproduces itself rapidly both from seed and stump-shoots.

        Quercus monticola, Michx., the rock chestnut oak, is somewhat similar to the white oak in the qualities of its timber; but the wood is darker in color, harder and more difficult to work. This tree grows only in the upper districts, usually along dry ridges with various red oaks, and in such situations becomes only a medium sized tree; but along the foot hills of the higher mountains, on a more fertile soil, individual specimens are often found five feet in diameter. This tree is rarely unsound, and for this reason is preferred to all other of the inland oaks for ties and posts. The bark, which is gray, deeply furrowed and thick is better than that of all the other eastern oaks for tanning and there are several tanneries in the western part of North Carolina which are extensively using it. The supply in all of the higher mountain counties is large, as in none of these counties has bark ever been gathered. A great waste of timber goes on where ever trees are cut for their bark as the wood is rarely utilized. On dry and rocky soil the chestnut oak makes a shade tree scarcely surpassed, retaining the thickness of its foliage until the trees are old and have reached a large size.

        Quercus Michauxii, Nutt., the swamp chestnut oak and Q. lyrata, Walt., the over-cup oak, are both found in the swamps of the Piedmont and Coastal regions. The swamp chestnut oak reaches a larger size than any other of the southern white oaks. On the alluvial lands of the Cape Fear river, specimens of this tree are to be seen 18 to 20 feet in circumference, breast high, with cylindrous or tapering trunks which are free from limbs for fifty or sixty feet. Although

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these trees look quite dissimilar in their bark, leaves and acorns, yet their wood has qualities that are alike, the wood of both being rather coarse grained, open and porous and liable to check and warp in drying, and inferior to that of the other white oaks. It is well suited however for furniture and paneling, and large numbers of white oak staves for the West Indias are made from it.

        Quercus minor, (Marsh.) Sarg., the post oak, is very abundant on dry soil throughout the Piedmont region. In the Coastal, it is frequently found on loamy soils, especially to the north of the Neuse river, and in the mountainous region below an elevation of 2,000 feet. It is a small tree reaching a height which seldom exceeds 50 to 60 feet, with a diameter of 18 to 20 inches, although on fertile soils on the Piedmont plateau, it reaches a height of 90 feet and a diameter of 4 feet. It is especially suited for ties and posts on account of its small size and the durability of the wood in contact with the soil, where it will remain sound as long as that of the white oak. The post oak grows rapidly and its young growth is abundant wherever the mature trees occur.

        Quercus prinoides, Willd., the chinquepin oak, is a frequent shrub in the Piedmont region. The three other arborescent white oaks, Quercus prinoides acuminata, (Michx),*

        * Q. Prinus var acnminata Michx. Hist. Chen. Am. 5, t. 8.


Ashe, the yellow oak; Q. macrocarpa, Michx., the mossy cup oak; and Q. platanoides, (Lam.) Sud., the swamp white oak, are infrequent trees occurring along streams in many parts of the State, but on account of their infrequence, are of little economic importance in North Carolina. Their timber, except that of the first, is inferior in quality to that of the other white oaks, being weaker and more porus.

        There are nine kinds of red and black oaks found in North Carolina. Of these only seven can be classed as timber trees and only the first five of those mentioned below are of economic importance in this State.

        Quercus rubra, L., the northern red oak, is common in the mountains along moist slopes or at a high elevation, even on dry ridges, and is found as far to the eastward as Wayne county, along streams and on rich, cool hillsides; but it becomes more infrequent to the eastward. In the mountains, it reaches its largest size, often being 100 to 120 feet high, with a circumference, breast high, of 15 to 22 feet, the tapering trunk free from limbs for two-thirds of its length. Between five thousand and six thousand feet of boards have been cut from a single tree in Jackson county. The wood which is brownish-red in

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color and coarse grained, is considered one of the best for furniture making, since it works easily and takes a good polish.

        Quercus volutina, Lam., the black oak, is a large tree 2 to 3 feet in diameter and 50 to 80 feet in height, found in nearly every county in North Carolina, but infrequent in the southeastern counties and around the higher mountains. It is in the deep red and gray loam soils of the Piedmont region that it becomes most abundant and reaches its largest size. On these loams, associated with the white, Spanish and post oaks and red-heart hickory, it becomes the conspicuous feature in the forest. The wood is not so even grained as that of the northern red oak, which it much resembles, but it is more easily worked and furniture manufacturers in the towns in the middle part of the State find it well suited to their requirements.

        Quercus velutina coccinea, (Wang.), Ashe,*

        * Q. coccinea Wang. Am. 44, t. 4, f. 9.


the scarlet oak, bears some resemblance to the black oak, but is a smaller tree in every way. In North Carolina it is usually called spotted oak, on account of its light gray bark with black stripes or spots on it near the base of the trunk. The wood is coarser grained and more brittle than that of the black oak and is not so highly valued. In many places, however, it is preferred for fellys and for clapboards, which when made from it are said "to never wear out."

        Quercus digitata (Marsh.) Sud., the Spanish oak or southern red oak, is a large tree common in the Coastal region on loamy soils and in the Piedmont region, but not common in the mountainous. It has wood resembling that of the preceding red oaks, but it checks in drying and decays more rapidly on exposure. Most of the red oak staves made in the eastern part of the State are from the wood of this tree.

        Quercus digitata pago daefolia, (Ell.), Ashe,*

        * Q. falcata var. pagodasfolia Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. ii, 230.


the swamp red oak, is a tree having a general resemblance to the Spanish oak, but it occurs only on the margins of streams in the Piedmont and Coastal regions. The wood is similar to that of the Spanish oak, and is put to the same uses.

        Quercus Texana, Buckley, and Q. palustris, Duroi, are oaks found along streams in the Piedmont plateau region. They are red oaks, but are not frequent enough to have distinctive names given them in this State.

        Quercus Catesbaei, Michx, the forked-leaf black-jack and Q. Marylandica, Muench, the black-jack oak are common on poor land

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in the Piedmont and Coastal regions of the State, the first being confined to sandy soil in the latter region.

        There are four water and willow oaks in North Carolina. None of them are large trees and all have wood coarse grained and porous and liable to check in drying.

        Quercus aquatica (Lam.) Walt., the water oak and Q. phellos, L., the willow oak, are found throughout the eastern half of the State along and near water courses. The wood of the willow oak is better than that of the water oak and is largely used for fellys. Both trees are abuudant, especially eastward and young trees are common where ever there are old trees. Their trunks are rarely over three feet in diameter, and 60 to 70 feet is about the average height of the trees.

        Quercus laurifolia, Michx., the laurel-leaved oak, occurs only along and near the coast. Its foliage is evergreen, or nearly so. The wood is somewhat better than that of the water oak and the tree is usually larger than the water oak.

        Quercus imbricaria, Michx., the shingle or turkey oak, is a medium-sized tree found on the banks of mountain streams; and Q. brevifolia, Michx., is a small tree which grows on the sandy lands in the eastern part of the State.

        Quercus Virginiana, Mill., the live oak, is a large tree found only along the coast. It is short bodied, the trunk rarely being over ten feet long, but becomes four or five feet in diameter. The wood is very hard and is susceptible of a fine polish, but is difficult to work and is heavier than that of any other of the oaks of the eastern United States.

        Castanea sativa Americana, W. and C., the chestnut, is one of the largest trees in North Carolina, reaching frequently a diameter of seven or eight feet. The wood is soft and splits easily and straight, and in contact with the soil or when exposed is extremely durable. Ties made from it last from eight to ten years. It takes a good polish and is suitable for cabinet work and interior finishing. On account of its durability it is largely used for ties, telegraph posts, and fence rails. It is one of the most abundant trees in the mountain region, but is rare to the east of the Blue Ridge. It sprouts freely from the stump and young growth is common near mature trees. The gathering of its sweet edible fruit is an industry of some importance in the mountain counties in the late autumn if it has been a fruitful season.

        Fagus ferruginea, Ait., the beech, is a medium-sized tree occurring along streams or on wet hillsides throughout the State. The wood of the beech is compact, and difficult to split; in color it is

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nearly white. It is used for making shoe lasts and tool handles.

        Betula lutea, Michx., the yellow birch, is very abundant in the cool, moist hollows of the higher mountains, where it reaches a diameter of four or five feet. Its white wood is frequently wavy grained or curly and is largely manufactured into veneering for pianos and furniture.

        Betula lenta, L., the cherry birch, is more frequent in the mountains than the preceding tree. The wood, light red in color and susceptible of a fine polish, is sawn in many places on the mountains and used in furniture making, for which it is well suited. From the bark is distilled birch oil, used as a substitute for wintergreen in flavoring.

        Betula nigra, L., the black birch, is a small tree, with a porous, coarse grained wood, very common along streams in most parts of the State. The wood is well suited for the manufacture of trucking barrels and crates.

        The two most common ashes in the State are Fraxinus Americana, L., the white ash, and F. Pennsylvanica, Marsh., the green ash, the first being found along water courses in all parts of the State, and the latter in the Piedmont and Coastal regions. The wood of the white ash is better than that of the others, but there is not much difference. The wood is light, soft and elastic. F. Caroliniana Mill., the water ash, is a small tree growing in deep swamps in the eastern part of the State.

        Robinia pseudacacia, L., the yellow locust, is, as a forest tree, confined to the mountains, where, on rich slopes, it becomes a tree 80 feet high and 3 feet in diameter. The firm wood, which is very durable, is largely used for pins, posts, treenails and in turnery. The locust has been planted and become naturalized all through the State.

        Prunus serotina, Ehrh., the wild black cherry, is found throughout North Carolina, but it is only on the cool slopes of the higher mountains that it becomes large enough to be considered a timber tree. In such situations, however, it often forms a trunk four feet through and sixty feet long, and forms a considerable part of the forest. It attains its largest size in this State. The beautiful reddish wood is extensively used for making furniture.

        Liquidambar styraciflua, L., the sweet gum, reaches a height of 100 and a diameter of five feet and ranks among the largest trees. The red or brownish wood takes a fine polish and is used to some extent in the making of furniture and for flooring. Its most serious defect is that it is liable to warp but this can be prevented by careful

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drying. In the form of veneer it is largely used for making packing boxes, crates and truck barrels. It is found only in swamps or near streams but in such situations is extremely common, except in the Mountain region.

        Three elms occur in North Carolina, Ulmus Americana, L., the white elm; U. alata, Michx., the southern elm; and U. fulva, Michx., the slippery elm. The white elm is the largest and most abundant of these trees. It is found in swamps in the Piedmont and Coastal regions where it becomes a large sized tree. Except for making hubs and fruit crates the timber is put to but few uses. All of the elms are much used as shade trees. Celtis occidentalis, L., the hack berry, is a large tree growing along streams in most parts of the State, with foliage resembling that of the elm. The wood however is weak and heavy and is rarely used except for fencing.

        Morus rubra, L., the mulberry, occurs in moist places in nearly every part of the State. Although the bright yellow wood takes a beautiful polish, it is little used.

        Platanus occidentalis, L., the sycamore or buttonwood, is a large tree, becoming six feet through, found along streams in all parts of the State. The strong heavy wood is used for making boxes for plug tobacco, and quarter sawed, when it shows a beautifully marked grain, for panels for furniture and interior finish. When turned into veneer it shows handsome markings and in this form is used in house finishing.

        Juglans cinerea, L., the butternut or white walnut, is not a very common tree even in the mountain counties where it occurs most frequently. The light brown wood is sometimes used for furniture making. It takes a polish nearly equal to that of the black walnut.

        Juglans nigra, L., the black walnut, grows in all parts of the State along streams or, in the mountains, on rich, cool hillsides. In the Piedmont and Coastal regions there are few trees remaining except around dwellings and along fence rows, but a great many are yet standing in the mountain counties. Trees have been cut in the mountains four feet in diameter and seventy feet to the lowest limb, but the average diametor is not over two feet, with a clear stem of 40 or 50 feet. It is a tree of rapid growth and would well repay extensive planting.

        Hicoria aquatica, (Michx. f.) Brit., the rice field hickory and H. minima, (Marsh.) Brit., the bitternut hickory, are found along watercourses or in moist places, the first only in the southeastern part of the State and the last throughout. Their wood is softer and more brittle and inferior to that of the other hickories. H. alba, (L.)

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Brit.,*

        * Carya tormentosa, Nutt.


the white-heart hickory is one of the most common kinds and although it does not become as large a tree as the others, has wood of a superior quality, being very elastic and tough. The wood of this species is largely white; of all the others brownish. It is preferred to the others, particularly for buggy spokes and rims, tool handles and hoops. The other kinds are, however, largely used for these purposes when the white-heart cannot be obtained. H. laciniosa, (Michx.) Sarg., the great shag-bark, is found at intervals through the middle part of the State.

        Hicoria ovata, (Mill.) Brit.,*

        * Carya alba, Nutt.


the shag-bark hickory, is a large and valuable tree found along streams and on rich hillsides through the Piedmont region and to a less extent in the mountains. The brown wood splits exceedingly straight and easily and for this reason it is considered excellent for hoops. H. odorata, (Marsh.) Sarg., the red-heart hickory, is the common large upland hickory. The bark is sometimes scaly and for that reason, it is called scaly bark in the eastern part of the State. The wood is considered scarcely inferior to that of the white-heart hickory and is put to the same uses. It is very common, particularly on the deep red loams in the Piedmont region. H. glabra, (Mill.) Brit., the pignut hickory, is a smaller tree than the preceding, and grows generally on poorer or rockier soil. The wood is inferior to that of the red-heart hickory in elasticity and strength. It is common in parts of the State, but in other sections quite rare.

        There are two species of Tilia or linden, whitewood or basswood of the north, which are abundant enough to be of economic importance. These are the linden and white linden, both abundant in the mountains. The wood of both is white and soft, and is used for ceiling, in furniture and buggy manufacture. It also makes good wood pulp. The southern linden, which is found along the coast is a small and rare tree. Aesculus octandra, Marsh., the buckeye, has soft wood suitable for ceiling and such uses. It reaches in the mountains a large size, four feet in diameter and eighty feet high, and is abundant there.

        There are four large maples in North Carolina. The red maple, Acer rubrum, L., is the most frequently met and is the only one in any part of the Coastal region. The wood, nearly white, is softer than that of the other species, and is sawn for finishing the interior of cars.

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        The Acer barbatum, Michx. the sugar or rock maple, is as abundant in the mountain counties as the red maple is in the eastern; it is found to some extent in the middle counties and sparingly in the eastern. It is the largest of the maples. The wood is light brown and hard. The bird's eye and curly forms of it are frequently met with. The black maple, Acer nigrum, Michx., is an infrequent tree confined to the mountains. Acer saccharinum L.,*

        * Acer dasycarpum, Ehrh.


the white maple, or hard maple as it is sometimes called, is a large tree with wood something like that of the sugar maple. It is confined to the western part of the State. There are three other arborescent maples in North Carolina, but their timber has no commercial value.

        Liriodendron tulipifera, L., the yellow poplar, attains its largest dimensions in North Carolina, where in the mountain counties it grows to a height of 120 feet or over, with a diameter, breast high, of seven or eight feet. It is found, however, throughout the State and is largely used for building material, furniture, making packing boxes, crates and wood pulp. Magnolia acuminata, L., the cucumber tree, a large tree found frequently in the mountains, has wood similar to that of the yellow poplar and applicable to the same uses. There are five other species of Magnolia occurring in the State, but they are, from their infrequence or small size, of no economic importance here.

        Hard-wood trees, like dog-wood, persimmon, iron wood and hornbeam are common in all parts of the State, and the same can be said of sassafras and black gums.

FORESTRY ON THE BILTMORE ESTATE.

        Biltmore Estate was the first one in this country to establish a Department of Forestry and to manage its forests upon a practical forestry basis.

        The United States is behind all other civilized nations in the manner for caring for its timber lands. The government lately has waked up to this fact, and realized that the only way to save our forests was to place them under forest management. On the Biltmore Estate, the endeavor has been to carry out only those principles of forestry which apply as well to the government forests, or those owned by a lumbering firm. Forestry that does not pay is no forestry at all; hence, many methods which are considered of first importance in the forests of France and Germany are denied to us, for the simple reason that forestry in this country is still in its infancy.

        

Illustration

THE VANDERBILT ESTATE--DRIVEWAY--BILTMORE STATION.

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        The Forest Department of the estate has under its charge about 110,000 acres of wood lands, a much larger tract than is usually assigned to any one forester. These wood lands are divided into two distinct parts; the first, containing 10,000 acres, lies in the valley of the French Broad river and is known as the Biltmore Forest; the second part, containing nearly 100,000 acres, lies almost entirely in the mountains, and is known as Pisgah Forest, so called from Mt. Pisgah which has an elevation of over 5,000 feet. These two forests cannot be treated upon the same system. In Biltmore Forest the main object has been to increase the value of the growing stock, to protect the more valuable from the faster growing species, and gradually to secure an even aged wood, which is important, as it facilitates the management of the forests in a great degree. Before Mr. Vanderbilt bought Biltmore Forest, most of the large timber trees had been cut down, so it was decided, as there was a good sale in fire wood in both Biltmore and Asheville, to grow only trees for fire wood. The forest was composed almost entirely of oak and pine. The pine is a much faster growing tree than the oak, and the oak is the more valuable of the two, hence something had to be done to help along the oaks. This was accomplished by either giving the oaks a start in their youth, by sowing them in distinct groups, or by cutting back the pines when threatening to over-top and kill the oaks. A sufficiently dense covering must be kept at all times, in order that the soil may not deteriorate.

        Pisgah Forest has never been lumbered out. Here the timber has reached a large size, and the Forest Department is growing only timber trees, as it would not pay to bring fire wood from so great a distance.

        Mr. Vanderbilt has bought a band saw mill at Asheville; splash dams will be built on the creeks in Pisgah Forest, and the logs will be splashed into the French Broad river and carried on down to the Mill. The amount of timber which shall be cut in Pisgah Forest each year, and the same holds good for the amount of fire wood in Biltmore Forest, is fixed by what is known as the "sanctioned annual yield." This is the amount of wood that is added to the tree each year, and from this we are able to find the amount of wood added to the whole forest each year. If we cut no more than this our forests will surely not be diminished.

        Then too, there has been a great improvement over the usual methods of lumbering. Every tree that is to be cut is selected by the forester; no trees under a certain diameter are taken. The mother trees are left to seed the ground again, which they do most liberally

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in this climate, but most important of all, the undergrowth is especially looked after. Every tree is felled carefully, and the smallest possible amount of damage is done.

        I have only stated here the simplest principles, but by these means the forests of the Estate are improving year, by year.

BILTMORE NURSERY AND ABORETUM.

        A little more than six years ago a nursery was established on the alluvial deposits of the Swannanoa river, at Biltmore, for propagating large numbers of native and hardly exotic forest trees and shrubs, and, as this industry has developed into one of the largest and most complete and consistent establishments of its kind, an outline of the progress and results obtained, together with the future plans, may be of general interest.

        Up to the time of the founding of the nursery very little was known regarding the capabilities of the soil and climate of the locality. Barring the tangible evidence of the indigenous species and a few foreign plants that were sparingly used about the homes of the residents, the plan of procedure was largely based upon the available meteorological data. That the scope of the undertaking might not be circumscribed by lines falling within the possibilities of the natural surroundings, considerable freedom was exercised in ordering the first consignments of stock plants. Orders were placed with the leading nurseries of the world for woody plants coming within the range of the definition above explained; in fact, everything of this nature that could be procured from the commercial nurseries and likely to thrive in the locality was included.

        It will readily be admitted that the first season's work was one of experiment. Every precaution was taken to encourage the plants to produce a well balanced growth and thoroughly ripen the same before the time of killing frosts. Finally, the ground was placed in the best mechanical condition to withstand the effects of winter. With intense interest, every stage of development and effect being carefully recorded, the entire aggregation of plants was watched. The first winter, fortunately, was not severe, and although some losses were sustained, the majority of the species entered upon their second season with increased vigor. On the advent of the second winter the stock could not have been in better condition to withstand the hardships which followed. The winter was very severe, accompanied by several remarkable depressions of the thermometer. With such a test it is evident that the surviving plants will serve as an invaluable criterion to the planter in the mountain district.

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        Having thus gained the key to success, the employees are kept busy propagating the desirable species and varieties, and a glance at the great range of glass, frames and land leads one to believe that the annual output might reach vast and astonishing numbers. Since the erection of the first propagating house, between three and four millions of forest trees and shrubs have been turned over to the planters. In addition to this, at the present writing, nearly two millions of plants are in course of development, and the annual output may now be estimated at something over two millions of plants.

        Although the list of species and varieties in cultivation on the nursery is a large one, it is not complete. Many kinds of plants known to science have never been cultivated, and are, consequently, only procurable through the agency of collectors or botanical exchanges. Here again, the nursery, through its paid collectors and generous contributors, is constantly adding rare or little known plants to its collection. Among the extremely rare plants recently introduced into cultivation are two from the State of North Carolina, species which were but imperfectly known to botanical science, namely, the dwarf sumach (Rhus michauxi, Sargent) and the deciduous kalmia (Kalmia cuneata, Michaux).

        A pertinent question might arise as to the intrinsic value of many of the plants thus neglected or not in cultivation. A direct answer could not be given at the present time, but their value in pleasing combinations of foliage or flower in landscape planting or home decoration is possible. To the student of certain branches of natural history they have an added charm, and when it is considered that the efforts of the nursery in this respect are preliminary steps towards the establishment of a vast museum of living trees and shrubs, to be called the Biltmore Arboretum, in which will be illustrated examples of every species and sub-species of woody vegetation that will thrive unprotected in the soil and climate of the locality, its future object will be better understood.

        To facilitate the compilation of the list of plants to be represented, their identification and subsequent classification necessary for their distribution in the arboretum, a magnificent library and several herbaria (collections of dried plants) have been installed in the nursery buildings as a nucleus for the great undertaking. The library already contains a large number of the masterpieces in botanical literature, and additions will be made as rapidly as suitable works can be procured. Among the herbaria represented is the type collection of Dr. A. W. Chapman, upon which he based his work, the "Flora of the Southern United States." The botanical collectors are now engaged

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in preparing thousands of botanical specimens illustrating the flora of Western North Carolina, and it is expected to offer these specimens and many others from our vast country, either living or dried, in exchange for material not represented in the present collection.

        Although no planting has yet been done on the arboretum, active work has been in progress for some time; the energy being expended in laying out the line and making the necessary clearings. In effect, the arboretum will appear as a line of road traversing the valleys and slopes for a total distance, including several loop roads, of about twelve miles. On either side, and extending back for two hundred feet or more, will be planted the trees and shrubs it is intended to exhibit, first, in isolated specimens, second, in small masses, and third, in bulk. To plant this vast area with suitable specimens and to provide a living blanket to protect and cover the intervening ground and space beneath the spread of the greater trees, it will require possibly more than ten million plants.

        Beginning with the first species coming within the classification to be adopted, one may pass along the line and view the ligneous plants of many temperate countries in botanical sequence, at least so far as the peculiarities of soil and exposure will admit of such an arrangement. When the progress of the nursery and aboretum has sufficiently advanced and the proposed plantings have reached characteristic peculiarities, it is expected that the student and lover of plants may find ample field for study and recreation; the planter, the types of beauty appealing to his senses, and the artist, the shades and tints of Flora in her seasons.

FLORA.

        The flora of any region includes all the indigenous or native plants, and such foreign species as have been introduced and show their ability to maintain themselves without cultivation. A flora includes flowering or phaenogamous plants as well as flowerless or cryptogamous plants, but only such as grow wild. The specific constitution of a flora depends firstly upon the climate, and secondly upon the geology of a district. A third modifying force is composed of numerous smaller factors of less importance than either of the above; but which in the aggregate amount to a very considerable influence. Among such factors we may enumerate the following:

Illustration

SOME INDIGENOUS FLOWERS.

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(1) Age and condition of civilization. (2) Density of population. (3) Methods of agriculture. (4) Presence or absence of railroads and navigable streams.

        In a climate like ours virgin soils are usually covered by forest growth, which by its varying density shelters a greater number of species of low growing plants than unwooded land shows. As settlements grow older and population denser, the forest gives way to tilled fields and introduced crops which crowd out the native species of lesser economic value. Crops like cotton and corn which require clean cultivation are far more destructive to the native species than are meadows and pastures where native plants have a chance to compete with the introduced grasses. Railroads and navigable rivers help to introduce and spread foreign plants and in so far they are unfavorable to the native flora. The introduced species now in North Carolina come from Europe, Eastern Asia, South America and the Northern Middle States in about the order given.

        To most non-scientific persons the general aspect or physiognomy of a flora are of more interest than its specific constitution.

        A well watered and varied landscape covering hill and dale, with interspersed groves and green open spots is to all more agreeable than a monotonous stretch of woodland or plain.

        The total number of distinct species growing within a circle of say twenty-five miles diameter, in a fertile and well varied district, is from 1000 to 1200, not including microscopic fungi.

        The great naturalist, Humboldt, after a long life spent in studying nature in all parts of the globe, wrote: "The character of nature in different regions is most intimately associated with the history of the human race and its mental culture. Climatic relations have to a great extent influenced the character of nations and the degree of gloom or cheerfulness in the dispositions of men. Who does not feel differently affected beneath the shade of a beechen grove, on hills covered by pines, and in a flowering meadow where the breeze murmurs through the trembling foliage of the birch?"

        The same author classifies vegetation as directly affecting landscape, and indirectly human character, into sixteen forms representing as many kinds of climate or geological formation. First there is the palm form characteristic of the moist hot climate of the tropics. Associated with this, we usually find the banana which furnishes the chief subsistence of the languid natives of torrid climes. The mallow form--most familiar to us in the swamp hibiscus, the garden, althea and holly-hock, and among economic plants, cotton and okra is characteristic of a warm, temperate, moist climate. The mimosa

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form--trees with light green, pinnate leaves like the black locust--is characteristic of a climate cooler and drier than that in which the mallow form luxuriates. The pine form, including all cone-bearing evergreens, is characteristic of a cold-temperate climate. The aerial orchid form is tropical as are also large leaved herbaceous plants such as the caladium and arum. The trailing form, or vines, is most common in the climate where the mallow form is at home. Ferns, sedges and grasses seem to possess greater powers of adaptation than any other plant families, but we find them most luxuriant in the torrid zone where grasses become tall, woody bamboos and ferns become trees.

        A comprehensive study of nature teaches us that where geological causes do not interfere all forms of organic life, except only mental and moral endowment, increases in its abundance, vigor and perfection from the poles to the equator. In traversing this distance, we find, however, that each zone has its own peculiar beauties and forms of life. In each zone, too, we find a certain co-ordination between the vegetal and animal life, and where men exist their social condition or the state of civilization. In the frigid zone where the somber pine form characterizes vegetation savage and untamable beasts abound, and the mental development of mankind becomes stunted, rigid and gloomy. In the torrid zone where vegetation runs riot, and there are no seasons nor apparent changes of foliage during growth, we find subtle and treacherous wild beasts like the panther. Here humans seem to become cruel as the beasts and as ungovernable as the unreclaimable forests and jungles among which they live. In the temperate zone with its succession of seasons, its deciduous flora and flowery meadows, we find native the teachable animals and the most advanced nations of men.

        In the temperate zone geological causes affect the composition of the native flora and the characters of the animals and men which inhabit therein much more powerfully than seems to be the case in either the frigid or torrid zones where climate is all powerful. In the temperate zone where ever we find an arid or barren soil there we find also the more puny animals and men with minds and characters as meagre as their lands.

        The moral of all this is, that in seeking a new home, we should consider carefully the unmodifiable factors of climate, geology and locality as shown at least in part by the nature of the indigenous flora.

        The State of North Carolina lies between the parallels 33° 50′ and 36° 33′ of north latitude. Its eastern side, 187¼ miles long, is washed by the Atlantic Ocean; its furtherest western extension is

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503¼ miles inland, the average elevation above the sea level is 640 feet. The highest point is Mitchell's Peak, 6,888 feet. The total area is 52,286 square miles, of which 3,620 square miles are water, and 48,666 square miles land. Climatically, about two-thirds of the State belongs to the northern or temperate type, and the remainder to the southern or sub-tropical type. The State is divided by geological causes into three well-marked districts each having a distinct and different flora. The Coastal Plain region consists of a low, sandy plain of about 150 miles in width, which in comparatively recent times, geologically speaking, has emerged from the sea. Extensive swamps fringe the coast along its whole extent.

        The long leaf or southern pine,--Pinus Australis, Mx. is the predominant growth, with the loblolly pine,--Pinus taeda, Mx. and scrub oak Quercus Catesbaei as secondary factors. The herbaceous growth is chiefly wire grass,--Aristida sticta, Mx. and A. purpurea, Mx. Plants of the composite or aster family abound in their seasons, the most common genera being Chrysopsis, Silphium, Aster, Peterocaulon, Helianthus and Liatris. Leguminous plants, chiefly Lupinus, Tephrosia and Stylosanthes abound, but as a whole the drier portion of this region is very poor in species. Along streams, "branches" as they are called, we find a more luxuriant growth. Here, in addition to the above species, we find among trees and shrubs oaks of many species, Sour Gum, Nyssa aquatica L.; Sweet Bay, Gordonia Lasianthus, L; and its close relative Stuartia Virginiea, Cav.--both of which belong to the camellia and tea family. The "he-huckleberry," Cyrilla racemiflora, Walt. abounds and the great bay, Magnolia Grandiflora, L. comes almost to the Cape Fear river.

        The palmettos, Sabal Palmetto, R. & S. and S. Adansonii, Guerns. come as far North as the Cape Fear river. Among under-shrubs, the most common genera are the blue-berries, Vaccinium and Gaylussacia; stagger bushes, Andromeda; sumachs and related genera; the spice bush, Clethra; button bush, Cephalanthus; yopon, Ilex; alder, Alnus; pepper bush, Itea, and Jersey tea, Ceanothus. Among the climbing vines, we find in profusion the grape Vitis, four species; Smilax, seven species; Clematis, two species; Virginia creeper, trumpet flower, Tecoma; cross vine, Bignonia; Carolina jessamine; wild ginger, Decumaria; and passion flower, Passiflora incaranta. L. The southern cane grasses, Arundinaria gig antea and A. tecta cover the banks of streams to the nearly complete exclusion of other species of this family.

        In the swamps the prevailing trees are the bald cypress Taxodium distichum, Rich. and white cedar, Cupressus thyoides, L. Along

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the coast, live oak Quercus virens, L. occurs. All of these trees within the influence of tide water are apt to be covered by the abundant festoons of the southern long moss, Tillandsia usneoides, L. which is not a moss at all, but an epiphytic plant closely related to the pine apple and to the aerial orchids of the torrid zone. We find in wet and boggy situations Saggitaria, Aletris, Tofieldia, Zigadenus, Lachnanthes, Pleea, Xyris, and the very rare spoon-flower, Xanthosma saggitifolia, Schott. Here also we find quite a variety of interesting carnivorous plants. The most celebrated of these is the Venus fly-trap, Dioneae muscipula, Ellis. This does not occur north of the Neuse river nor much below the southern boundary of the State. It is most abundant around Wilmington, but the recent extensive development of truck farming in that neighborhood threatens the speedy annihilation of this plant. Besides Dioneae we find five species of carnivorous pitcher plants, viz. Sarracenia rubra, Walt.; S. variolaris, Mx.; S. flava, L.; S. purpurea, L.; and a doubtful species, S. Drommondii, Croom, near the South Carolina line. There are also four species of sundew, Drosera filiformis, Raf; D. longifolia, L.; D. rotundifolia L.; and D. brevifolia, Ph.; Pinguicula lutea, Walt; and P. elatior, Mx. together with the closely related bladderworts, Utricularia inflata, Walt; U. vulgaris, L; U. subulata, L. and U. cornuta. Mx. complete the list of carnivorous or insect eating plants found in this district. In like places we find a great abundance of bull-rushes, Juncus, 10 species; cat-tails, 2 species; sedges, including about 18 genera and 110 species. Of grasses, besides the canes, Paspalum, 10 species; Panicum, 25 to 27 species; Uniola, 3 species; Andropogon, 7 species; Erianthus, 2 species; Elymus, 2 species; Arisdidia, 5 to 6 species; Sporobolus, 3 species; Leersia, 4 species and Zizania, 2 species.

        Of the flora of the Piedmont Plateau region we shall write more briefly. The region has been long settled and more thoroughly cultivated than either of the others, and the result is that the original indigenous growth has been here largely destroyed or supplanted by introduced species. This is now a country of rolling red clay uplands whereon all the common plants and crops of the middle states are at home. Cotton, tobacco, grasses and cereal grains are the chief staples. Oaks, hickories and elms are the predominating trees with short leaf pine--Pinus mitis Mx. on the ridges separating the water sheds of different streams. The flora is a mixture of the flora of the eastern and western districts with a very large per cent. of introduced species familiar to dwellers in the middle states and Europe.

        The Mountain region of the State includes the foot hills and all the valleys and domes of the Blue Ridge and Smoky mountains.

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This region has been until comparatively recent date quite inaccessible, and hence the original growth is still everywhere to be seen, though the axe and fire of the lumberman is now only too frequently heard and seen in the land. The predominating forest growth is oaks, hickories, black-walnut, chestnut, cherry, white poplar (Liriodendron), magnolias--five species in the valleys; and white-pine, white spruce, hemlock spruce and balsam fir on the higher peaks. On the middle terraces birches, limes, elms, ashes, maples, and willows complete the very northern forest flora. In this case the high altitude gives us a climate equivalent to that which high latitude gives to more northern States, and the forest growth partakes of the same character. The undergrowth, both shrubby and herbaceous, is however, very different from the corresponding flora of northern climes. Here beneath a characteristically northern forest growth we find a typical southern undergrowth. Besides the gorgeous flowers of the semi-shrubby magnolias, we find in profusion the even more striking bloom of the rhododendrons, of which there are eight native species. Here is the original home of the Rhododendron catawbiense, Mx. the parent of our finest cultivated rhododendrons. Of kalmia or "calico bush" there are three species, and related genera of the Ericaceous family almost too numerous to mention.

        Cranberry bogs are frequent and Stuartia pentagyna--a different and less showy species than that found in the coast district--abounds. Spireas of several species; hydrangea, two species, and Viburnum, eight species are very abundant. The service berry--Amelanchier, is much esteemed for its fruit, which is usually obtained by cutting down the tree which here grows 25 to 30 feet high. Among the climbers are grapes, three species; trumpet flower; Virginia creeper; honey-suckle, three species; smilax or green brier, three species; moon seed, (Menispermum); poison sumach; Decumaria barbata, L.; wild ginger or dutchman's pipe, Aristolochia sipho, L'Her, and Virgin's bower Clematis, two species.

        The herbaceous growth is particularly rich in composite plants. Nearly all the northern and most of the southern species of aster and solidago, or golden rod, abound. In early summer travelers by railroad often pass for miles through lands thickly covered by the bright yellow flowers of Senecio aureus, L. var. tomentosus, Mx. supplanted later in the season by Bidens and Coreopsis. In cool moist spots violets abound in great profusion. Fifteen species are found, all of which grow to an unusual size. On rocky cliffs we find plants of the saxifrage family every where. The most common genera are

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Saxifriga, five species; Astilbe; Heuchera, five species; Tiarella and Mitella. The pink family is represented by Silene, five species; Alsine, three species; Spergula and Paronychia. The beautiful evergreen, and round leaved, Galax aphylla, L. is fairly common. The long lost and much sought for plant Shortia galacifolia, Gray, has been recently found in several places, but has now been nearly extirpated by the rapacity of collectors. Lily of the valley; terrestrial orchids, Lilium, three species; Trillium, five species; Acorus, Orontium, and Arisaema are all very common. The partridge berry, Mitchellia; and liver leaf, Hepatica with various grasses and ferns form the ground carpet.

        At the cryptogamic flora of the State, we must only glance. Of ferns our flora numbers 38 to 40 species. Ground pine, (Lycopodium,) ten species; liver-worts, 70 to 75 species; mossess, about 200 species; lichens, about 220 species; algae and sea weeds, about 50 species; fungi, 2,500 species, of which nearly 100 species are edible mushrooms.

        The total number of species of plants recorded from this State is about 5,500, but as the cryptogams have not been very exhaustively investigated, it is likely that the number of species will eventually reach over 6,000.

        No State in the Union, nor any country of similar area anywhere, can show a more varied flora than North Carolina, nor one which contains a greater number of indigenous plants of high economic value. From early colonial days, North Carolina has been the chief scource of the yellow pine lumber and naval stores consumed in or exported from the United States. This business has now, however, passed to virgin fields further south, and where the axe of the woodman and hacker of turpentine gatherer erstwhile resounded, we now see the plow and the pruning knife of the fruit grower and truck farmer. Our swamp lands still yield largely of cedar, cypress, gum and similar valuable timbers. While our mountains contain vast quantities of the most valuable hard wood suitable for furniture and cabinet work. This State has for over twenty years furnished the main supply of the sweet chestnuts sold in the stores--the spontaneous product of our mountain slopes.

        For decades, North Carolina has been the chief source of the national supply of crude vegetable drugs. This industry has now reached an extension and volume, the importance of which but few outside the medical and pharmaceutical professions appreciate. The number of distinct species of important medical plants found growing wild in this State is about seven hundred.

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        We have already spoken of the influence of geological formation on the superimposed plant growth. A few words on the value of indigenous plants as indicators of the agricultural worth of the underlying soil will close this chapter. Plants, unlike animals, are unable to change their habitations and therefore in the course of time in accordance with the law of "survival of the fittest," each species becomes specially adapted to one kind of soil. The species which do not adapt themselves fail to hold their ground and are supplanted by the species which do. Hence the surviving and "fittest" species become trustworthy indicators of the nature of the soil--if we know on what kind of soil the species thrives best, or for which it is specially adapted.

        White oaks, hickories and elms and our most common northern shade trees, thrive best on a rich, strong clay upland soil. Such soil is best adapted, agriculturally, for grasses and cereal grains. The red oaks indicate a rather lighter and drier and poorer soil, better adapted for fruit. Walnut, gum and tulip trees thrive best on a rich moist soil, such as river bottoms. The buckeye, especially the sweet species, (Aesculus Pavia) indicates a soil rich in lime or marl. The chestnut will not grow on soil containing much lime, but luxuriates in a potash rich soil. The dog-wood, black jack and scrub oak, indicate a very poor, stony or sandy soil of little agricultural value except for early truck farming and peach and grape growing for northern markets.

        Among herbaceous plants, the cockle burs and Jamestown weed indicate rich moist soil, and the rag weed indicates a poor one. Asters indicate a thin, dry soil, whereas sun-flowers and most goldenrods abound only on fertile lands. Sedges and ferns grow only upon soil too wet for agricultural purposes. "Broom sedges," grasses, Andropogon, indicate a much worn soil lacking in potash, while the Aristidias, or wire grasses indicate one naturally deficient in all the elements of plant growth. The Malvas, Hibiscus and all plants of the mallow, or cotton, family indicate a moist soil.

FAUNA.

        The native living things belonging to a given region are called its Fauna and Flora, the former including all animals and the latter all plants. It is the Fauna of North Carolina that will now be briefly considered.

        

Illustration

CATAWBA FALLS--MCDOWELL COUNTY.

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        The distribution of North American land animals has been ably discussed by Dr. J. A. Allen, in the Bulletin, of the American Museum of Natural History, of New York, Vol. 4, 1892, and also by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, of the United States Department of Agriculture, in the publications of that department (see particularly, Year Book of the Department of Agriculture, 1894.)

        The classification adopted by Dr. Allen, for faunal areas, is more elaborate than is necessary for use here, and therefore the division of the North American Continent into primary "life zones," by Dr. Merriam, will be the system employed. They are as follows:

        The Artic Zone, lying north of the northern limit of tree growth, the land of the Polar Bear, Artic Fox and Reindeer and the Hudsonian Zone, the home of the great Moose and embracing within its limits the upper part of the vast spruce forests of Labrador and crossing the continent to Alaska, are not represented in this State.

        The Canadian Zone takes in the northern part of New England, New Brunswick, Quebec and northern Ontario, the southern part of Newfoundland, and extends across the continent to the Valley of the Yukon, in Alaska and, in spite of our southern situation, the fauna of this zone occurs in North Carolina along the crests of the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains. The boundaries of this division with us are, of course, determined by the altitude, the lower limit being about 4,500 feet, (see Brewster, on Birds of Western North Carolina, "Auk," Jan. 1886). Of animals belonging to this fauna and having a range to the far north but occurring in this State may be mentioned--the Canada Lynx (Lynx canadensis) and the Red Squirrel (Sciurus hudsonius), the "Boomer" of our mountains. Among the summer birds are the Carolina Snow bird (Junco hyemalis carolinensis), Mountain Solitary Vireo (Vireo solitarius alticola), Blackburnian Warbler (Dendroica blackburniae), Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis), Redbreasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis), &c. It is a remarkable feature of North Carolina animal life that a stretch of country lying between the parallels 34° and 37°, as this State does, should possess among its native animals and birds species that belong naturally to a fauna characteristic of the great forests of Canada and that reaches on its northern border to beyond 60° of north latitude. But to this great degree does the altitude of our mountain peaks modify their southern position. This is the region of such northern trees as the firs and spruces, forests of which cap the towering peaks of these North Carolina mountain chains.

        With its upper limit coincident with the lower limit of the Canadian, we come next to the transition zone--the Alleghanian Fauna

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of Dr. Allen. This seems to be a region in which a mingling of southern and northern forms of life is evident, although its characteristic life is sufficiently well defined to admit of its recognition as a faunal division. Among the notable animals belonging to this fauna was, in olden times, the Elk or Wapiti (Cervus canadensis), noble herds of which ranged the mountain sides and valleys of the western region of the old North State. But, alas, that was long ago, and unless reintroduced and afterwards protected, they will never range those mountain sides again. Here also we find that queer animal, the Star-nosed Mole, which is found even to the northern limit of the Canadian Zone. Among the summer birds are Wilson's Thrush (Turdus fuscescens), Yellow-throated Vireo (Vireo flavifrons), Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Habia ludoviciana). We also find such southern species of birds as Orioles, Catbird (Galeoscoptes carolinensis), Brown Thrasher (Harporhynchus rufus) and such animals as common Mole (Scalops aquaticus) and Cotton-tail Rabbit (Lepus sylvaticus) mingling with the above. The lower limit of this fauna Mr. Brewster places at about 2,500 feet, but it must be understood that the boundaries of none of these divisions are, or can be, very sharply defined, as there is necessarily a great overlapping of species from one to the other, and this overlapping and mixing of the life belonging to one zone into that of another varies very much with individual localities. That celebrated weather prophet, the Woodchuck or Ground Hog belongs here and is by no means uncommon in suitable localities in western North Carolina.

        Next we come to the zone that covers a greater amount of the State's area than any other--namely, the Carolinian. This is not a projecting spur from more northerly zones running down into the State only by way of the mountain ranges, as were the two former, but is more especially a fauna of the Piedmont Plateau region and of the western border of the Coastal Plain region of the State. It is, as its name implies, distinctively Carolinian in its character. The Opossum (Didelphys virginianus), the Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargentatus), the Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger), are animals characteristic of this division, and among the birds we find such well known southern forms as Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), Cardinal or Red-bird (Cardinalis cardinalis,) Gnatcatcher (Polioplila caerulea), Mocking bird (Mimus polyglottos). The Molly Cotton-tail (Lepus sylvaticus), is a common and inextinguishable characteristic feature here, and pretty much the same might be said of our chipper and lively little Bob White--our Partridge, in spite of what the "quail" hunters call him.

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        Beginning near the coast at the extreme northeast corner of the State, running southward and westward and gradually widening on its way down as latitude modifies altitude we find a strip of country containing life features much more tropical in character than those previously considered. This is the northern corner of the Austro-riparian or Louisianian Zone. This zone includes the whole of the south Atlantic coast region, a wide expanse of country bordering the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the whole of Florida with the exception of its extreme southern coast line. The Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) now begins to show himself and is plentiful and attains a large size along the southern half of our tide-water region. Several species of the smaller rodents belong to this zone, notably the Cotton Rat, Rice-field Rat and Wood Rat, and the Marsh Rabbit (Lepus palustris) reaches the northern limit of his range on the coast marshes of North Carolina. The peculiar Big-eared Bat is found associated with the above, and the change in bird life is as noticeable as that in mammals. The Chuck-will's widow takes the place of the Whippoorwill and formerly this zone received added brilliance in North Carolina by the presence of the gaudy and noisy Carolina Parroquet (Conurus carolinensis), now, unfortunately, almost confined to southern Florida. The great and rare Ivory-billed Woodpecker was also a former example of this life division, found on our coast at least as far north as Beaufort Harbor, but his day has also, apparently, gone by. Those interesting creatures the Ground and Diamond Rattlesnakes also come in here, and the Cotton-mouth Water Moccason (Agkistrodon piscivorus) is their equal as an awe-inspiring Austro-riparian representative. Siren and Amphiuma are two water animals quite characteristic of this zone, and their bites, like those of hundreds of other and equally totally harmless creatures, are regarded as deadly poisonous. The great Brown Pelican and the swift and graceful Swallow-tailed Kite, are both features of this division of animal life, and the Black Vulture, that very useful but not beautiful bird that seems equally at home in the pure ether a thousand fathoms above the earth, or in the dark and odorous interior of a dead mule, is always with us.

        It is a matter of interest, although having no bearing on present day fauna, that the huge Mastodon once roamed our fields and forests and the great prehistoric elephant (Elephas americanus,) nearly allied to the "mountainous Mammoth" of the Old World, was also a North Carolinian in days gone by. So, also were many other rare and interesting animals, now only known by their fossil remains. Loose bones of extinct whales, in some cases a good part of the entire

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skeleton, have been found in numerous localities, and in Halifax county some huge fragments of the skull were sufficiently entire to give a good idea of the size of the complete animal. This whale was identified by Professor Cope and by him named Mesoteras Kerrianus in honor of its discoverer, Professor W. C. Kerr, late State Geologist. Its length was estimated at 80 feet, the largest extinct baleen whale ever found. Another well known fossil whale lay across the bed of a creek in the same county and was used, during low water, as a footlog.

        From the foregoing brief sketch it will be seen how widely varied is the character of the animal life belonging to North Carolina. As Dr. Merriam so truthfully says in his report as head of the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy in the Year Book of the United States Department of Agriculture for 1894:

        "An accurate knowledge of the areas which, by virtue of their climatic conditions, are fitted for the cultivation of particular crops is of such obvious importance to agriculture that the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy was early led to make a special study of the geographic distribution of the land animals and plants of North America, for the boundaries inhabited by native species were believed to coincide with those suited to the production of particular kinds of fruit, grain and tubers, and for the rearing of particular breeds of domesticated animals.

        "When the boundaries and life zones and areas are accurately mapped, the agriculturist need only ascertain the faunal area to which a particular crop or garden plant of limited range belongs in order to know beforehand just where it may be introduced with every prospect of success, soil and other local modifying influences being suitable; and in the case of weeds and of injurious and beneficial mammals, birds and insects, he would know what kinds were to be looked for in his immediate vicinity, and could prepare in advance for noxious species that from time to time suddenly extend their range. * * * * In short a knowledge of the natural life areas of the United States and of their distinctive species and crops, would enable our farmers and fruit growers to select the products best adapted to their localities, and would help them in their battle with harmful species."

        Such being the case, where, indeed, is the limit to the agricultural possibilities of a State in which the native animal life includes such widely different forms as, say, the Canada Lynx, with a range almost reaching the Artic Sea, on the one hand, and on the other, the great Florida Alligator, whose center of abundance is well within the limits of tropical America, the land of the cocoanut, the lemon and the orange.

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GEOLOGY.

        Even the casual observer who travels across the State of North Carolina from its eastern shores to its western boundary will see that when he has gone about half way he passes from a region which is very level or gently undulating, and the surface of which is covered with sand and loam soils from which hard rocks are entirely absent, to another, the surface of which becomes more and more hilly until it culminates in mountains in the western portion of the State, and the soil of which is more or less mingled with the hard granitic and slaty rocks from which they have been formed.

        A little more traveling in this region will be sufficient to indicate that the geologic formations of the eastern half of the State, which has been designated as the Coastal Plain Region, are radically different and much younger than that of the western half, embracing the Piedmont Plateau and Mountain regions. The boundary line which separates these two great geologic divisions extends from near Weldon on the north by way of Raleigh to near Wadesboro on the southwest.

        In age instead of being contiguous the areas are widely separated; the formation covering the Coastal Plain being one of the most recent, while those of the Piedmont Plateau (excepting the limited red sandstone or Trias areas) being among the oldest.

        The accompanying sketch map indicates in a general way the limits of these two general areas, and the minor geologic groups of the Piedmont Plateau and Mountain regions. Formations of the Coastal Plain are shown as a unit for the reason that notwithstanding that they belong to at least five successive geologic periods, yet being spread one directly on top of the other it is impossible to indicate them individually on a map of this character.

        The Coastal Plain region, as indicated above, along its eastern boarders contains the sounds, bays, the sand dunes and ridges, the swamps and marshes and other characteristics of a seashore region. Further inland it is generally level, and has more of the upland and less of the marsh. Toward its western boundary the swamps nearly or quite disappear, the upland predominates, the surface becomes more undulating and even hilly in places, and soils which further eastward were composed of fine sand and silt, along the western border of this region contains a larger proportion of coarse sand or gravel mingled with clay.

        Along the banks of such rivers as the Cape Fear and Roanoke where these streams have cut down through the surface and left the

[ Link ]
MAP OF
NORTH CAROLINA
SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF
PRINCIPAL GEOLOGICAL FORMATION.

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high steep bluffs the material composing half a dozen geologic formations are exposed to view, the oldest, the Potomac gravel, sands and clays, lying at the bottom on the irregular surface of granite and slates; cretaceous sands and clays; tertiary (eocene and miocene) marls and clays; the Lafayette yellow and brownish sands and loams; and the Columbia sands, gravels and clays, lying one successively above the other--the last of these, the youngest of all, being on top. Along the western border of these Coastal Plain formations occasional outcrops of hard granites and slates are exposed along the beds of streams where the once overlying sands and clays have been washed away, but besides these no large masses of hard rock are to be found in this region other than the limited beds of limestone which are exposed along the banks of the streams in a number of eastern counties, epecially in the southern portion of the state.

        In these southeastern counties, the limestone is exposed at the surface along the banks of the streams in a large number of localities, and this rock may be used for the making of lime, macadamizing roads, and in some cases it will do for building purposes. In a few places, as in the neighborhood of Castle Haynes, New Hanover county, this limestone contains numerous phosphate pebbles and over considerable areas the limestone has dissolved away and left the phosphate pebble in form of phosphate gravel, which has been worked for a number of years, and can be worked with equal success on the adjoining Hermitage property. Other phosphate deposits have been found in Duplin, Pender, Onslow and Brunswick counties.

        In the Piedmont Plateau region, the geology is much more complex. There are, however, two narrow belts of comparatively recent rocks; the triasic or red sandstone, the general outlines and location of which are best indicated on the accompanying map. The more eastern of these two belts, extending from Oxford, in Granville county, across the state through portions of Wake, Durham, Chatham, Moore, Montgomery, Richmond and Anson counties, has a maximum width of about 15 miles. In this formation are found the coal deposits of Moore and Chatham counties and the valuable beds of red, gray and brown sand-stone, which are described more fully under head coal and of building stone. The more western of these two belts is much more limited in area, extending from the Virginia line across portions of Rockingham and Stokes counties, and having a maximum width of four or five miles.

        The older crystaline rocks, (granites, gneisses and slates), extend in belts of varying width and length obliquely across the state having a general northeast and southwest course. The most marked of these

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is the great slate belt which extends across from Virginia, through Person, Orange, Chatham, Randolph, Stanley, Union and adjoining counties. It has a maximum width of some forty miles; the rocks are everywhere folded or broken, and titled; and are penetrated by numerous dikes and veins; many of the latter being impregnated with gold bearing ores. And in the western part of this slate belt, especially in Davidson and Cabarrus counties, these gold ores have associated with them ores of silver, lead, zinc and copper. The region is one of hills and valleys and rapid streams, along which have been developed numerous excellent water powers. Just west of this slate belt, lies a belt of granite and other kindred rocks; extending across the state; having a width varying from ten to twenty miles. These rocks are also penetrated by numerous veins which carry gold bearing ores; and in some cases, especially in Guilford county, these are also highly impregnated with copper ores, and in some places this granite belt, as well as the slate belt, contains valuable deposits of iron ore. Lying west of this granite belt and extending from it to the foot hills of the Blue Ridge, is a large area, the rocks of which are of gneisses and granites, with here and there more limited belts of slate. The rocks are very old, belonging probably to the Archaen age. They are often deeply decayed, forming fertile loam soils. In some places, valuable and extensive beds of granite are to be found. At intervals throughout the entire region the rocks are penetrated by quartz veins which contain in many places gold bearing ores; the more noted gold bearing areas of this region being those in eastern Catawba; about the South Mountains in Burke, McDowell and Rutherford counties, and in the Western part of Caldwell county. There are also in this region valuable deposits of iron; notably those in Stokes, Gaston, Macon and Catawba counties. This region is exceedingly hilly, being penetrated by the Brushy mountains, south of the Yadkin, and the South mountains, south of the Catawba river.

        The geology of the mountain region is perhaps fully as complicated as that of the Piedmont Plateau. Over the larger part of the region are to be found the older crystalline rocks, greatly folded and turned on their edges; and they contain at intervals valuable deposits of iron ore: notably magnetic iron ores in the region about Cranberry in Mitchell county; in Ashe and Madison counties and in a number of places these rocks are also penetrated by veins carrying gold, silver and copper bearing ores. Along the line of the Blue Ridge and again along the line of the Great Smoky mountains are narrower belts of rocks, belonging to what has been designated the Ocoee period.

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The age of these is not known, though it is certain that these rocks are much younger than the slates and gneisses which have just been described. These rocks of the Ocoee formation contain also in places deposits of minerals, especially the marbles and brown iron ores of Cherokee county. In this region, as in the Piedmont Plateau, the rocks are decayed to a considerable depth, thus producing deep soils which vary in character from sandy and gravelly loam to those containing a large proportion of clay in regions where the rock itself contains large proportion of hornblende. These soils are porous and fertile, and for the most part on the slopes of the mountains are still covered with virgin forests.

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF NATIVE MINERALS.

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GOLD, SILVER AND COPPER.

        The total amount of the precious metals produced by the mines of North Carolina up to the end of 1894 is estimated at approximately $24,000,000.00. The production for the past ten years is ascertained to be $1,295,676. By far the greater proportion of this is gold, the amount of silver being insignificant.

        The area of the productive gold region in the State embraces some 8,000 to 10,000 square miles of the middle and western counties. It may be divided into six obscurely defined belts:

        The gold occurs in placer deposits, in quartz fissure veins, and as impregnations in the country schists and slates.

        The gold is not uniformly distributed in the ore bodies; both the veins and schists having "chimneys" or "shoots" in which the gold is concentrated, leaving the intermediate parts relatively poor. The shoots have a pitch of their own in the ore body.

        (1). The Eastern Belt includes the counties of Warren, Halifax, Franklin and Nash. The present known area over which the mines are distributed is not less than 300 square miles. The country rocks are diorite, chloritic schists, and gneiss. The district is characterized by a great abundance of narrow quartz veinlets from a "line" to 1½ inches in thickness. The gold appears originally to have been in these narrow seems, which have been broken down in the process of weathering, the fragments being widely distributed through the soil, and generally most abundant on the bed rock, fifteen to twenty-five feet below the surface, or in favored sinks or channels.

        Among the more noted veins of the district are: the Portis, located near Ransom's Bridge, in Franklin county. The operations consisted of surface sluicing and hydraulicking the surface soil to a depth of 5 to 30 feet. The upper decomposed rock layer is every-where auriferous to some extent. There are two main zones of ore, nearly at right angles, each about 9 feet in total width, consisting of reticulated quartz veins in diorite. Five miles southeast of the Portis is the Mann-Arrington mine. The ore body consists of quartz lenses up to 12 inches in thickness interlaminated in the schists. The depth of the shaft is 108 feet. Other mines in this belt are the Arrington, Thomas, Kearney, Taylor, Davis and Conyers.

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        (2). The Slate Belt is an area of metamorphic slates and schists extending in a general southwesterly direction across the central part of the State, varying in width from 8 to 50 miles. The rocks are argillaceous, sericitic and chloritic, metamorphosed slates and schists, sedimentary pre Jura-trias slates, and ancient devitrified volcanic rocks.

        The copper ores of Granville and Person counties, are at times auriferous, and, although the contents of the precious metals is insignificant, they may form an important item of profit in a well conducted metallurgical treatment of these ores for copper. Assays*

        * In all assays of this article gold and silver are calculated at their coining rates, usually gold, $20.67 and silver, $1.29, per Troy ounce.


show from $2.50 to $10.75 per ton in gold and silver, and from 20 to 48% of copper.

        This copper belt is approximately ten miles in length. The ore is chiefly chalcocite and bornite in quartz, and occurs in lenticular veins, from a few inches to 14 feet in thickness. The principal veins are the Blue Wing, Holloway, Mastodon, Buckeye, Pool, Gillis, Copper World and Yancey.

        The gold mines in Moore county are situated in the northern and western parts. At the Bell mine, eight miles northwest of Carthage, the mineralized country schists constitute the ore, which exists in several narrow belts containing siliceous seams from 1/8 to 4 inches in thickness. The entire vein matter averaging 4 feet, is estimated to run $12.00 per ton. The Burns mine is eleven miles west of Carthage. The silicified sericitic and chloritic schists are here filled with quartz stringers and lenticles, both the quartz and portions of the schists being auriferous. Mining is done in large open cuts, 20 to 100 feet wide, to a depth of about 50 feet. The average yield of the ore is said to be $2.50 to $3.00 per ton, in free gold. The Cagle and Clegg mines are near the Burns, and the nature and character of the ores are similar.

        The Hoover Hill mine, in Randolph county, is seventeen miles south of High Point. The principal ore body is the so called "Briols" shoot; 12 feet wide and 70 feet long, entered by a shaft 350 feet deep. The ore is worth $8.00 to $10.00 per ton. At the Jones or Keystone mine, eighteen miles southeast of Thomasville, the ore bodies consist of belts of mineralized schists, two of these being 50 and 110 feet wide respectively. The mine is a series of open quarries; the average value of the working ore will not fall under $3.00 per ton, of which about $2.00 is extracted by milling. Other mines

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in Randolph, are the Loftin, Winningham, Slack, Davis Mountain, Sawyer, Winslow and Uwharie.

        The Emmons mine is fifteen miles southeast of Lexington, in Davidson county. The ore body is from three to eight feet thick, and the ore is only slightly auriferous, and has been worked mainly for its copper contents. The main shaft is 416 feet deep on the incline. The Cid mine is 1¼ miles northeast of the Emmons, and has ore similar to it. The shaft is 100 feet deep on the incline. The Silver Hill mine is ten miles southeast from Lexington. The two principal veins are known as the "East" and the "West," are parallel and about 28 feet apart on the outcrop. The gasson was worked for gold. Below the water level, however, the ores become a complex mixture of silver bearing sulphurets, mainly galena and zinc blende. The mine has opened to a depth of 760 feet. Some assays of the ores show:

        
  CARBONATES   PYRITE     GALENA  
Gold, per ton . . . . . $ 8.27 $ 2.07 $ 3.10 $ 10.34 $ 4.13 $ 6.20 $ 4.13
Silver per ton . . . . . 20.36 4.65 4.01 2.97 3.23 10.73 11.25
$28.63 $ 6.72 $ 7.11 $13.31 $ 7.36 $16.93 $15.38

        The galena bearing ores show from twelve per cent. to fifty-seven per cent. of lead, and from seven per cent. to thirty-five per cent. of zinc. The Silver Valley mine is five miles northeast of Silver Hill; the character of the ore is almost identical to that of the former. The vein is nearly twenty feet wide at the surface; below, the ore-shoot has a width of five to twelve feet, and consists of alternate bands of ore, slate and quartz, the ore seams being from three to eighteen inches thick. The mine has been opened to one hundred and twenty feet vertical depth. The galena and blende carry from $17.00 to $180.00 per ton of gold and silver, from fifteen per cent. to twenty-five per cent. of lead, and from eleven per cent. to thirty-two per cent. of zinc. These ores have been successfully smelted, using copper ores as a flux. The Welborn mine, two miles west of the Silver Hill, carries similar complex ores. The Conrad Hill mine is six miles east of Lexington. There are two systems of veins, carrying copper, pyrite and gold, in quartz and siderite. The mine has been opened to a maximum depth of four hundred feet, considerable bodies of ore, up to eighteen feet in maximum width, have been exploited and mined. The ore is essentially a copper ore, though it contains some gold.

        The Russell mine in Montgomery county, is situated three miles north of Eldorado. The entire slate formation is gold bearing, but

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only certain belts are sufficiently rich to warrant mining. There are at least six of these belts within a distance of 2,000 feet across the strike. The ore bodies have been exploited and worked chiefly in large open cuts. It is stated that the average "run of mine" ore milled $3.00 per ton. There are streaks from four to five feet wide which went much higher. The Appalachian mine is situated near Eldorado. The ores are similar to those of the Russell. The depth of the last working was 160 feet. The Steel mine is two miles southeast of Eldorado. The ore body varies from nine to twelve feet in thickness, and occasionally rises to twenty feet. The most valuable part of the deposite consists of what is locally called "string veins," narrow seams of ore which run through the mass, more or less parallel to the slates. Some assays show from $20.00 to $100.00 per ton. The Sam Christian mine is twelve miles southwest of Troy. The gold is found in old channels, in gravel from one to three feet in thickness. It is generally in the shape of nuggets from five to one thousand penny weights. The aggregate yield of this mine in the past has been quite large, and may prove of value in the future.

        Other mines in Montgomery county are the Beaver Dam, Reynolds, Carter, Bright, Ophir, Dry Hollow, Deep Flat, Bunnell Mountain, Worth, &c.

        The Crawford mine in Stanly county is four miles northeast of Albemarle. It is a placer deposit of comparatively recent discovery. The gravel bed is from one-half to two feet in thickness, overlaid by two to four feet of soil. The width of the channel is about two hundred and fifty feet. During 1895 two notable nuggets were found here, weighing eight and a half and ten pounds respectively.

        The Parker mine is situated at New London. Numberless auriferous quartz stringer veins, from one to eighteen inches wide, intersect the country rock in all directions. The principal yield of gold has been from the ancient gravel channels. The aggregate production is estimated at $200,000.00.

        Other mines in Stanley county are the Crowell, Barringer, Haithcock, Hearne, Lowder, &c.

        Rowan and Cabarrus counties may be treated together. The Gold Hill group of mines is situated about fourteen miles southeast of Salisbury. This is one of the most noted mining districts in the State. The group comprises a number of mines situated in a belt of auriferous schists, nearly one and a-half miles long and two-thirds mile wide, in the southeast corner of Rowan county, extending into Cabarrus on the south, and Stanly on the east. The character of the ore bodies is that common to the "Slate belt" elsewhere. The

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schists are impregnated, over certain widths, with auriferous sulphurets, accompanied by lenticuler stringers of quartz. There are at least ten well defined veins in the district. The Randolph, the most prominent of the ten veins under discussion, has been worked for a linear distance of one thousand five hundred feet, and to a depth of seven hundred and eighty feet. The width of the ore shoots is stated to be from six inches to seven feet. Some indication of the range of values is given in the following assays:

        
Gold, per ton . . . . . $25.84 $4.14 $5.68
Silver per ton . . . . . $ .49 .71 2.26
$26.33 $4.85 $7.94
Copper, per cent . . . . . 0.85 2.59 5.96

        The McMackin veins are rich in silver ores. Up to 1874 it is estimated that the total production of the Gold Hill mines was $3,000,000.00, which represents about twenty-three per cent. of the assay value of the ores.

        The Rocky River mine is situated ten miles southeast of Concord, in Cabarrus county. A number of shafts have been sunk on several parallel lenticular quartz veins to a maximum depth of one hundred and thirty feet. The quartz assays from $3.00 to $6.00 per ton, and the enclosing schists themselves yield $3.00 per ton of gold. The ore contains also considerable galena and blende. Other veins in the slate belt of Cabarrus county are the Buffalo, Biggs, Furr, Widen-house, Isenhour, Mauney, Nugget, &c.

        The Crowell Mine in Union county is fourteen miles north of Monroe. The vein matter is cellular quartz, carrying galena, pyrite, and chalcopyrite. There are three veins varying in thickness from one to four feet. Assays show from $6.00 to $13.00 per ton. The Long mine is near the Crowell and the ores are similar. The Moore mine is three miles southeast of the Long. The quartz vein is stated to be five feet in thickness, with a four inch pay streak of calcite following the hanging wall. The ore contains besides free gold, galena, blende, chalcopyrite and pyrite. The Stewart mine is one and a half miles southwest of the Moore. There are three parallel ore belts, from a few inches to five feet in width. In general, there are numerous narrow ore seams; the ore contains pyrite and galena. Assays show values from $6.00 per ton and upwards. Other mines in the vicinity are the Lemmonds, New South, Crump and Battle-field.

        There are a number of mines in the neighborhood of Indian Trail, which are apparently located in two parallel series of veins

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about one half mile apart, comprising in the first or western group the Henry Phifer and Fox Hill mines; and in the second the Black, Smart, Secrest and Thomas Hemby. About two miles south of Indian Trail is situated a group of mines comprising the Moore Hill, Falger Hill, Davis, Phifer, Lewis, Hemby and Harkness. This zone of auriferous schists is about three miles in length and one-half mile in width. For a distance of two miles there is an almost unbroken line of pits and shallow shafts. The gold is not uniformly diffused, but is carried mostly in narrow parallel seams, rarely more than one or two inches in thickness. The ore bodies as a whole, are from one to six feet wide. Assays show from $3.00 to $16.00 per ton of gold and silver.

        The Bonnie Bell Mine is one and a half miles north of Potter's Station. The general width of the ore bearing belt is stated to be fourteen feet, consisting of argillaceous schists intersected by small quartz veinlets.

        The Howie Mine is about one mile west of the Bonnie Bell. The ore bearing formation extends over a width of four hundred feet. Within this belt are as many as eight so-called "veins" or ore seams, varying from eighteen inches to sixteen feet in width. The ore seams run through a wide range of values. The average yield in the mill at one time was $13.00 per ton.

        (3). The Igneous belt lies on the west side of the Slate belt; the formation consists of massive igneous plutonic rocks, extending across the slate in a southwesterly direction, and having a width of from fifteen to thirty miles. It includes the greater portion of Guilford, Davidson, Rowan, Cabarrus and practically the whole of Mecklenburg counties. The area of the auriferous portion, however, is scarcely more than one thousand square miles.

        The auriferous quartz veins, which are found in these rocks, are the fillings of undoubted fissures. The gold ores are often cupriferous and rarely contain lead or zinc.

        The mines in Guilford county lie to the south and southwest of Greensboro. They carry highly cupriferous ores as a rule, and have been worked both for gold and copper.

        The Hodges Hill mine is six miles southeast from Greensboro and has a vein from six inches to twelve feet in width. The gold is distributed unequally through quartz siderite and chalcopyrite, the ore assaying from $1.00 to $40.00 per ton. The Fisher Hill and Millis Hill mines are five to six miles south of Greensboro. Fifteen veins are reported on the property, one system running north and south, and a second northeast and southwest. The ore bodies vary from four inches to ten feet in thickness. The ores are cupriferous.

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        The Fentress mine is nine miles south of Greensboro. The deepest shaft is four hundred feet deep. The ore body varies from one to thirteen feet in width. The ores are chiefly sulphurets and the veinstone is quartz and siderite. The Garden Hill mine, three miles east of Jamestown, has a vein some three feet in width, the gangue being quartz and brown ore. It has been worked for a distance of five thousand feet along its course the deepest shaft being two hundred and fifty-eight feet in vertical depth. Some of the ores carried as high as twenty-five per cent. copper, and ran $3.00 to $10.00 per ton in gold. The North State mine, two miles west of Jamestown, has a vein two to twenty feet wide, traced by its outcrop some three miles. Other mines in this county are the Lindsay, Deep River, Jack's Hill, Twin, Beason, Harland, Beard, Vickery, Lander, &c.

        The Lalor mine in Davidson county is two miles southeast from Thomasville. There are three shafts, the deepest of which is one hundred and forty feet vertical. The vein carries iron and copper sulphurets. Other mines in the vicinity are the Eureka, Loflin and Black.

        In Rowan county a group of mines is found to the southwest of Salisbury, from two to nine miles distant. Among the principal ones are the Hartman, Yadkin, Negus, Harrison Hill, Southern Belle, Goodman, Randleman and Roseman. The workings of these mines have been comparatively shallow, 160 feet being the deepest so far as records go.

        Another and more important group of mines situated three to seven miles east and southeast of Salisbury, includes the four following: The New Discovery mine was worked to a depth of one hundred feet. The Dunn's Mt. mine has three veins. Work has been done to a depth of one hundred and ninety feet. The Reimer mine has been opened by three shafts, the deepest of which is one hundred and ninety-three feet. The average width of the fissure is three and one-half feet. The veinstone averaging this width, is quartz, and carries ten per cent. sulphurets, mainly pyrite. Ore probably averages $5.00 to $6.00 per ton, though some assays run very high. The Bullion mine is one and a half miles from the Reimer. A seven foot vein is reported at a depth of ninety feet, which runs from $7.00 to $16.00 per ton.

        Another group of mines is situated eight to ten miles southeast of Salisbury. Among these are the Gold Knob, Dutch Creek, Atlas and Bame. There are about one hundred localities in Rowan known to be auriferous.

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        The Phoenix mine in Cabarrus county, is seven miles southeast of Concord. There are three parallel veins, two hundred and one thousand feet apart. The main Phoenix vein, which has been traced for twenty-one hundred feet on the surface and sunk upon to a depth of four hundred and twenty-five feet, varies from one to three feet in width. The filling of the fissure is quartz, carrying from three to sixty per cent. of sulphurets accompanied by barite, calcite and siderite. The shaft extends to a depth of four hundred and twenty five feet. The mill yield of the ores was about $10.00 per ton, with about $7.50 in the sulphurets. The ores also contain one and a half per cent. to three per cent. of copper. The extraction of gold by chlorination was ninety to ninety-five per cent. of the whole. The Tucker mine is one mile south of the Phoenix. The vein averages eight inches, and the ore carries about $15.00 per ton. The main shaft was 175 feet deep. Other mines in the vicinity are the Barrier, Faggart, Furness, Gibb and Quaker City.

        The Read mine is ten miles southeast of Concord. It is of special interest as being the site of the earliest recorded discovery of gold in North Carolina. The placer deposits have produced many famous and valuable nuggets. One nugget recently found there (April, 1896,) weighed twenty pounds, seven ounces and six dwts. The auriferous quartz veins are confined to a large greenstone dike and are from four inches to three feet in thickness.

        Gold is probably as widely diffused in Mecklenburg as in any other county in the central part of the State. The productive area covers about six hundred square miles, within which are well nigh one hundred mines. About half a dozen of these are now worked, but only two or three with vigor. Among the many mines in Mecklenburg are the following: Davidson, Blake, Point Clarke, Parks, St. Catherine, Rudisil, Smith and Palmer, McDonald, F. Wilson, Howell, Trotter, Carson, Taylor, Isenhour and others.

        The Rudisil mine is one mile south of Charlotte; has a vein fissure fifty feet wide, with two ore bodies or pay streaks, from two to six feet in thickness, one on either wall. Down to the water level the ores are rich and easily treated. Below that level they are refractory, containing iron and copper pyrites. The lowest level is at three hundred and fifty feet. Three ore shoots have been explored and worked from thirty to one hundred feet in length. Assays of the ores show:

        
Gold per ton . . . . . $24.80 $29.97 $36.18 $45.47 $72.35
Silver . . . . . trace .19 .13 trace trace.
$24.80 $30.16 $36.31 $45.47 $72.35.

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        The St. Catherine mine is in the northern extension of the Rudisil lode. It has been worked to a depth of four hundred and sixty feet. Below two hundred and fifty feet there are several large shoots of low grade ore. The occurrence may be briefly stated as a series of obscurely paralled seams of slate, with quarzose ore bodies two to six feet in thickness between them. Assays show:

        
  SULPHURETTED ORES.    
Gold, per ton . . . . . $35.14 $52.19 $72.41
Silver . . . . . 1.14 .55 .39
$36.28 $52.74 $72.80

        The Clark mine is two and a half miles west of Charlotte. There are two vein systems, the northeast and southwest running system was worked to a depth of seventy feet, for a distance of one thousand two hundred feet along the strike. The east and west running system was worked to a depth of seventy-eight feet. Assays show from $5.00 to $30.00 per ton.

        A second group of mines is found five to ten miles west of Charlotte, embracing the Hays, McGee, Brawley, Frazer, Hipps, Campbell, Todd, Arlington, Capps, McGinn, Means, Bennett, Stephen, Wilson, Gibson, Neal, Troutman, Prim, Abernathy, Alexander, Dunn, Sloan, McCorkle Cathey and others.

        At the Stephen Wilson mine there are ten well defined veins, but only two of these have been worked. Vein No. 2, is from two to three feet wide. The ores carry iron and copper pyrites. Assays show ores to range from $1.00 to $156 per ton.

        The Capps mine has two convergent veins, the Capps and the Jane, each probably three thousand feet or more in length. The outcrop of the vein at many points, still shows a width of twenty to twenty-five feet. The greatest depth worked is one hundred and thirty feet, but drill holes penetrated to a depth of one hundred and forty feet where the vein is shown to be twenty feet diameter, assaying from $6.00 to $7.00 per ton. There are four well known ore bodies or Shoots. Assays of the good ore from the third ore shoot showed from $11.00 to as high as $130.00 per ton. The McGinn mine adjoin the Capps. It is situated on three veins, the Jane, the Copper and an unexplored vein. The Jane vein has been worked to a depth of one hundred and fifty feet, and the ore body was something like thirty-five feet wide, the ore ranging from $3.00 to $100.00 per ton. The copper vein has been worked for copper ores to a depth of about one hundred and ten feet. The ores range from $6.00 to $14.00 per ton.

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        At the Dunn mine there are two shafts sixty and ninety feet deep, which have explored three or four bodies of ore composed of silicified slates, and having an aggregate thickness of about twelve feet. Assays show from $8.00 to $30.00 per ton.

        A third group of mines is found five to seven miles north of Charlotte, including the Henderson, Ferris, Hunter and others. The Henderson mine has been worked to a longitudinal one hundred feet. Three bodies of ore were worked from it, varying from one and one-half to four feet in thickness. At the Ferris mine there are several veins, the Garris vein, two to five feet thick, being the principal one now worked, is entered by two shafts, ninety and one hundred and twenty feet deep respectively. The ore consists of quartz seams up to twelve inches in thickness in a slaty gangue.

        A fourth group of mines located in Providence township, some five to ten miles southeast of Charlotte, embraces among others the Hunter, Fredinick and Ray mines. At the Ray mine there are five veins with an aggregate length of four miles. The Ray vein, six to eight inches thick, the best known, has been opened by six shafts, the deepest being two hundred and fifty feet. The ore consists of compact sulphurets.

        The Pioneer Mills group of mines of Cabarrus county extends into the southeastern part of Mecklenburg county. The Johnson, Stinson, Rhea, Maxwell, Simpson and Black mines belong here. In Clear Creek township, ten to twelve miles southeast of Charlotte, is another group of mines, comprising the Brafford, Ellington and Surface Hill.

        (4). Kings Mountain belt occupies an area of indefinite and imperfectly known boundaries, adjoining the Igneous belt on the west. The principal counties embraced here are Gaston, Lincoln, Catawba, Davie and Yadkin. The country rocks are chrystalline schists and gneisses, and isolated bodies of siliceous limestone.

        The Kings Mountain mine in Gaston county, is one and a-half miles south of Kings Mountain village. The ore is a mixture of siliceous limestone and quartz, and exists in lenticular chimneys, five of which have been exploited thus far. In length they are about one hundred feet and width twenty feet. The deepest shaft is three hundred and twenty feet. The present average value of the ores is said to be from $4.00 to $6.00 per ton. The Caledonia mine is four miles east of the Kings Mountain. The ore bodies consist of masses of chloritic and sericitic schists, intermixed with pyrite and chalcopyrite. The width of the ore bearing ground is from eight to ten feet. The ores are low grade, running from $3.00 to $5.00 per ton. The

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Long Creek mine is six miles northwest of Dallas. There are three veins, the Asbury, Dixon and McCarter Hill. The Asbury, where worked, was from six to eight feet wide; opened to a depth of one hundred and forty feet. The Dixon has been worked by shallow pits, the thickness of the vein being a little over three feet. The McCarter Hill vein has been entered by three shafts, and sloped to a depth of one hundred and sixty feet in the ore shoot, which has a width of four to six feet. The assay value of the ore mined is stated at $8.00 per ton.

        Other localities in Gaston county are the Rumfeldt, Duffie, Derr, Rhyne, Burrell, Wells, Oliver, Farrar and other mines.

        In Lincoln the best known localities are the Burton, Hoke and Graham mines.

        The Suford mine in Catawba county, is four and a-half miles southeast of Catawba village. Some twenty acres of ground here are covered with auriferous quartz, and the soil is also auriferous. The schists and gneisses are penetrated by seams of auriferous quartz, which run in every direction.

        Other mines are the McCorkle, England, Rufty, Abernathy, &c.

        In Davie county are the Butler, Callahan Mountain, Isaac Allen and other mines of minor importance.

        In Yadkin county the only noteworthy locality is the Dixon mine, eight miles southeast of Yadkinville. The vein is quartz and shows a thickness of four feet on the outcrop; it pinches and swells spasmodically. The ore is supposed to run something like $7.00 per ton.

        (5). The South Mountain belt proper comprises an area of about three hundred square miles, extending from Morganton to Rutherfordton, and covering portions of Burke, McDowell and Rutherford counties.

        The auriferous quartz veins of this district are true fissure veins, and vary in thickness from a mere line to four feet, the majority are from less than one to three inches thick. These veins appear to be concentrated in aggregates along certain parallel belts or zones, of which there are five. (1). The Morganton belt passing through Morganton and along Little Silver creek to North Muddy creek. (2). The Huntsville belt, passing over the southern end of Huntsville Mountain. (3). The Pilot Mountain belt, passing over Hall's Knob, White's Knob, Pilot Mountain, Brackettown and Vein Mountain, to and beyond the Second Broad river. (4). The Golden Valley belt, passing across the upper end of Golden Valley, and crossing Cane and Camp creeks to the Second Broad river. (5). The Idler Mine belt, about three miles north of Rutherfordton.

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        The maximum breadth in a north and south direction across the ore bearing formation as a whole is about seventeen miles. The great majority of these veins are, of course, too narrow to be profitably worked individually, on any regular mining scale. When the ground admits the whole formation, which is usually decomposed to considerable depths, may be undermined and washed down in sluices, and thence to the mill for battery treatment and amalgamation. Some of the large quartz veins have been opened by shafts and underground drifts, as at the Vein Mountain and Idler mines. However, no vein mining of any magnitude has been prosecuted in the district. If, as reported, there are regular bodies of ore here, ranging from one and a-half to three feet in width and running from $5.00 to $15.00 per ton, these should form the basis of profitable mining enterprises.

        The placer deposits form by far the most important resources of the precious metals in this district. They are of three general classes: (1). The gravel beds of the streams and adjoining bottom lands. (2). The gulch and hillside deposits, or the accumulations due to secular disintegration and motion, and (3), the upper decomposed layer of the country rock itself, the rotton rock in place. In the first two classes the deposits are from a few inches to several feet in thickness. In the third class the thickness in the decomposed rock layer, carrying the small auriferous quartz veins, is very variable, from a few feet to as much as one hundred and fifty feet.

        The distribution of the stream deposits is very general along the bottoms, highlands and ridges drained by the streams of the region, and the centers of operation are at Brindletown, Brackettown and Vein Mountain. At the larger mines, hydraulicking is employed, under a pressure of fifty to two hundred feet, with twelve inch mains and one and one-half inch nozzle. The hydraulic elevator has also been used successfully. The numerous mountain streams afford a fairly good and constant supply of water for mining purposes. There are several long ditch and flume levies in the region; one of these is over ten miles in length.

        The Handcock mine, in Burke county, is a placer digging at the foot of Hall's Knob. The thickness of the gravel bed is one and one-half to two feet, and that of the overlay twenty-five feet. A rough estimate of one of the pits showed a yield of fourteen cents per cubic yard. The Carolina Queen mine is situated on the northeastern slope of White's Knob. A series of narrow quartz veins in the upper decomposed rock layer, has been sluiced over a width of some three hundred feet, and to a maximum depth of fifty feet. The J. C. Mills tract, at Brindletown, covers a very large territory, and is one of

Illustration

PLACER GOLD MINING--BURKE COUNTY.

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the most famous localities in the South Mountain region, a large amount of gold having been obtained here since the first discovery in 1828. From Pilot Mountain and along its lower slopes, a number of gravel channels radiate in all directions. Some of these, as the White Bank and the Magazine mines have been worked as high as water could be obtained, but a large amount of virgin ground still remains that has not been worked. The total length of the several ditch lines on this property is about twenty miles. The head obtained at the mines is from sixty to two hundred feet.

        The Marion Bullion and Improvement Company, in McDowell county, owns an extensive tract at Brackettown. The principal work of importance here has been placer mining. In a general way, the gulch and hill side deposits range in value from four to fifty cents per cubic yard, while the gravel of the bottom land will run as high as $1.00 per cubic yard. A number of narrow quartz veins have been explored on the property.

        The Vein Mountain property comprises a large tract extending from Vein Mountain, on the second Broad river, in a northeasterly direction to Huntsville Mountain, a distance of four miles. The gulch deposits here have been hydraulicked to points as high as water could be obtained by the ditch lines. The value of the gravel ranges from five and one-half cents to $1.25 per cubic yard. A series of as many as thirty-three parallel auriferous veins, mostly quite small, crosses Vein Mountain in a belt not over one-fourth mile wide. These veins are mostly only a few inches thick, one of them "the Nichols," is in places three feet thick, and has been opened up to a depth of one hundred and seventeen feet. Below the water level the quartz is impregnated with pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and blende. The average mill run of the ore is said to be $15.00 per ton.

        The Idler mine, in Rutherford county, is situated five miles north of Rutherfordton. As many as thirteen parallel veins have been explored within a distance of half a mile across the strike. The four larger veins are known as the Monarch, Alta, Carson and Glendale. The last work was done on the Alta vein some three years ago at a depth of one hundred and five feet. The thickness of this vein is said to average about fifteen inches, and the ore is said to yield in mill tests for $10.00 to $30.00 per ton of free gold. The Elwood and Leeds mines are situated in the neighborhood.

        The Polk county placer deposits, some 25 miles southwest of Rutherfordton, appear to be an extension of the South Mountain belt. The better known localities are the Pattie Abrams, Wetherbee, Red Springs, Tom Arms, Splawn, Ponder, Riding, L. A. Mills, Carpenter,

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Hamilton, Neal, MacIntire, Double Branch and Prince. These all had a good reputation in the past, while the deposits contiguous to water lasted, but at present none can be worked on a large scale without a larger supply of water than can be easily obtained.

        The Miller, Scott Hill, Pax Hill and Baker mines in Caldwell county, are situated on the waters of Johns river, and might be considered as belonging to the South Mountain belt. They are quartz veins and have been developed in a small way, though now idle, with one or two exceptions. The principal veins are from twelve to twenty-four inches wide, and carry besides gold, sulphurets, pyrite, galenite, &c.

        (6). The Gap River Creek mine is in the southern part of Ashe county on New river. There are three quartz veins of which only one, fourteen inches to three feet thick, has been worked to any extent. The one is complex; vitreous copper ore, malachite, chrysocolla, chalcopyrite and some pyrite, besides free gold. Assays show:

        
Gold per ton . . . . . $8.62 $34.79 $57.36
Silver per ton . . . . . 2.26 25.50 14.53
$10.88 $60.29 $71.89
Copper per cent . . . . . 23.83

        The Boylston mine in Henderson county is situated twelve miles west of Hendersonville, on Forge Mountain. There are four principal auriferous quartz veins, which are parallel to each other, varying in thickness from one to four and a-half feet. The principal work has been done on vein No. 2, which has been exploited by shallow shafts, drifts and open cuts. The average value of the ore is estimated at about $4.00 per ton.

        The gold obtained in Cherokee county is found: (I) in the gravel underlying the broad bottoms of Valley river and other streams; (2), in the schists and the included quartz stringers or veins of the more elevated country bordering these valleys; (3), in the iron ore beds which skirt Valley river along its whole length, and occur with several reduplications or foldings at intervals for several miles to the east; (4), in the limestone, which is usually closely associated with the iron ore beds, and contains gold in connection with galenite and possibly also in quartz veins, which traverse it.

        The placer mines, now worked, are situated in the drift which covers the spurs and terminal ridges, especially where they project into the bottom lands.

        The schists have not been largely prospected. The iron ore beds have not hitherto been regarded as gold bearing, but recent examinations

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point to the presumption that they frequently are. Assays of some of these brown hematite ores have shown from $1.80 to $10.00 per ton.*

        * Note.--For a more detailed description of the gold deposits and mines, see Bulletins 3 and 10, published by the North Carolina Geological Survey.


IRON.

        The mineralogical character of the iron ores found in the State includes magnetite, red hematite, brown hematite (limonite), siderite (spathic ore), and black band ores. The first three of these, however, constitute the important economic ores in North Carolina.

        In geographical distribution these ore deposits cover considerably over half the area of the State, being confined principally to the Piedmont Plateau and Mountain regions.

        Geologically, the magnetites and red hematites are confined almost exclusively to the crystalline rocks. The limonites also occur here, as well as in the Ocoee rocks of Cherokee and Madison counties. Isolated deposits of porous brown hematite are found in the more recent formations of the Coastal Plain region. These are the so-called "bog ores." Siderite or spathic iron ore occurs as a gangue mineral in some of the gold quartz veins in the central part of the State, but owing to its limited quantity, it is of little economical importance for the manufacture of iron. The blackband ores are confined to the coal measures of the Triassic rocks in Chatham and Moore counties.

        The magnetite, specular and brown hematite ores in the eastern part of the crystalline area, in the so-called Gaston ore beds, are situated on the Roanoke river, one mile east of Gaston, in Halifax county. The ore is red hematite containing some magnetite. There are two principal deposits, of which the lower one only has been opened, where the thickness exposed was from eighteen to twenty-four inches. It is stated that at low water a width of eight feet of ore is visible in the bed of Roanoke river.

        Analyses of the better class of ore show:--

        
Silica . . . . . 9.10 to 10.12%
Metallic Iron . . . . . 49.00 to 58.00%
Sulphur . . . . . 0.03 to 0.08%
Phosphorus . . . . . 0.005 to 0.050%

        In Granville county, fourteen miles northwest of Oxford, is a series of lenticular bodies of specular hematite, at times partially magnetic. Exploratory openings have exposed beds of ore measuring as much as twenty-one feet across, and the outcrop has been traced for several miles. Analyses of these ores show from 50 to 54 per

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cent. of iron, from a trace to 0.9 per cent, sulphur, and from 0.7 to 0.9 per cent. of phosphorus.

        Small deposits of specular hematite have been found in Person and Durham counties, but the ores are rather low grade, being quite siliceous and in places high in phosphorus.

        The Chapel Hill mine, in Orange county, is opened on a deposit of red hematite, containing a small proportion of magnetite. The deepest shaft is seventy-two feet. There are two veins crossing each other at an angle of about 60,° and standing nearly vertical. These veins are carried in a fine grained ferruginous quartzite, into which the ore appears to pass by insensible gradations. The widest portion of good ore observed is six to eight feet. Analyses of good ore show:

        
Silica . . . . . 43.04%
Metallic Iron . . . . . 65.77%
Sulphur . . . . . 0.153%
Phosphorus . . . . . 0.170%

        The Ore Hill mines, in Chatham county, about forty miles southeast of Greensboro, on the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley railroad, are deserving of special attention as being the repositories of considerable bodies of brown hematite. The mines were first opened over one hundred years ago, during the Revolutionary war, and iron was made here by the Sapona Iron Co., during the late civil war. The property is at present owned by the North Carolina Steel and Iron Co., of Greensboro.

        The ore is brown hematite, and occurs in a number of veins, having more or less regular walls, dipping at steep angles and with variable strikes. The ore bodies have been opened by extensive pits and a number of shafts and tunnels. Analyses show the ore to vary from 39 to 60 per cent. metallic iron, and 0.038 to 0.833 per cent. phosphorus. The silica is uniformly low from 2 to 7 per cent. and the sulphur from 0.05 to 0.34 per cent. It is believed that ores running from 45 to 50 per cent. metallic iron, and 0.20 to 0.40 phosphorus can be mined here on a large scale for blast furnace use.

        The Titaniferous magnetites in the crystalline rocks of Rockingham, Guilford and Davidson counties extend from the head waters of Abbott's creek in Davidson county, across Forsyth and Guilford counties, to the Haw river in Rockingham county, a distance of about thirty miles. It consists of two parallel belts, the "Tuscarora" and the "Shaw," lying some three miles apart. Beyond the Haw river they approach each other and are believed to unite in Rockingham county. The ore is granular, titaniferous magnetite. The gangue is gneiss. Some of the ores contain alumina in the form of corundum, becoming in places true emery ores.

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        The ore deposits consist of lens-shaped masses, contracting and enlarging in thickness from a few inches to six and eight feet. The principal bodies which have been worked are estimated to average four to five feet in thickness. These ores were worked as early as the Revolutionary War in Catalan forges. Later the Tuscarora and Dannemora mines were operated by the North Carolina Centre Iron Company. A number of analyses of these ores show:

        
Silica . . . . . 1.31 12.86 4.71 12.75 1.39
Metalic Iron . . . . . 55.06 53.27 48.41 41.95 30.97
Alumina . . . . . 4.26 . . . . . 8.68 5.17 52.24
Sulphur . . . . . trace trace 0.089 . . . . . . . . . .
Phosphorus . . . . . trace trace 0.023 . . . . . . . . . .
Titanic Acid . . . . . 13.60 13.58 13.74 15.35 0.78

        The magnetite and brown hematite ores in the central part of the crystalline area extend across the State in a southwesterly direction from Virginia to South Carolina; the principal deposits lie in Stokes, Surry, Yadkin, Davie, Catawba, Lincoln and Gaston counties.

        In the Danbury region, Stokes county, the ores are chiefly magnetite, and have been mined and smelted as long as one hundred years ago. They occur in a series of parallel belts, occupying a width of about four and a half miles, the outcrops of which have been traced over an aggregate distance of twenty miles along the strike. The country rocks are talcose, micaceous and quartzitic schists and gneisses. The ores may be divided into three classes: (1), hard ore; (2), soapstone ore; (3), sand ore. The "hard ore" is a compact massive magnetite. The "soapstone ore" is composed of magnetite grains disseminated in a soft talcose matrix. This is the so-called "Catawbarite" of Lieber. The "sand ore" consists of granular magnetite in a friable sandy matrix.

        Among the most important localities in this region are: the William Nelson mine, four and one-half miles northwest of Danbury. The ore was originally mined for the Clements forge built near here in 1790. The ore is of the hard variety, and the thickness of the body as now visible is three to eight feet. Analyses of select ores show:

        
Silica . . . . . 17.83%
Metallic Iron . . . . . 53.24%
Sulphur . . . . . 0.023%
Phosphorus . . . . . 0.052%

        The Lee Nelson mine is three and one-half miles northwest of Danbury. The ore is of the soapstone class. The thickness of the deposit varies from three to nine feet. Analyses of good ore show:

        
Silica . . . . . 21.47%
Metallic Iron . . . . . 47.23%
Sulphur . . . . . 0.006%
Phosphorus . . . . . 0.081%

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        The Rogers mine, two and one-half miles north of Danbury, was at one time the largest and best developed mine in the section. The main shaft is sixty feet in depth, and the ore in the bottom is stated to be eight feet in thickness. It is of the hard variety. The gangue is chloritic and micaceous. Analyses show:

        
Silica . . . . . 20.00 12.29 11.69 15.66 31.75 13.76
Metallic Iron . . . . . 52.86 58.26 63.71 57.13 49.03 61.74
Sulphur . . . . . 0.084 0.179 0.006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Phosphorus . . . . . 0.016 0.001 0.003 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

        The Pepper mine is one and a half miles east of the Rogers. The ore is a hard, granular magnetite. An analysis shows 44 per cent. metallic iron and 0.033 per cent. phosphorus. The thickness of the ore body is stated to be six to eight feet.

        The Isaac Fagg mine is four miles northwest of Danbury. The ore is of the sandy class, which occurs in seams of variable and irregular thickness, reaching four feet. Analyses show from 42 to 48 per cent. of iron, and from 0.079 to 0.117 per cent. of phosphorus.

        Other mines in the vicinity are the Becky Nelson, Cherrytree, Carlin, Simmons, &c. All prospects point to the existence of large and important deposits of magnetite ore. The nearest railroad point to Danbury is Walnut Cove, eleven and a half miles distant, at the junction of the Norfolk and Western and the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley railroads.

        The magnetite ores of Surry and Yadkin counties consist of magnetite grains disseminated through mica schist and gneiss. The purer ores are almost free from the gneiss, and pass from that degree of concentration by intermediate gradation steps into gneiss containing very little magnetite. The economic value of such leaner ores will depend largely on the cost of magnetic separation. The rock is usually decomposed to considerable depths and is therefore well adapted to easy and cheap crushing. Among the more important localities are:

        The Ferris mine, two miles north of Pilot Mountain P. O., two beds of ore, each about two feet thick, separated by one foot of mica schist, are reported here; containing from four to sixty-one per cent. of iron and 0.05 to 0.09 per cent. of phosphorus.

        Hyatt's mine is seven miles west of Pilot Mountain P. O. Ore was formerly mined here for a distance of one thousand feet along the strike, to a maximum depth of twenty feet. The thickness of the bed is stated to be six to eight feet. An analysis of the ore after it had been washed for the forge, showed sixty-three per cent. of iron and 0.03 per cent. of phosphorus.

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        The Williams mine is four miles northwest of Rockford. At the Stanley mine, ten miles from Elkin, the ore is limonite and red hematite, having a width of from four to fourteen feet and it contains fifty four per cent. of iron and only a trace of phosphorus.

        The Hobsen ore beds in the northern part of Yadkin county, have yielded considerable amounts of magnetite ore for the old forges. Analysis show from forty to sixty-seven per cent. of iron, and from a trace to 0.04 per cent. of phosphorus.

        To the north and south of Mocksville, Davie county, are several localities where magnetic ores are found, but nothing definite is known of the extent of the deposits, excepting some of them carry from eight to ten per cent. of titanic acid.

        One of the most important belts of ore in this central part of the State extends from Iron station, in Lincoln county, in a northeasterly direction to the Catawba river, in Catawba county, a distance of some twenty miles. The ores are magnetite, and were at one time extensively mined and worked in the primitive Catawba forges and charcoal blast furnaces. The country rocks are micaceous and quartzitic schists, in which the ores occur in lenticular deposits.

        The principal ores of the old ore banks were: The Big Ore bank, the Brevard, Stonewall and Robinson banks in Lincoln county; and the Morrison, Tillman, Deep Hollow, Mountain Creek, Abernathy, Little John and Powell banks in Catawba county.

        The Big Ore bank is four miles north of Iron Station. The "Eugene" shaft, one hundred feet deep, here exposed three parallel ore bodies, by cross-cutting; respectively eighteen, twelve and eight feet in width; the intervening schists being from three to four feet thick. Analysis of these ores show from fifty-eight to sixty-eight per cent. of iron, from 0.06 to 0.09 per cent. of sulphur, and 0.01 to 0.08 of phosphorus. This bank supplied ore for the Rehaboth, Madison and Vesuvius furnaces situated close by.

        The Powell bank is four and one-half miles southeast of Catawba station and the ores were smelted in the Catawba Valley forge. The main bed, opened to a depth of thirty feet, was three to four feet thick. An analysis shows metallic iron 64.21 per cent. and phosphorus 0.009 per cent.

        A similar zone of ores, and of equal importance to the above, occurs in Gaston county. It consists of four parallel belts: (1). That on which the Ormond mine is situated. (2). Little Mountain. (3). Yellow Ridge. (4). Crowders and King's Mountain.

        The Ormond mine, situated one mile west of Bessemer City, has probably been more extensively worked than any other iron mine

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(the Cranberry excepted) in the State. The character of the ore is varied, practically speaking there are four classes: (1). Hard block ore, with less than five per cent. water, and hence to be classified as turgite. (2). Bluish black powder ore. (3). Porous brown hematite or limonite, and (4). hard massive ore, slightly magnetic. All of these ores are slightly manganiferous at times.

        The ores occur in lenticular bodies in the schistose and gneissic country rock. In length, the ore formation is continuous over twenty-four hundred feet; transversely to the strike, the ore bodies occupy a width varying from fifty to one hundred feet. As to the size of the separate lenses, they vary in thickness from less than three to more than twenty-eight feet. Some analyses show:

        
Silica . . . . . . . . . . 9.72 2.48 4.27 1.55
Metallic Iron . . . . . 47.10 52.39 64.56 68.03 65.35
Sulphur . . . . . . . . . . 0.048 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Phosphorus . . . . . 0.057 0.079 0.004 0.036 0.007

        The Little Mountain mine is situated three-fourths of a mile from the Ormond. The ore is brown hematite, occurring in a distinct vein structure between parallel walls of siliceous slate. The gangue is quartz. On the outcrop the ore is very lean, the quartz predominating; but at the bottom of the sixty-foot shaft the quartz has nearly disappeared. In thickness the vein varies from three to ten feet. Analyses show.

        
Silica . . . . . 6.67 7.90 11.96
Metallic Iron . . . . . 54.32 53.75 52.70
Sulphur . . . . . . . . . . 0.011 . . . . .
Phosphorus . . . . . 0.017 0.045 0.022

        In the Yellow Ridge belt are the Costner, Ellison, Ferguson, Frelenwider, and Yellow Ridge mines. These ores are magnetites somewhat similar in character to those of Lincoln and Catawba counties. At times they are rather high in sulphur contents. The mines were worked in former years to supply the local forges, and the maximum depth reached was probably one hundred and twenty feet. In thickness the ore bodies are stated to be usually five to seven feet. Analyses of the ores show: from twenty-seven to sixty-one per cent. of iron, from 0.007 to 0.07 per cent. of phosphorus, and from a trace to 1.5 per cent. of sulphur.

        The ores of Crowder's Mountain are limonites and magnetites, which have been but superficially explored; so that very little satisfactory information can be given concerning the value of the deposits.

        In the western part of Catawba and Lincoln, and in eastern Cleveland are several occurrences of magnetite ore, usually slightly

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titaniferous. Such are the Barringer and Forney mines in Catawba county.

        Brown hematite ores occur in the cyanitic hydro-mica schists of eastern Caldwell and Burke, and western Catawba and Lincoln counties, but the deposits appear to be rather unimportant from an economical standpoint.

        The magnetite and brown and red hematite ores of the Blue Ridge mountains and their eastern foot hills may be considered next.

        Along the crests and slopes of the Blue Ridge in Watauga county, there is a zone of schistose red hematite of considerable purity. The ore is mineralogically martite schist, and the enclosing rocks are grayish, greenish and pinkish siliceous schists, of probable eruptive origin. The principal locality is at Bull Ruffin, seven miles southeast of Boon. The developments are insufficient to establish the true size and extent of the ore bodies, although in places the beds appear to reach five feet in thickness. Similar occurrences are found near Blowing Rock, and in a northeast direction to near the Virginia State line. Various analyses of this "martite" ore show from forty-four to sixty-eight per cent. of iron, and very low in both sulphur and phosphorus.

        In the central and northern parts of Caldwell county are several occurrences of titaniferous magnetite, the most noteworthy one being on the Curtis farm, sixteen miles north of Lenoir, in Richlands cove, where the ore body attains an apparent thickness as great as forty-five feet, and the ore contains from twenty-eight to thirty-seven per cent. of iron, and from fifteen to thirty-six per cent. of titanic acid.

        The magnetite specular and brown hematite ores in the crystalline area west of the Blue Ridge mountains, comprise an area of over 5,000 square miles which is the repository of some of the most important magnetic ore deposits in the State.

        The so-called Little River belt crosses the State line from Grayson county, Virginia, into the northeastern part of Alleghany county, North Carolina, and continues southwest across that county. The ore consists of magnetite in a talcose gangue. It is often slightly titaniferous (2 per cent. to 5 per cent).

        There are in Ashe county three main belts of magnetite ore; (1). the Ballou or River belt; (2). The Red Hill or Poison Branch belt. (3). The Titaniferous belt.

        The Ballou or River belt is the most easterly and crops out along the North Fork of New river. There are two parallel outcrops about half a mile apart. A series of old forge diggings extends from Piney creek to New river. The thickness of the ore beds varies from

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thirty feet down. The more prominent localities are Weaver's, Halsey's, Lunceford's and Brown's ore beds. Many of these ores are soft, being in a micaceous gangue, and are hence susceptible of great improvement by washing, or better still, by magnetic concentration. Thus, some of this soft ore running 43.05 per cent. metallic iron, has been brought up to 67.35 per cent. by washing.

        The Ballou ore bed is probably one of the most important in the county. It is situated on the North Fork near the mouth of Helton creek. The ore is a hard, fine granular magnetite, disseminated in a gangue of hornblende, epidote and quartz. So far as exposed the thickness of the bed is twelve feet, dipping 37° southeast. Analyses of this ore show:

        
Silica . . . . . 17.88 to 20.79
Metallic Iron . . . . . 50.68 to 45.50
Sulphur . . . . . 0.02 to 0.002
Phosphorus . . . . . 0.009 to 0.024

        The Red Hill or Poison Branch belt crosses from the northwestern corner of Alleghany into the northeastern corner of Ashe county, and extends thence in a southwesterly direction a distance of some ten miles. Among the more important localities are: The Lee and John L. Pugh farms, on Ben's branch, where ore bodies from two to forty feet in thickness have been exposed. The ore is friable granular magnetite associated with hornblende schists. At times it is manganiferous. Analyses show from 43 to 45 per cent. of iron, from a trace to 4.6 per cent. of manganese, and is low in both sulphur and phosphorus.

        The Black property is situated on the southwest slope of Helton Knob. The ore is very friable, and was on this account much prized by the forge people.

        The Belvins Ore beds are situated on the western foot hills of Helton Knob. The ore is a hard magnetite in a gangue of hornblende and epidote. The thickness of the principal exposed bed is thirty-five feet, with three streaks of ore, aggregating fourteen feet in thickness, and containing thirty-two to thirty-six per cent. of iron and very small quantities of sulphur and phosphorus.

        The Red Hill deposits are directly to the southwest from the above. A number of shallow openings here have uncovered a rather complex and widely distributed ore formation, consisting in places of mixed masses of soft ore, hard ore and gangue, of great width, and in others of narrow bodies--five feet, &c.--of hard ore; pyrite is present in considerable quantities at times. Analyses show the ore to contain from 20 to 51 per cent. of iron, from 0.07 to 1.6 of sulphur, and from 0.004 to 1.1 per cent. of phosphorus.

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        The McClure's Knob deposits are on the opposite side of Helton creek from Reo Hill. A number of openings expose a series of parallel ore beds, distributed over a width of some two thousand feet northwest and southeast, across the strike. None of these, however, so far as developed show a thickness over three feet.

        The Poison Branch ore bed is situated about one mile southwest from McClure's Knob. The thickness of the ore body is stated to be six feet. It is composed of hard magnetite ore in hornblende gangue, the ore containing from forty-five to sixty-one per cent. of iron, and being low in both sulphur and phosphorus.

        The Piney Creek ore bed is situated on Piney creek, one and a half miles above its mouth. The ore is course granular magnetite in a matrix of brownish black manganese oxide. It is exceptionally pure and practically free from gangue matter. The thickness of the upper part of the bed is six and one-half feet, beneath which is about one foot of soft highly manganiferous ore. The bed is probably even thicker than this, its full extent not being uncovered. Analyses show from fifty to sixty-five per cent. of iron, from 0.6 to 9.6 per cent. of manganese, and being low in both sulphur and phosphorus. A very similar ore occurs at the Francis mine, a half mile southwest from the above. The greatest thickness of the bed is ten feet. The ores carry a considerable amount of hygroscopic water, as high as forty-two per cent.

        The Graybeal ore beds, still further to the southwest, carry some similar ores to the Piney Creek, and Francis beds, the main bed, however, consists of hard, solid magnetite, some twenty feet in thickness, analyses of which show; fifty-five to sixty-three per cent. of iron and 0.005 to 0.009 per cent. of phosphorus.

        The Horse Creek bed is one mile above the mouth of Horse creek, the ore is manganiferous magnetite, and the deposit is at least six feet in thickness. Analyses show from fifty-four to sixty-two per cent. of iron, three to seven per cent. of manganese and 0.006 to 0.02 per cent. of phosphorus.

        The Wilcox ore bed is one-quarter mile northwest of Dredsen P. O. The ore is magnetite and epidote hornblende gangue. The width of the outcrop is twelve feet. Analysis shows the ore to contain fifty-three per cent. of iron, and 0.02 per cent. of phosphorus.

        The Titaniferous ore belt is the most northwestern belt of importance in Ashe county. It starts near the Virginia line and extends southwesterly to Helton creek, a distance of two and one-half miles. The ores are titaniferous magnetites. The analyses show from forty-five to fifty-eight per cent. of iron, from five to nine per cent. of

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titanic acid, and very little phosphorus and sulphur. The important points are: The William Young farm, one-fourth mile south of the Virginia line, where an outcrop of ore is found covering a width of at least twenty-five feet. On the adjoining McCarter farm, a bed from nine to twelve feet in width has been opened; and a half mile nearly west, another bed three feet in thickness. The Banguess ore bed, one-half mile south of McCarter's, shows five feet of ore which has a red color and streak. The gangue is epidote, feldspar and quartz.

        The Pennington property is about one mile slightly south of west from the Banguess. The ore bed is eight feet wide. On the Kirby place, near Sturgill P. O., a body of magnetite ore about fifteen feet in width has been uncovered, which is low in titanic acid, containing only a fractional per cent.

        In the extreme eastern portion of Ashe county the gossan ores (brown hematite) of the Ore Knob copper lode, bear mention. The thickness of this lode is about ten feet, and the gossan extends to an average depth of forty-five feet.

        The principal magnetite and specular ore deposits of Mitchell county are situated in the northern and northwestern parts on the slopes of Roan, Iron, Unaka and Pumpkin Patch mountains. Four belts may be recognized:

        The Bald Mountain Specular belt consists of a heavy and extensive outcrop of specular red hematite on the head waters of Spring, Beans, Pigeon Roost and Hollow Poplar creeks, very near the Tennessee line. The ore is fine grained and compact; near the outcrop it is silicious, but becomes purer and almost free from gangue matter in depth. Its width is stated to be ten feet. The outcrop has been traced over a distance of seven miles. An analysis shows 52 per cent. of iron, and 0.09 per cent. of phosphorus.

        The Cranberry Magnetite belt contains by far the most important deposits of ore in this entire region, and has been most extensively developed. The eastern extremity is at Cranberry in the northern part of Mitchell county; thence it extends north 34° west for two and a-half miles to the Tennessee line; crossing the same it passes through the southern portion of Carter county, Tenn., deflecting gradually westward and then southwestward, to the head waters of Tiger creek, recrossing into North Carolina, and continuing in a southwesterly direction to the Toe

Illustration

THE CRANBERRY IRON MINE.

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river, a total distance of some twenty-two miles. The most important development in this belt, if not indeed in the State, is at the Cranberry mine, at the terminus of the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina railroad. The ore deposit is an immense lens of magnetite, associated with hornblende, pyroxene, epidote, quartz, feldspar, calcite, &c. The present workings of the Cranberry mine cover about eight acres on the slope of Cranberry ridge, and consists of two tunnel openings and four main open cuts in successive levels or benches. Altogether the ore body has been opened up and explored in these main workings about eight hundred and seventy-five feet in length, by three hundred feet in breadth, by one hundred and sixty-five feet in average depth, representing approximately 1,600,000 cubic yards. At a low estimate, this volume would contain 4,800,000 tons of ore material. The ore varies in character from very fine grained, dense, massive to soft coarse granular magnetite. Analyses show the ore to vary from forty-five per cent. iron (run of mine) to sixty-eight per cent. from selected masses of ore. It is well within the Bessemer limit as to both sulphur and phosphorus. The ores are smelted in a small coke furnace situated at the mine, and the pig iron is of a special Bessemer grade, averaging less than 1.00 per cent. silicon and 0.025 per cent. phosphorus. It has attained a wide reputation for the manufacture of steel. The annual production has varied from about four hundred tons to a maximum of three thousand two hundred tons. The possibilities of the Cranberry mine as an ore producer have never been fairly demonstrated. It is without exception the largest deposit of Bessemer ore in the South, and its importance and value in this respect are very great.

        The Iron Mountain ore beds are situated in the western part of Mitchell county. Among the principal deposits is the Jenkins mine, on Greasy creek, where the ore body is stated to be 18 feet in maximum thickness. The general Cranberry belt has been traced from the Jenkins place to the Toe river, a distance of eight and a half miles.

        The Roan Mountain Titaniferous belt lies from three to five miles south of the Cranberry belt, and generally parallel to it. The Titaniferous belt of Pumpkin Patch mountain, north of Bakersville in Mitchell county, shows similar ores.

        There is only one locality of note in the magnetite ores of Madison county, namely, the Big Ivy or Heck mine, six miles north of Alexander, where an ore body some 50 feet in width has been exposed. The ore is very similar to that of the Cranberry mine.

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        The Brown Hematite ores of Cherokee county are among the most important in the State. The ore beds of value occur in the calc schists immediately below the quartzites, and above the marble. The principal deposits extend in a northeasterly direction from Murphy along Valley river for a distance of some sixteen miles. The outcrop is a double one. (1). Extending in a sharp synclinal bed underlying the quartzite, in a direction N. 40° E, from the Hiwassee river to Mason creek. (2). And in a flat synclinal bed along the crest of the low ridge running slightly north of east from Vengeance creek to Valleytown. In the former the quantity of ore is naturally greater, as the members of the synclinal fold dip at steep angles, and in all probability the ore extends to considerable depth; its thickness is from 1 to 40 feet. In the latter the ore lies nearly flat, on or near the crest of the ridge, and is therefore contracted in its dimensions. Present explorations have shown a width of from 40 to 175 feet, and a thickness of from 8 to 38 feet.

        The ore is everywhere well situated for mining, but most advantageously in the latter formation, where it can be mined almost exclusively by stripping and open work. Representative samples of these ores show:

        
Silica . . . . . 8.31% 9.08%
Metallic Iron . . . . . 54.94 50.02
Sulphur . . . . . 0.055 0.712
Phosphorus . . . . . 0.476 1.423

        Similar ores occur in the western part of Madison county.*

        * NOTE--For more detailed descriptions of the iron ore deposits of the State, see Bulletin, No. 1, published by the State Geological Survey.


ECONOMIC MINERALS.

CORUNDUM.

        In the production of corundum, North Carolina leads all the other States, and indeed, during 1895, nearly all the corundum mined in the United States, came from North Carolina. With a single exception (Acme mine in Iredell county) the mines in the State which have been operated during the past few years, are located in a narrow belt of crysolite rock, which extends from Virginia across this State into Georgia, between the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky mountains. The more important of these mines which have been recently operated, are the following: Corundum Hill (Cullasaja) mine and Hosea Moses mine in Macon county; Sapphire (Hog Back) mine in

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Jackson county; Behr mine and Buck Creek (Cullakanee) mine in Clay county; Carter mine in Madison county, and the Acme mine in Iredell county.

        The first of these, the Corundum Hill mine, seven miles southeast of Franklin, is not only the best known, but has been the longest and most successfully worked of any of these mines. Operations were begun here by Col. C. W. Jencks, in 1871; and since 1878, the annual output of this mine has been from two hundred to three hundred tons of clean corundum. Dr. H. S. Lucas is the present manager. The first mining here was chiefly for gems, and the work was done by hydraulic process, the soil and the decayed rock of the surface being washed through a series of sluice boxes inclined at a considerable angle. The lighter minerals naturally floated off, while the corundum and other heavy minerals remained in the box. The Hosea Moses mine, on Ellijay creek, a few miles north of Corundum Hill, was operated for several years by the same company that operated the Corundum Hill (Hampden Emery Corundum Co). The force employed at these two mines during the past few years has been somewhat variable, but is usually from thirty to forty men.

        The Sapphire mines, near the Great Hog Back mountain in the southeastern corner of Jackson county, were operated on a considerable scale from 1892, to the latter part of 1893, from fifty to sixty men being constantly employed in mining and prospecting. The product in 1893 was over four hundred tons of material, one-fourth of which was said to have been nearly pure corundum crystal.

        The Behr mine, five miles east of Hayesville, was opened in 1880. A steam cleaning plant was erected at the mine and considerable developments and prospecting work was done.

        The Buck Creek mine is also located in the eastern part of Clay county. The inaccessibility of this mine has been one of the chief difficulties in the way of large mining operations at this point. Nearly all the corundum is in massive blocks associated with black hornblende, and this makes it difficult to work, but corundum occurs here in large quantities, and one may reasonably expect large mining operations here in the near future.

        The Carter mine is located in the southern corner of Madison county. The corundum occurs here in considerable quantities associated with spinel, feldspar and other minerals.

        The Acme mine, about three-fourths of a mile west of Statesville, was operated in 1893 to the extent of producing about 50 tons of clean corundum. Corundum was discovered here about 1875 by Mr. J. A. D. Stevenson, but active mining operations were not begun until 1893.

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        During the past few years a considerable amount of prospecting has been done in the counties west of the Blue Ridge, especially in Jackson, Macon and Clay, and several new mines are being opened up at the present time. A few miles north of Franklin, on Cowee creek, hydraulic mining in search for gem corundum has been carried on during 1895-'96, on a considerable scale.

MICA.

        Mica mining in North Carolina has been carried on to a greater or less extent during the past twenty-five years, mainly in the counties west of the Blue Ridge. The majority of the mines are located in Mitchell, Yancey, Jackson and Macon counties. During the past few years the low tariff rate has permitted the importation of large quantities of mica from India, and this has had a tendency to decrease the North Carolina product, but the yield of these mines during the past year (1895) has approximated 36,000 pounds cut mica. Since 1891, the industry has received something of a stimulus by the introduction of the mica mill for the grinding of scrap mica, which prior to that date had been regarded as waste product; the quantity of ground mica produced has increased considerably since that time.

        The mica occurs usually in the form of large irregular crystals from one to three feet in length, and from a few inches to nearly two feet in diameter at its greatest width; these crystals are usually bedded in a matrix of quartz and feldspar in large irregular veins from a few inches to many feet in width, and sometimes traceable along the surface of the ground for a half mile or more. Generally in these veins, the quartz and feldspar predominate, and sometimes very little mica is present. In places, however, the crystals of mica occur in abundance, sometimes near the foot-wall, again near the hanging-wall and sometimes scattered irregularly through the central portion of the vein. The wall rock for these veins is usually either biotite mica schists or schistose gneiss.

        Probably the total value of the mica product in North Carolina since the beginning of the industry (1868) has not been much short of $3,000,000.00, of which the mines of Mitchell and Yancey counties have contributed by far the larger part, and nearly all the remainder has been produced in Jackson and Macon

TALC AND AGALMATOLITE.

        The mining of talc is confined largely to Swain and Cherokee counties. The principal deposits which have been worked in the last

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few years being those on the Nantahala river at Hewetts, Swain county; and those on the Valley river at Tomotla, eight or ten miles north of Murphy, and those on the Nottely river some five miles southwest of Murphy. At each of these places mining operations have been in progress during the past few years, and mills have been erected for the grinding of talc prior to shipment. Specimens of talc have been found in a number of other counties, and recently a deposit of this matter has been described as occurring in Chatham county.

        Agalmatolite--pyrophyllite (silicate of alumina) sometimes erroneously classed with talc (which is a silicate of magnesia) is found in deposits of considerable magnitude in Chatham, Moore and Orange counties, where, indeed, it occurs as a white or greenish slate or schistose rock, which can be mined easily and cheaply.

MONAZITE.

        A few years ago monazite was regarded as one of the rare minerals found at but few places in North Carolina and elsewhere, and of no special economic value; but since the discovery of the fact that the small percentage of thorium (1 to 10 per cent.) which it contains is the best material for use in the manufacture of the Welsbach incandescent gas lights, monazite has come to have a considerable economic value, and has been mined on a considerable scale in North Carolina. The production and value of monazite mined in the State during the past three years was about 1,500,000 pounds, valued at more than $100,000 at the mines.

Illustration

PRISMATIC AND TWINNED CRYSTALS OF MONAZITE--ALEXANDER CO.

        The larger part of this monazite has been mined in Burke, Cleveland, Rutherford and McDowell counties. The best sands (highest in thoria) came from Burke and Cleveland counties, though some of special high grade has been reported from McDowell county. The price of monazite has varied from twenty-five cents per pound in 1893, to as low as three cents for the poorer grades and six to ten cents per pound for the better grades sold in 1894-'95.

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        This monazite is found along the narrow valleys near the head waters of the small streams, mingled with the gravel and sand which lie directly upon the rock. In some places, however, the soil on the slopes of the adjacent hills is found to be quite rich in monazite. It is mined with the shovel and pick, the soil and underlying gravel containing the monazite being thrown upon a perforated iron pan at the head of a sluice box, and as this is washed down by a current of water the monazite, which is nearly twice as heavy as ordinary sand, quickly settles to the bottom and is easily separated from the latter. The separation is completed by a slight additional washing. The black grains of magnetic iron sand and some other impurities are removed by a strong magnet, and the dried monazite is then ready for shipment.

MARLS AND PHOSPHATES.

        In the majority of the counties in the Coastal Plain region, shell marls are found sufficiently near the surface to render it possible for them to be mined and used for agricultural purposes, and for many years these marls were used extensively in this connection. They are composed largely of fossil shells, with more or less admixture of sand and clay. Analyses show many of them to contain from fifty to ninety per cent. of carbonate of lime, and where these are used for agricultural purposes they are usually scattered over the fields at a rate of from fifty to two hundred bushels per acre. During the past few years, however, the price of agricultural lime has been so low that the majority of the planters have considered it cheaper to purchase lime for spreading over their fields than to mine and haul the marls which they have on their farms.

        Deposits of phosphate rock have been found in Duplin, Sampson, Pender, Onslow, Brunswick and New Hanover counties; but in only one of these counties (New Hanover) have these phosphate deposits been mined up to the present date. At Castle Hayne, ten miles north of Wilmington, phosphatic pebbles from the size of a pea to an inch in diameter are found mixed with sand and clay in beds from one to six feet in thickness at a depth of from three to ten feet below the surface of the ground. The phosphate pebbles in such cases usually make from ten to fifty per cent. of the aggregate mass of the material, the remainder being sand and clay. Associated with this phosphate gravel is usually found a lime rock in which is imbedded phosphate pebbles of the same size and character as those found in the sand, this being generally designated phosphate conglomerate.

        The phosphate pebbles mined at Castle Hayne, are there washed

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and dried, and shipped to Wilmington, Norfolk and Baltimore, where they are manufactured into commercial fertilizer.

        On the Hermitage plantation, adjoining the Castle Hayne tract, phosphates of similar character are found extending over a considerable area. The phosphate rock in Sampson and Duplin counties occurs in much larger blocks, from a few inches to two feet in diameter, highly water-worn and overlaid by from six to ten feet of sand. Thus far, the deposits of this rock discovered, have not been mined on any considerable scale.

COAL.

        The coal fields of North Carolina are confined to two limited areas or belts of triassic sandstone. The smaller or Dan river belt having a width of from two to four miles, and a length of nearly thirty miles in northeast and southwest directions. The other, the Deep river sandstone belt, extends along a trough, narrow at each end and some fifteen miles wide at its central point, and extends from Oxford, in Granville county, southwestward across the State. In the former belt tracings of coal are found throughout almost its entire length, and at several places near Walnut Cove coal is exposed; the formation carrying merchantable coal, however, is limited to the region from the southern part of Chatham, ten or twelve miles into the northern part of Moore.

        In the Dan river basin, the most promising outcrops for coal, are those along the line near the wagon road from Walnut Cove to Germanton. The coal bearing vein there is said to have a thickness of from two to seven feet. It is exceedingly friable and crumbles readily when exposed to the atmosphere, but like the Cumnock coal, it cokes readily and makes an excellent gas coal. In composition it is semibituminous. The outlook for occurrences here of workable seams of coal is fairly good.

        The quality of the coal in the Deep river region resembles somewhat, but seems to be superior in character, to that in the Dan river region. In the Deep river basin, the coal with its shales, outcrops along the northern margin of the belt at various points for more than fifteen miles, and a number of shafts have been sunk to and through the main seam. In this basin, Emmons reports five seams of coal, separated by black shales and slates, black-band iron ore and fire clay; and estimates the area of this coal field at three hundred square miles. In this region a considerable amount of prospecting work has been done from time to time during the past few years, and the principal coal seam reaches from three to five feet

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in diameter; it also cokes well and is an excellent gas coal. The only mine operated on any considerable scale is the Cumnock, or old Egypt coal mine.

CUMNOCK COAL MINES.

        The Cumnock mines in Chatham county are the only operating colleries in North Carolina. These mines, originally opened years since, were operated in a desultory and primitive manner prior to 1888, when Samuel A. Henszey, of Philadelphia, Pa., obtained possession, organized a company, and vigorously proceeded to re-open the mines upon an extensive scale, install a modern and efficient plant and introduce business methods, absence of which had accounted for previous indifferent success. Encountering many obstacles, the restoration and development proved slow and expensive, but by determined and persistent effort the property has been finally placed in a position that assures success. The underground works have been opened upon a large scale and in a most permanent manner for economical operation. The machine plant, both underground and on the surface, has been perfected with the most modern appliances for hoisting, pumping and ventilation, and every available safeguard for the protection of life and property has been introduced.

        The colliery is operated by two perpendicular shafts--one for ventilation only, measuring 8 × 10 feet, tapping the vein in the "rise" workings at a depth of two hundred and twenty feet, and the main working shaft, 8 × 12 feet, four hundred and sixty-four feet in depth. The present plant has a capacity of one thousand tons per diem. Direct connection is had with the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley railway at Cumnock and the Seaboard Air Line at Colon by means of the Raleigh and Western railway, an extension of which is well advanced toward a connection with the Southern railway system at or near Randleman, in Randolph county. The yield is a clean, shining bituminous coal, igniting easily, burning with a bright, clear combustion, leaving very little purplish, grey ash. It swells and agglutinizes, making a hollow fire.

        The following analyses made at different times and from sampling of the mine at various points attest the uniformity of quality:

        
  Dr. Jackson. G. C. Schaefer. J. H. Cremer. Dr. H. Endeman.
Volatile matter . . . . . 34.80 32.70 27.85 31.42
Fixed Carbon . . . . . 63.60 60.70 64.19 63.32
Ash . . . . . 1.60 5.30 4.24 4.12
Moisture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.95 1.14
Sulphur . . . . . . . . . . 1.30 1.77 1.99

Illustration

CUMNOCK COAL MINES.

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        The Cumnock company owns four thousand three hundred acres. The workable veins aggregate six feet in thickness, lying in two benches of four feet and two feet respectively, separated by two feet of black band iron ore, the point of contact being plain and admitting of clean mining. The specific gravity of these coals as ascertained by Dr. H. B. Battle, Ph. D., is for the upper seam 1.31 and the lower 1.43. Using this basis, competent authorities estimate 11,000 tons to the acres, or 47,300,000 tons within the land owned by this one company. The coal is equally suitable for manufacture of gas, generation of steam, blacksmithing and domestic use. The Greensboro Gas Company in a recent letter says: "This coal made nine thousand seven hundred cubic feet of gas, eighteen and one-half candle power, and forty-nine bushels of good, clean, hard coke." For locomotive use, Mr. William Montcure, now Superintendent of the Central Division Seaboard Air Line, made an exhaustive test some time since and in submitting the result said: "I made a test of your coal as compared with Pocahontas, using the same engine, pulling the same trains with the same crew, with the following result for the same service:--Pocahontas 52,000, Cumnock 40,000 lbs. As a blacksmith coal it is now being shipped to local points on the Norfolk and Western railroad. As a grate coal it is without a superior, burning with a bright blaze, emitting no smoke and with entire absence of soot.

GRAPHITE.

        This mineral, in small quantities, is quite widely distributed in North Carolina in the crystalline rocks, both slates and gneisses, and there are beds of a more or less impure slaty and earthy variety in several sections of the State, the principal of which are two: one in Gaston, Lincoln and Catawba, as a constant associate of the argillaceous and talcose slates and shales which belong to the Kings Mountain slates, and the other in Wake county.

        The Wake county beds are the most extensive, as well as the best known, graphite beds in the State. They extend in a northeast and southwest direction for a distance of sixteen or eighteen miles, passing two and a half miles west of Raleigh. The thickness is two or three, and occasionally four feet. The eastern (and longitudinally the most extensive) bed is nearly vertical. It was opened at a number of points many years ago and has been worked on a small scale, at intervals, during the past few years. It is a bed of quartzitic and argillaceous slates, which are more or less graphitic, from about twenty to sixty per cent. graphite.

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KAOLIN AND CLAY.

        At various places in the older rocks of middle and western North Carolina are to be found extensive veins or dikes composed largely of feldspathic material which has decayed from the action of atmospheric agencies, and which decayed material is generally designated as Kaolin. Generally in these dikes there is an admixture of feldspar, quartz and mica. In places the mica occurs in considerable quantity, and in crystals of sufficient size to permit of its being mined for commercial mica, and in such cases the deposit is designated as a mica vein. In other cases, quartz is the predominant material, and in still other cases, where the best kaolin is produced, the proportion of both quartz and mica are small, and the feldspar is the prevailing material. These dikes vary considerably in size, ranging from a few inches to several hundred feet in thickness, and up to several hundred yards in length. They are generally, though not always, parallel to the schistosity of the crystalline rocks.

        The kaolin in these dikes, which occur in the Uaka or Smoky mountains, is said to have been mined by the Indians, "packed" across the country to the seaport and shipped to Europe during the early settlement of the country. From several of these dikes near Webster, in Jackson county, the kaolin is being mined at the present time, washed and dried, and shipped to Trenton, N. J., and other pottery centers. The most noted of these kaolin dikes in Jackson County, is that being mined near Webster, by the Harris Clay Company, which dike has a thickness of nearly two hundred feet, and has been traced for a distance of more than half a mile. The kaolin is mined from a depth of from sixty to one hundred and twenty feet, below which point, the original feldspar is not sufficiently softened by decay to permit of cheap mining operations.

        Many similar, but far smaller feldspar and kaolin dikes are to be found in various counties of both the Mountain and Piedmont Plateau regions; but none of these have been worked to any considerable extent for either feldspar or kaolin.

        There are also many deposits of clay, varying in shades of color, from white, like kaolin, to purplish, yellowish brown, resulting from the decay of granite, gneisses and crystals in schists in these regions. These clays, of course, vary in composition both with the character of the rocks from which they have been formed, and with the extent to which the materials of the original rocks have been separated by the sorting action of water in transporting materials from one place to another. They are frequently a reddish or yellowish color owing to the oxide of iron present, though at many places their colors are

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lighter. These clays are used on a small scale in almost every region where brick are needed for the construction of houses or chimneys, but only at a few places, such as Biltmore, (Buncombe county,) Pomona, (Guilford county,) and Goldsboro, (Wayne county,) have they been used extensively in the manufacture of tile, drain and sewer pipes.

        Fire brick are also manufactured at Pomona; and the clay beds near Grover (Gaston county) are said to make fire brick and vitrified brick of excellent quality.

        The most extensive beds of clay known in North Carolina are those found in the Coastal Plain region. In the Potomac (lower Cretaceous) formation, there are extensive beds of laminated, dark-colored clays, exposed along the banks of rivers crossing the Coastal Plain region, notably on the Cape Fear river for fifty miles below Fayetteville. These clays are usually dark in color owing to the vegetable matter which they contain; and, in some cases, they are highly lignitic.

        Along the western border of the Coastal Plain region, especially in Moore and Harnett counties, there are limited exposures of silicious deposits (over-lying the Potomac series, and capping some of the sand-hills) which have recently been tested for fire brick with very satisfactory results. These deposits are from five to fifteen or more feet in thickness, and are overlaid by but a few feet of loose sand. In a few places the material has all the qualities of fullers earth.

        Among the Miocene deposits, there are, in places along the river-bluffs in the Coastal Plain region, especially on the Roanoke and the Tar, somewhat extensive exposures of "blue marl," a calcareous clay which may prove to be of some value, but of which no practical tests have yet been made.

        The Lafayette (Pliocene) materials, which are spread over so large a portion of the Coastal Plain region, are generally sandy in composition, with a large admixture of loam in many places. No extensive deposits of clay have been observed among the materials of this formation, though doubtless limited deposits of clay will be discovered as more extensive explorations are made.

GEMS AND GEM STONES.

        Many of the varieties of precious stones or gems of commerce are found in this State, and have been searched for in spasmodic

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exploration for a number of years. The accidental discovery some fifteen years ago of emerald and hiddenite in Alexander county, where gem mining on a considerable scale was conducted for several years, may be considered the beginning of this industry. The indications rarely justify the expenditure of much capital, and the existing conditions barely justify the rating as an industry. Yet it is a source of revenue to a few persons who wash the gravel or gouge out the crystals from the mother rock.

        The largest plant operated for gems exclusively was that in Alexander county, where emerald, hiddenite, beryl, rarely terminated rutile, and exquisite shades of garnets were found; and next to this should be mentioned Corundum Hill in Macon county, where rubies, sapphires, beryls and garnets are gathered incidentally in washing corundum for the markets. Again, garnets, beryls, rubies, sapphires, hyacinth, emerald, citrine topaz, amethyst and rare quartz gems are taken incidentally in McDowell county, on the property of the Marion Improvement Company, under the skillful management of Col. H. C. Demming, of Harrisburg, Pa. And in a desultory way, in Mitchell, Yancy, Macon, Buncombe, McDowell, Burke, Alexander, Iredell, Lincoln and other counties various gem stones are gathered and sold to local and foreign dealers.

        DIAMOND.--There is recorded the finding of thirteen small diamonds in the State. Seven of these are credited to the auriferous gravel beds of Burke, McDowell and Rutherford counties centering about the Brindletown region. The largest one of these weighed four and one-third carats, and was found in McDowell county. The remaining six are credited to the following counties: Lincoln 1; Mecklenburg 2; Franklin 2; Richmond 1. There is but small indication that diamonds may be found with more frequency in the future, yet the forest clad hills may one day give to the diamond hunter rewards little dreamed of now.

        HIDDENITE.--This is an emerald-green variety of spodumene, found only in Alexander county, when it occurs sparsely in the soil and gneissoid rock, along with emerald, monazite, rutile, allanite, dolomite and quartz crystals of generally smoky color and rare modifications. At one time a considerable amount of mining was done by the Emerald and Hiddenite Mining Company in search of these gems, and with gratifying success, as crystals of hiddenite and chrome-green beryl of exceptional size and conspicuous beauty were obtained.

        Hiddenite was named after Mr. W. E. Hidden, of New Jersey (a mineralogist of note who has done much valuable work in this State), by Prof. J. Laurence Smith, who identified the mineral. To

Illustration

1. EMERALD CRYSTAL.
2. SMOKY TOPAZ.
3. SAPPHIRE.
4. SAGENITE.
5.. PALE EMERALD.
6. AMETHYST.
7. MIDDENITE CRYSTAL.
8. ROSE GARNET.
9. CITRINE TOPAZ.
SOME NATIVE GEMS.

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the energy and enterprise of Mr. Hidden is due the introduction of hiddenite as a gem of rarity and with an established commercial

Illustration

CRYSTALS OF HIDDENITE--SPODUMENE.

value of $100 or more per carat for richly colored specimens; but specimens of the natural crystal were exhibited in the cabinet of Mr. J. A. D. Stevenson, of Statesville, N. C., for several years prior to Mr. Hidden's exploitation. The gem is justly esteemed for its great beauty of color, its superiority over the emerald in the splendor of its fire, and in its being the rarest of the precious stones. (See colored plate; this crystal now in the Harvard Museum.)

        EMERALD.--Beryls of chrome-green color have been found in many localities in Mitchell, Yancey, Macon, McDowell, Burke, Iredell and notably in Alexander county. The most celebrated specimens are still uncut in the hands of collectors outside the State. One of the finest crystals ever found here was taken from the property of the Emerald and Hiddenite Mining Co., and is now in the private collection of Mr. C. S. Bement, of Philadelphia. It is eight and

Illustration

MODIFIED BASAL TERMINATIONS--ALEXANDER COUNTY EMERALDS.

a-half inches in length and weighs nine ounces. (See colored plate.) There were other handsome crystals doubly terminated, and perhaps
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of better color found, but somewhat inferior to this in size. Mr. J. A. D. Stevenson secured a crystal (fractured) a few years ago with an outside border or coating of rich chrome-green color, which weighed very nearly twenty-seven ounces. This specimen offered fine material for the lapidist, but its lack of symmetry and absence of terminations lessened its scientific value.

        AQUAMARINE.--Pale bluish, bluish-green, pale green, greenish-yellow, yellow, golden yellow and limpid white beryls are found in the mica veins of Mitchell, and in feldspathic and micaceous rocks and in the soil in Yancey, Macon, McDowell, Burke, Alexander, Iredell and other counties. These tints are more abundant than the chrome-colored, and are sought after by those living in proximity to the localities and offered to collectors; eventually finding their way into cabinets or the show cases of gem dealers.

        Many of these crystals are of great scientific interest because of the remarkable terminations, oftentimes rivalling the lapidist in the number and brilliancy of the facets presented. A few of these remarkable geometric figures are presented here, through the courtesy of the American Journal of Science.

        

Illustration

BERYL-MODIFIED TERMINATION OF CRYSTAL.

        Many fine crystals and fragments of various shades of coloring, and ranging in size from the minutest forms to those of more than two feet in length and as much as seven inches in diameter have been found at the mica mines, and some specimens from other localities. These immense crystals are opaque and generally bluish or greenish in color, and are of value only as specimens.

        

Illustration

BERYL-BASAL VIEW OF TERMINATIONS.

        RUBY.--The ruby is derived from the red crystals of corundum, and the finest specimens in the State so far discovered are from Macon county, and the majority from the Corundum Hill mines. A few are found in Clay, Jackson, Iredell and Gaston counties. There have been but few found of the coveted pigeon-blood color.

        SAPPHIRE.--Like the ruby, sapphires come from crystals of corundum, and they are to be found at the same localities designated for ruby. Many nice gems have been found in the State. (See colored plate.) The term "oriental" is applied in commerce to ruby, sapphire, emerald and topaz, and in speaking of oriental sapphire, it is meant that it is a corundum sapphire, and so on through

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the list. Corundum is next to diamond in hardness, and gems from that source are more highly prized on that account.

        CYANITE.--This mineral is not very rare in its occurrence in this State, and comes from practically the same localities designated above for corundum gems. It is of an exquisite deep-blue color much resembling sapphire, but of a softer substance, yet hard enough for gem purposes. The finest specimens are found at Yellow mountain, in Mitchell county.

        GARNET.--This material is widely distributed in the State and is a constant constituent of many of the micaceous and other igneous rocks, and in flattened crystals in muscovite and biotite crystals as inclusions. It is found massive and in trapezohedron crystals weighing from six to eighteen pounds each, and through many intervening forms down to the small fractured masses in Kinzigite and in sands. In color it ranges from black into red, cherry, cinnamon, almandine, purple, rose and other pale tints. (See colored plate.) The most desirable shades for gems come from Macon and Alexander, but good gems are found in Mitchell, Yancey, McDowell, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba and other counties. Pyrope and massive garnet for conversion into abrasives is found in McDowell and Burke counties. Massive manganiferous garnet is found in Rutherford, Lincoln, Gaston, Rockingham, Stokes, Chatham and other localities.

        QUARTZ.--The widest distribution characterizes this material. It is comparatively abundant in about one-third of the area of the State. Many rare and interesting forms are to be found, as well as some remarkably large crystals; in fact crystals approaching three hundred pounds in weight are credited to Ashe county. Caldwell county furnishes some beautiful and perfectly limpid specimens. Alexander county is a more prolific source and supplies specimens of many shades in color and of great scientific interest because of rarely modified terminations. Both Mr. J. A. D. Stevenson and Mr. W. E. Hidden have forwarded fine collections ranging in color from almost black through varying tints of brown and yellowish-brown to limpid white, to Germany at the request of an eminent crystallographer, the late G. von Rath, of Bonn, who carefully studied and figured them, announcing in his results many new forms or planes hitherto unknown to science.

        Under the general head of quartz, reference may properly be had to several gems belonging to this classification.

        Sagenite, Venus' hair, arrows of love and rutilated quartz, are the names usually applied to one of the most striking of the quartz

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gems. It occurs as a crystal or mass of quartz holding as inclusions scores of acicular crystals of rutile; these are brown, red and yellow in color and are meshed in confusing lines of fiery brightness which are very effective in artificial light. Iredell county has supplied many fine specimens; as have Alexander, Catawba and Burke counties. (See colored plate.)

        Citrine topaz--yellow quartz--is also found in Burke and adjoining counties; but rarely in deep, rich color. It makes a striking gem when the coloring is good, and is much esteemed. The reproduction in the colored plate is from the collection of Mr. A. M. Field, at Asheville.

        Smoky topaz--cairngorm--occurs in many shades of brown, from very deep--almost black--through varying rich tones and fading into limpid white. This gem, while of low price, is much admired in some of its richer colorings.

        Amethyst--purple quartz--is widely distributed, almost as great in extent as quartz. It occurs in deep and pale shades of purple, and is too well known to demand extended notice. Catawba and Lincoln counties have produced handsome crystals in clusters.

        Some few specimens of opalescent quartz have been found which under the lapidist's wheel have turned out fair results. Cabarrus county has supplied the best of this variety of quartz.

        In addition to the above there have been found many quartz crystals with inclusions of various substances, which have presented when cut, attractive gems. Some of the prettiest of these came from the property of the Marion Improvement Company in McDowell county.

        OTHER GEM STONES.--There are a number of gem bearing stones, which while affording occasional gems, are not sought like the foregoing. Among these may be mentioned zircon, which occurs in small crystals in many localities. Some limpid white gems (small) have been cut, but no large gems of any color have been discovered.

        Agate also occurs in the State, and some material fit for cutting has been found in Cabarrus and Mecklenburg counties. Some specimens of moss agate are reported from Orange county.

        

Illustration

RUTILE-HIGHLY MODIFIED BASAL TERMINATIONS.

        Rutile of fine texture has been cut into gems--much resembling black diamond in effect--but is not often found flawless enough for the purpose. Specimens of malachite, tourmaline, spinel, chrysolite,

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lazulite, carnelian and jasper have all been found, and occasionally acceptable gems result from these sources. Also from fresh water mussels in creeks and rivers are occasionally secured pearls of fair quality.

BUILDING STONES.

        Building materials are quite widely distributed in middle and western North Carolina, though all the better grades of building stones are to be found in the middle counties, or the Piedmont Plateau region. Roughly speaking, the State may be divided into a series of geologic belts, extending in a general northeast and southwest direction. Three of these belts may be said to carry most of the stone of economic importance.

        Sandstone belts, one of which includes the brown stone of Anson, Moore, Chatham, Wake, Durham and Orange counties; and the other includes the brownstones of Stokes and Rockingham.

        The eastern granites and gneisses, including the gneiss of Vance and Wake counties, the granites of Franklin, Granville and Warren, and the smaller areas of granite in Wilson, Edgecombe, Richmond and Anson.

        The Piedmont granite belt, which consists of the granitic and syenitic rocks of Person, Caswell, Alamance, Guilford, Forsyth, Davie, Davidson, Rowan, Iredell, Cabarrus, Mecklenburg and Gaston counties.

        The gneisses and granites west of this Piedmont Granite belt, but still within the limits of the Piedmont Plateau region, are somewhat isolated. The ordinary rocks of the country are gneiss, which at intervals are sufficiently granitic in character to permit of their being used for building purposes, and at intervals throughout this area, as at Mt. Airy, considerable masses of typical granitic material are found. In the Mountain region, the rocks are generally gneissic in character, but in many places, as about Hendersonville, at Troy's quarries, this gneiss proves valuable for architectural purposes, and at a number of places, notably at Stone mountain, in Wilkes county; in the neighborhood of Hickory Nut Gap; and on the French Broad river below Asheville, there are masses of true granite surrounded by gneisses.

        The browstones are largely limited to the eastern sandstone belt, which extends from Oxford, in Granville county, in a southwesterly

Illustration

MT. AIRY GRANITE QUARRY--CAPE FEAR & YADKIN VALLEY RAILROAD.

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direction across the State, with a maximum width of about fifteen miles. The rocks of this belt are all of triassic age, belonging to the same geological formation, which with Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, furnish the famous brownstone for northern and eastern cities. Within the limits of this belt are many exposures of a fine, compact, light and dark reddish brownstone, not at all inferior to the better grades of brownstones from the States just mentioned. Quarries have been opened up at a number of different places, the more important of which, are the following: The Frank Hammond quarry, two miles south of Wadesboro; the Linehan quarry, one mile north of Wadesboro; and the Wadesboro Brownstone quarry, about one mile northwest of Wadesboro. The stone from all three of these is homogeneous, fine grained and compact, varying in color from a reddish brown to a grayish brown.

        Near Sanford, there are also several brownstone quarries; that of the Aldredge Brownstone Co., one mile south of Sanford, being the largest and most actively worked of the region. This quarry has a branch railroad connecting with the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley and the Seaboard and Air Line railroads at Sanford, and is now quarrying, sawing and shipping brownstone of excellent quality to a number of States. Other quarries which have been operated to a greater or less extent in this region during the past few years, are the Goenella Bros. quarry, about one and one-fourth miles south of Sanford and near the Seaboard Air Line railroad; the Carolina Red and Brownstones Company's quarry, where a mill has been erected for sawing the stone, and the Carolina Brownstone Company's quarry, about one-fourth mile west of Sanford. There are also other places near Sanford where brownstone of good quality has been discovered and opened up to a limited extent.

        Near Carthage, in Moore county, on the property of Messrs. Grimm, McNeal & Bros., are several outcrops of brownstone which promise to be of excellent quality.

        Near Cumnock (Egypt) is a large exposure of a brownish red, compact sandstone, which is exposed along the banks of Deep river for a distance of half a mile. Also about one mile east of Guilford along the banks of Deep river, is a fine to medium grained sandstone; and in other places near by sandstones of color varying from olive to gray and buff, have been found in considerable quantities, and are being quarried by the Gulf Buff Stone Company.

        Also along the line of the Raleigh and Western railroad, between Cumnock and Colon, medium fine grained brownstone of good quality has been quarried to a limited extent.

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        At several points in the western part of Wake county, as, near Brassfield, and in Durham county, sandstone of good quality has been quarried to some extent. The Dukes' quarry is located about one mile east of Durham, and the Rogers quarry is located near the latter.

        Concerning the granites, the following brief statement can mention only some of the more important quarries and places. In Wake county there are near the city of Raleigh important beds of granitic gneiss which were worked at the "Capitol Quarry" in the eastern edge of the city, from which the material was obtained for the construction of the Capitol. The penitentiary quarry, inside the enclosure of this institution, furnished the stone for the foundation and walls of the prison, and for a number of other purposes. On Dr. Lewis's farm, two miles northwest of Raleigh, is a hard, tough, fine grained, gray gneiss, which has been worked at intervals for many purposes. At Wyatt, on the Raleigh and Gaston railroad, is a pink granite; and near Rolesville, some fifteen miles northeast of Raleigh, are extensive deposits of gray biotite granite with pinkish feldspar.

        In Franklin county there is a quarry at Louisburg; and extensive beds of gray biotite granite, medium grained, on the Freeman Mill place in Nash county, about twelve miles west of Springhope; this stone is of good quality, and would doubtless work in a satisfactory manner.

        In Granville and Warren counties granite of good quality has been worked to a limited extent at a number of different places in the vicinity of Oxford; at Warrenton, and again about one mile north of Warren Plains. About two miles northwest of Warren Plains is another outcrop of gray granite, which has been used for making mill stones, and for other purposes.

        In Wilson county, a few miles south of Wilson, on the Wilmington and Weldon railroad, and on Moccasin river, are considerable beds of coarse, red, feldspathic granite, which splits readily, takes a beautiful polish, and closely resembles the red Scotch granite. Granite deposits of quite similar character are to be found along the line of the Seaboard Air Line railroad in Anson and Richmond counties. In Wilson county, it should be mentioned also that on the Wilmington and Weldon railroad, two and a-half miles above Toisnot, a medium to coarse grained granite of dark gray color occurs in considerable quantities.

        In the Piedmont Granite belt, building stone of excellent quality occurs in great variety, and is widely distributed. The two more important regions where active quarrying has been in progress during

Illustration

STONE MOUNTAIN--WILKES COUNTY.

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the past few years are in the Dunn's Mountain region, in Rowan county, and about Mooresville, in Iredell county. The more important granite quarries and deposits of Rowan county lie along the line of Dunn's mountain ridge, which extends in the northeast and southwest course for a distance of about twenty miles, in the eastern portion of the county and closely parallel to the main line of the Southern railway. The stone here outcrops in broad exposures of several acres extent and has been quarried in a dozen or more places, at all of which there are large outcrops capable of furnishing immense quantities of stone without stripping. With the exception of Dunn's mountain proper, all the stone of this great "boss" is of medium fine grain and light-gray speckled, with occasional small crystals of magnetite and pink feldspar, the latter in places becoming so abundant as to give a uniformly, warm pinkish tint, as at the Kirk mountain quarry, and Dunn's mountain proper. Stone from this latter place was used in building the Federal Post Office, at Raleigh. This is an exceedingly valuable and extensive granite area and is destined to be, in the near future, worked on a large scale.

        The more important of the quarries of this region are those of the Pink Granite Company; the Hambley quarry; the Stone Mountain Granite Company's quarry, and the Kirk Mountain Granite Company's quarry, all four or five miles east of Salisbury and tapped by the Yadkin railroad. And the Wyatt quarry several miles southwest of this point.

        In the neighborhood of Mooresville, three quarries have been opened up during the past two years, two for monumental stones, and one that has been worked to some extent for building material. The stone is fine grained biotite granite, for the most part containing little or no injurious material. Handsome monuments made from this stone are to be seen in the cemeteries at Raleigh, Charlotte and a number of other places. The three more important deposits are those at the quarry of the Charlotte Granite Co., about one mile south of Mooresville; the J. N. Breed quarry, one and a-half miles southwest of Mooresville, and the Biddell quarry, three miles east of Mooresville.

        Excellent granite is also to be found in Davidson, Davie, Cabarrus and Alamance counties. In Davie county there is an exceedingly unique and beautiful stone which has been called "Orbicular granite" or Augite, occurring at Coolomee.

        The Mt. Airy granite quarry in Surry county is the best known and the most extensively worked at the present time. The stone is nearly white granite of uniform grain and texture, and free from injurious

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material. It works easily in three tracks, and is so located as to be entirely free from quarry water. The stone is exposed over an area of more than forty acres, so that no stripping is necessary in quarrying operations. The quarry equipment is extensive and complete in every direction. Operations have been carried on during the past several years on a large scale by the Mt. Airy Granite Company.

        Stone Mountain on the line of the Blue Ridge in the northern part of Wilkes county is an enormous mass of gray granite, which has recently been purchased by a new company, which purposes to construct a railroad to that point and quarry the stone on an extensive scale. The color and texture are quite uniform and the stone appears to be free from injurious materials, and will doubtless make an excellent material for architectural purposes.

PUBLIC ROADS.

        The question of good roads has occupied the attention of the people of the State for about ten years, but has only recently taken sufficient hold upon the public mind as to show itself in good works. The question is of vital importance to the farmer and trucker, and indeed to every industry. Ample provision is now made by law, so that any county or township may begin the permanent improvement of its roads. In addition there are many special acts of the last few sessions of the Legislature for separate counties. These vary in their details, but in nearly every case they retain in part the requirement that able-bodied citizens shall be liable for labor on the public roads for a limited number of days, and with this they combine provision for a varying rate of taxation for road purposes. In a few of the counties the money necessary for the new road work is paid out of the general county fund. In a few cases the old labor system has been abolished entirely, and the roads are being worked by taxation alone. In nearly all of the counties convict labor is employed in the road improvement, and in the majority of cases a limited amount of improved machinery and implements have been purchased and are being used in the work. The construction of stone roads has been undertaken in Mecklenburg, Wake, Alamance, Cabarrus, and to a lesser extent in Forsyth, Rowan and Durham counties. Buncombe has purchased a complete outfit of machinery, and has begun to macadamize. The work in other counties has thus far been limited

Illustration

MACADAMIZED COUNTRY ROAD--MECKLENBURG COUNTY.

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largely to the improvement of earth roads by grading, draining, and in some cases changing the location of the old roads.

        In Mecklenburg county the work has now been in progress for some years; during which time nearly forty miles of roads have been graded and drained, and nearly as many miles have been macadamized. The general plan adopted, and which has been adhered to, was to start at the city limits of the county-seat and to grade and macadamize all of the important public roads from this point out toward the township and the county limits. These roads have a width of forty feet for the first two miles from the city limits, and beyond this point a width of thirty-six feet. They have a maximum grade of four feet in one hundred. For cross drains sewer pipes are used in all cases where practicable, and strong wooden bridges with stone piers have been put in wherever needed. The average cost of these roads, including the macadamizing and grading, is about $2,000 per mile. The average number of convicts employed is about eighty, and the average cost of this labor per convict, including their food, clothes, medical attention and guarding, is from twenty to twenty-two cents per day. In charge of the work is one superintendent and one engineer (part of the time) and six guards. The rate of taxation in the county has been eighteen cents on the $100 worth of property, and the entire amount raised in this way for the support of the convict force in road-improvement work during the past year was about $18,000. In addition to this, each township levies a tax varying from seven to fifteen cents on each $100 worth of property.

        In Wake county, Raleigh township has been working its roads by taxation and labor during the past six years. It has a steam-roller, road machine, crusher, spreading carts, and a complete list of smaller implements for road work. The number of convicts employed varies from fifty to sixty, and the average cost per convict per day, including food, clothes, medical attendance and guarding, is about twenty and one-half cents. All the county prisoners whose terms are less than ten years can be used in this work. Convicts do every kind of the work except the most difficult part of the bridge construction. Twenty-eight miles of road have been graded and eighteen miles have been macadamized, the work having been divided between the principal roads in the township, starting from Raleigh. By special law the work has been extended beyond the township boundary. Excellent truss bridges are being built across all the streams and culverts.

        In Alamance, Cabarrus and Rowan counties a limited amount of macadamizing has been done, and many miles of earth roads have

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been greatly improved by grading and draining. These counties use their convicts in working their important roads.

        Buncombe county, out of its general tax fund, maintained an average force of about sixty convicts at work on its more important public roads, for several years, at an average cost of about thirty-five cents per day per convict. For general road work, the old system still prevails. Many miles of earth roads have been regraded and drained and in places relocated. A complete outfit for macadamizing work has been purchased, and a limited amount of work has been done.

        In the other counties mentioned above the question is now being agitated, and in the near future they will doubtless begin to construct stone roads. In all of them the earth roads have been improved, to a greater or less extent, by grading, draining and changes in the location of roads. These improvements are increasing the popularity of the movement. One of the most encouraging features of the movement has been its growth in several of the eastern counties during the past few years.

        Several years ago the strongest opposition to the movement came from these eastern counties, where the surface of the country is level, and where the stone for macadamizing purposes is scarce or entirely absent; but during 1893, and years following, Wayne, Lenoir, Edgecombe and New Hanover counties, adopted plans for improving their earth roads and have pushed the work forward with vigor and success, accomplishing results of decided benefit at a small expenditure of money. This has resulted in arousing considerable interest in the subject in a number of adjoining counties.

        In New Hanover, by the expenditure of a small sum annually, a limited amount of grading and draining is being accomplished, and the sandy road surface is being improved by the admixture of clay, and, it is believed that in the near future these roads will be still further improved by being covered either with crushed stone or with oyster shells from the adjoining sounds. A few years ago a shell road was constructed in this county for a distance of eight miles (from Wilmington to Wrightsville), which since that time has been maintained in excellent condition by the employment of one man, who, with a cart and horse, drops small quantities of oyster shells at such points as show indications of wear. This road now serves as an object lesson in showing the ease with which an excellent road can be constructed in this region and the small expenditure necessary for keeping it in repair.

        In Edgecombe county, as is the case also in New Hanover, no convicts are at present employed on the public roads, but it is

Illustration

SHELL ROAD--WILMINGTON.

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expected that they will be employed in both counties at an early date. A tax of forty-five cents on the poll is assessed for road purposes. Machinery is used, including a road machine, scrapers and plows, and a horse roller; ordinary labor is employed at a cost of about sixty-five cents per day. The policy adopted in this county has been to first improve the particularly bad places in the roads in different parts of the county, and in this way, the result has been to give general satisfaction with the work in many parts of the county, because the beneficial effects of the work became apparent at once in as many places.

        In Wayne and Lenoir counties, the plan for improving the more important earth roads is somewhat similar to that in Edgecombe, but the tax fund is smaller in both, and convict labor is used. The trucking industry in these latter counties is one growing in importance, and this has greatly increased the demand for road surface over which large loads can be hauled at a rapid rate without serious jolting. This demand will doubtless prove a great stimulus in the permanent improvement of public roads and will ultimately result in their being macadamized, although the material for the purpose will have to be brought from the adjoining counties. At Newbern, in Craven county, so great has been the demand for better roads that recently a considerable sum was subscribed by private individuals for macadamizing a road leading from the town through one of the important trucking districts, and this road, in the building of which the county co-operated with private individuals, is now being constructed. A beautiful and serviceable macadam road was built a few years since from the town to the Federal cemetery by the United States Government, the stone used being a shell limestone, from Trent river.

        In Guilford county, the two townships which join at the county seat (Greensboro) have voted a tax for the improvement of the earth roads, and have pushed this work along during the past few years with the result of greatly improving them. Both townships have purchased road machines and other implements.

        In Iredell county a small tax on property and on the poll has been levied, and a road fund has been raised. During the past few years the county convicts have been used on the roads, and they have graded many miles of road, starting from the county seat and extending out into the county on each important road.

        In Forsyth county, after improving the earth roads in the immediate vicinity of the county seat (Winston-Salem), the convicts, fifty to sixty in number, have been transferred to various parts of the

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MACADAM ROADS AND BRIDGES--WAKE COUNTY.

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county, and have been employed in improving the worst places on the important public roads. The work is supported by a small tax levy on both the poll and property.

ROAD MATERIALS.

        In the central and western counties of the State there is usually an abundance of stone for use in macadamizing roads. The larger part of this stone is granitic in character, and some of this is rather soft for use in surfacing roads; but at intervals in all these counties harder and tougher material can be found in the form of hornblende, granite, diorite trap and other eruptive rocks, and where these occur along the lines of railroad, they can be crushed and transported to the points where the macadam is needed, in many cases at a small cost. In the eastern counties good stone for macadam is scarce or entirely wanting; but in quite a number of these counties, limestone or shell rock can be obtained at intervals, and the fact that they make a serviceable road has been demonstrated by the experiment at Newbern, and on the streets of Goldsboro, where a considerable amount of macadamizing was done some three years ago with shell rock from Castle Hayne on the Atlantic Coast Line railroad. In the latter case the shell rock was laid down in thickness only three or four inches. The surface was packed by the ordinary travel, and it has now withstood the constant wear of the vehicles on the main streets of Goldsboro during the past three years without the need of any repairs.

        In the counties bordering the coast, excellent roads can be built and maintained by the use of oyster and other shells, as has been shown in the case of the shell road between Wilmington and Wrightsville. In quite a number of counties, limited amounts of gravel can be obtained for use on the roads, but this is usually inferior in quality. Along many of the streams, however, where crossed by public roads, a sufficient supply of gravel and coarse sand can often be found, which will very greatly improve the surface when spread over it, and again in the eastern counties, where the sand prevails at intervals, along the roadside can frequently be found deposits of clay which, when mixed with sand, improve the road surface considerably. In a few places gravel and sand deposits are found which have a sufficient amount of clay and oxide of iron intermixed to cement the mass into a hard surface.

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WATERS AND WATERWAYS.

RIVERS.

        The river system of the State is determined by its peculiar topography. Its rainfall is copious, the annual average for the whole State being about fifty-three inches, and is the fountain of numerous streams in all sections of the State; and, owing to the fact that the rivers in the Piedmont Plateau and Mountain regions have their origin among the highest mountains and on the highest table-lands on the eastern side of the American continent, these rivers, in their descent towards the sea, develop an immense amount of mechanical power. Those in the Coastal Plain region, with equal abundance of rain as a source of water supply, but with more gentle descent towards the ocean, offer facilities for navigation not possessed by the rivers of the former regions, and towards their mouths expand into wide estuaries, connecting with the sounds and bays which provide the ports and harbors available for exterior commerce, foreign and domestic.

        Topographical causes also largely influence the course and direction of these rivers. Those rising west of the Blue Ridge are diverted by that barrier towards the north and northwest and towards the Valley of the Mississippi with ultimate destination to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Those rising east or south of the Blue Ridge, or the upper part of the Piedmont region, after a general direction towards the east, ultimately pass out of the State in the middle portion of the Piedmont Plateau, and find their way to the Atlantic ocean through the State of South Carolina; while those having their sources in the belt on the eastern extension of the same region find an entrance into the tide-waters of the Coastal Plain region of this State.

        The general river system is naturally divided into three subordinate ones entirely distinct from each other. The most characteristic of these is that originating on the Blue Ridge, or on its western slope, the superior elevation of the high culminating masses of the great Appalachian chain throwing off the rivers to all the points of the compass. From this culminating height the Tennessee river, with its length of twelve hundred miles, draws its chief supply; and the Ohio, with equal length, from the same source draws one of its chief upper tributaries. The volume of water poured out from this mountain reservoir is very great. Thus, the most western of them,

Illustration

ON FRENCH BROAD RIVER--SOUTHERN RAILWAY.

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the Hiwassee, with its tributaries, the Valley and Nottely rivers, draining two counties, Clay and Cherokee, an area of about six hundred and fifty square miles, passes into southeastern Tennessee, a powerful stream with a breadth of one hundred yards, with a descent, from its sources to the State line, a distance of about seventy-five miles, of from eight hundred to nine hundred feet, providing great and continuous water-power. The Tennessee river, united with the Cheoah, the Nantahala, the Ocono Luftee and the Tuckaseegee, all large streams with a width of from fifty to one hundred and fifty yards, with united volume and resistless power, cuts its way through the Smoky mountains at the point of their greatest elevation, and constitutes one of the principal branches of the greater Tennessee, which unites with the Ohio a short distance above the junction of that river with the Mississippi. The united drainage of the Tennessee in North Carolina is about one thousand five hundred square miles, with a united length in this State of three hundred miles. The fall of each of these, from their sources to the State line, is about one thousand feet.

        The Pigeon river drains a separate area of about five hundred miles. It has a course of about seventy miles in North Carolina, with a width of about eighty yards, and a fall, from its upper valleys to the borders of Tennessee, of about one thousand feet.

        The French Broad river is nearly as large as the Tennessee, and is fed by several large affluents, such as Davidson's river, Little river, North river, Swannanoa, Ivy and Laurel, and drains a territory of about one thousand four hundred square miles. The fall from the mouth of Little river, in Transylvania county, to the State of Tennessee, is about one thousand feet.

        The Nolechucky, formed by the union of Caney river and North and South Toe, unites with the French Broad after that stream has entered the State of Tennessee, becoming a broad and deep stream in size little inferior to the river with which it joins its waters. Its drainage is about six hundred square miles, and its fall is about one thousand five hundred feet.

        Elk and Watauga rivers are smaller streams, with a course of only twenty miles or more in this State, but chief tributaries of the important Holston river in Tennessee.

        The New river, alone of all the rivers of the State, flows north, or northwest into Virginia, and uniting its waters with those of the Kanawha, empties at length into the Ohio. Its aggregate length in North Carolina is nearly one hundred miles, and its fall about seven hundred feet, and its drainage surface within the State is about seven

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hundred square miles. This is one of the larger mountain rivers, of the size of the Hiwassee, Tennessee and French Broad.

        Of the characteristic features of these mountain rivers, Prof. W. C. Kerr, former State Geologist, has remarked: "There is a common feature of these streams that is worthy of remark, viz: that through a very considerable part of their tortuous course across the plateau from the Blue Ridge to the Smoky, the amount of their fall per mile is frequently quite small, not greater than that east of the mountains, the greater part of their descent occurring within the gorges through which they force their way across the Smoky chain, so that many of them present navigable channels of considerable extent. The French Broad, for example, has a fall of less than three feet to the mile from Brevard to Asheville, a distance by river of forty miles." And he says: "The dominancy of the western chain of mountains frequently asserts itself in a very striking manner, notwithstanding it is obliged, sooner or later, to give passage to all the streams of the plateau. The French Broad is a striking illustration, as well as North Toe and New river (South Fork), all these being thrown off by the steeper slopes and more rapid torrents from the western escarpments and hurled against the very crests of the Blue Ridge, along which they wander lingeringly in slow and tortuous course, as if anxiously seeking the shorter passage to the sea; but finally turn, as if in desperation, and plunge with roar and foam against the frowning ramparts (of the Smokies) which bar their way to the west."

        There is, on the south and a portion of the east slope of the Blue Ridge, another system which has, in the course of its streams, almost direct outlet into Georgia and South Carolina, viz: the Chatooga and Toxaway, which are the chief head streams of the Savannah river the upper waters of the Saluda; and the Green and First and Second Broad, which unite to form the Broad river of South Carolina, uniting with the Saluda at Columbia to form the Congaree.

        Another and more important system is that which drains the northern half of the Piedmont Plateau, and which is represented by the Catawba and Yadkin rivers. These streams have a general course a little north of east until they leave the Mountain region, when they turn at right angles to their former direction, and pursue nearly a southerly course, and pass into South Carolina broad and placid streams, the Yadkin then taking the name of the Pee Dee and the Catawba that of the Wateree. Both of these streams receive their chief affluents from the north side, and many of these are large streams. Into the Catawba flow North Fork, Linville, John's river, and many others of less volume; while the Yadkin quickly gains

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consequence by the admission of Reddy's, Roaring, Elkin, Mitchell's Fisher's, Ararat and Little Yadkin. The combined drainage of these two great streams is more than two thousand five hundred square miles.

        The Yadkin receives in its lower course a larger number of affluents than the parallel stream, the Catawba, has a greater fall in its course, and drains a wider and more continuous valley. Both are navigable in their upper courses, interruptions by shoals being infrequent and readily surmounted, works to that effect having been begun nearly three-quarters of a century ago, but never perfected. The course of the Yadkin presents remarkable features of fluctuation in placidity, in width, and in contrast of characteristics, its upper course, almost from its source, having a very slight fall, then interrupted by Bean's Shoals for a mile or more, where it expands to the breadth of two hundred yards, then resuming its gentle course, attaining a width of several hundred yards, with its flow interrupted by numerous willow-covered islands, until, as it approaches the gorge formed by the encroachment of the Uwharrie mountains upon its channel, it suddenly plunges, a bold cataract of ten or twelve feet, into the head of the Narrows through which it passes for a distance of three miles, compressed into an inconceivably swift torrent of a width of not more than sixty feet and two miles or more in length. Emerging from that, it at once expands into a channel of one thousand yards in breadth, soon loses itself in the herbage of the Grassy Islands, expands, a sea of verdure, to the width of a mile, again emerges, and passes on to the South Carolina line through a channel of several hundred yards in breadth, torn by rocks and interrupted by numerous islands, many of them large enough for profitable tillage.

        Another important system is that of the Dan and its tributaries. The Dan is the largest river in the State, measured along its course from its sources in the county of Stokes to its mouth, a distance of more than three hundred miles; and is further remarkable as the only river in the State rising in the Blue Ridge and reaching within the State the waters of the Atlantic ocean. It empties into Albemarle sound, as the Roanoke. A large portion of this river is navigable; from its mouth by steamboats up to Weldon, thence past the rapids by canal to the smooth waters above Gaston, thence by canals past other similar obstructions to the borders of Stokes county, in which it has its rise.

        There is another important system, having its origin in the Piedmont Plateau region, discharging its waters into the sounds and

Illustration

ON ROANOKE RIVER--WELDON.

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bays of North Carolina, and giving to the people of the interior easy access to the sea and to the advantages of exterior commerce. This system includes the Tar, Neuse, Haw, Deep, and Cape Fear rivers.

        The Tar river rises in the western part of Granville and among the semi-mountainous hills of Person, flows towards the southeast, drains most of the area of eight counties, embracing about five thousand square miles. Its fall from its source to tidewater is upwards of four hundred feet. Its greatest water-power is demonstrated near Rocky Mount, for three-quarters of a century the seat of one of the largest cotton factories in the State. It is navigable to Tarboro. At Washington it expands into a broad estuary, navigable for sea-going vessels, and thence takes the name of Pamlico river.

        Neuse river has its sources in the hills of Person and Orange counties. It becomes navigable for steamboats at Smithfield, in Johnston county, all obstructions having been removed to that point. At Newbern it is two miles wide, and it is there joined by the Trent river, and the united streams soon widen to a width of eight miles, emptying at length into Pamlico Sound. It is navigable for vessels drawing fourteen feet of water as far up as Newbern. Its length is about two hundred miles, and it drains an area of about five thousand square miles.

        Haw river and Deep river, which unite at Haywood, in Chatham county, to form the Cape Fear, rise, the first in Rockingham, the other in Guilford county, and are important from the great waterpower provided by them, utilized in Alamance and Randolph counties by numerous cotton mills, upon which streams there is a greater concentration of manufacturing industry than elsewhere in the State. The Cape Fear river, formed by the junction of these streams, becomes navigable at Fayetteville to Wilmington, a distance by water of one hundred and twenty miles, giving an interior navigation not equalled by any other river in the State. From Wilmington the Cape Fear makes directly into the Atlantic ocean, and ships drawing twenty-two feet pass its bar just below Southport. It became a very important avenue from the earliest settlement of the country for the ingoing and outgoing trade of the interior, and was early made the object of improvement by an incorporated company organized in 1795; thence by the State, which, at different times, spent nearly a million dollars in attempts to improve the upper waters above Fayetteville; and in late years by the General Government, which has taken in charge the maintenance of continuous navigation between Fayetteville and Wilmington. The aggregate length of the Cape Fear and its tributaries is about five hundred miles, and its area of drainage not less than eight thousand square miles.

        

Illustration

ON LINVILLE RIVER.

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        Among the larger tributaries to the Cape Fear are the Black and North East rivers, both large, navigable streams.

        In the south-east corner of the State are Lumber and Waccamaw rivers, both bold, navigable streams, entering South Carolina, uniting with the Pee Dee, and emptying into Winyah Bay near Georgetown.

        In the northeastern section are numerous broad, navigable rivers, draining an area of about two thousand five hundred square miles, and emptying into Albemarle Sound. Of these the Chowan is the largest. It is joined by the Meherrin, the two having a united length of about one hundred miles, and giving practicable navigation into Virginia.

        The chief of the other streams are Perquimans, Little river, Pasquotank and North river, all navigable, with little fall, and therefore unavailable as water-power.

        The Alligator and the Scuppernong are broad, deep but short streams, emerging from the great swamps of Hyde and Tyrrell counties. They also empty into Albemarle sound.

        Pungo, Bay river, and, between the Neuse and Cape Fear, several other short tidal streams, such as Newport and North river in Carteret county, White Oak river in Jones county, New river in Onslow county, and Lockwood's Folly and Shallotte in Brunswick county, contribute their testimony to the extent of the water area of the coast region, and to the evidences of a bountiful, but not excessive, annual rainfall.

        The total aggregate in the length of the rivers in North Carolina--not including innumerable small rivers and creeks--is about three thousand three hundred miles, and their total fall is about thirty-three thousand feet, or an average of ten feet to the mile.

        The water powers are treated under a separate and subsequent head.

LAKES.

        The lakes naturally comprised in the water system of the State, compose a very small area in the water surface. They are found only in the Coastal Plain region and are comparatively of small size. In the Mountain region, evidently, in a former geological era, they had filled the areas now occupied by numerous valleys; but the barriers which once confined them long since gave way, and the tumultuous streams which now drain those valleys give no present token of their former languid life. In the Piedmont Plateau region there are now no lakes, nor any evidence that they had ever existed. In the Coastal Plain region are to be found fifteen in all, of various dimensions. The

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largest is Mattamuskeet, in Hyde county, with an area of nearly one hundred miles, of elliptical form, and in dimensions about fifteen miles in length and from five to seven in breadth. This, and Lake Phelps, Alligator lake and Pungo lake, are all situated in the great swamp between Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds; and all of them are of smaller area than Mattamuskeet. In the White Oak Swamp, in Jones and Carteret, is a group of small oval lakes, a few miles apart, and united with each other naturally or artificially. The largest of these, Northwest lake, has an area of ten or twelve miles. In the Gum Swamp, in Bladen and Columbus counties, is the Waccamaw lake, eight miles long by five broad. These lakes, being situated in the highest part of the swamps in which they lie, have no feeding waters, but most, if not all of them, discharge full and exhaustless streams. They all have sandy bottoms, and a depth of from eight to ten feet. Most of them seem to have originated in the ignition during long continued dry weather of the peaty beds which compose the body of the swamps. The aggregate lake surface of the State is estimated at about two hundred square miles. All of these lakes afford excellent rod fishing.

SOUNDS AND BAYS.

        The coast of North Carolina, for a distance of nearly three hundred miles, is separated from the ocean by a succession of long narrow islands, in width from half a mile to a mile or more, compose largely of pure white sand tossed up by the winds into dunes or hillocks; occasionally there are extensive areas of marsh, covered with coarse grass, wild oats and other vegetation, forming the pasturage of the herds of wild ponies which abound on some of the banks. Through this narrow barrier the sea makes its irruptions to the sounds within, forming the inlets and outlets through which the operations of commerce are conducted. These sounds are of various dimensions, two of them being important inland seas. Of them all, Pamlico and Albemarle sounds are the most extensive, the former lying parallel with the coast, with a length of about seventy-five miles and from fifteen to twenty-five miles wide; the other lying east and west, with a length of sixty miles and a breadth of from five to fifteen miles. These two sounds are connected with each other by Croatan sound, four miles wide and ten long, and also by the narrower Roanoke sound. Currituck sound extends from Albemarle sound to the waters of Virginia through a shallow channel of four or five miles wide. By a canal of a few miles in length it forms a connection between the inland waters of North Carolina and those of Virginia, and becomes the avenue for the passage of a very large commerce. These larger sounds, all navigable

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for vessels drawing from twelve to fifteen feet of water, besides being important for the carriage of a great outward and inward trade, are the localities of the largest and most productive fisheries along the Atlantic coast, abound in oysters and other shell fish, and are the haunts of innumerable wild fowl of the most desirable varieties.

        South of Pamlico sound there is a continuity of narrower and shallower sounds to within a few miles of the mouth of the Cape Fear river, where they are interrupted by a narrow isthmus of sand. These smaller sounds are Core, Bogue, Stump, Topsail, and others. All are connected with the ocean by numerous but somewhat capricious inlets, dependent for their stability upon the condition of the ocean, but in their caprices offering no permanent obstruction to navigation.

        This inland water system is connected with the waters of Chesapeake bay by the Dismal Swamp and Albemarle and Chesapeake canals, and with the connection of the waters already made through Delaware and New Jersey, can easily be made part of a great interior waterway of inestimable value to the United States in the event of war with foreign nations.

        The bays are chiefly enlargements or projections inland of the sounds. Under the head of Commercial Fisheries may be found a more extended description of the sounds.

SWAMPS.

        Of what are known as swamp lands, there is an area of between three thousand and five thousand square miles. They lie chiefly in the counties bordering upon the sounds or upon the ocean. They are not alluvial lands or subject to overflow, but are, as a rule, elevated above the adjacent streams of which they are the sources. Some of them are peat swamps, with an accumulation of decayed or decaying vegetation of considerable depth. The value of these lands is indicated by the character of the vegetation upon them. The prevalent growth of the best swamp lands is black gum, cypress, poplar, ash and maple, and also a luxuriant growth of cane. These lands have for many years furnished an abundant supply of timber from the species of trees above mentioned.

        The largest area of swamp land is known as the Hyde County Swamp, although it occupies a part of five counties. It has an area of nearly three thousand square miles. Owing to elevation above the adjacent surface, drainage is easy, and large bodies of it have been subdued to cultivation, and are among the finest farming lands in the State, the chief crop being corn. The water, after drainage, is so

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near the surface as to make these lands independent of drought, should one occur.

        About one hundred square miles of the great Dismal swamp lie within this State. Dover swamp, between the Neuse and Trent rivers, has an area of one hundred and fifty square miles. In its central part it is sixty feet above the sea, and therefore susceptible of easy drainage. The other principal swamps are Holly Shelter and Angola Bay in Onslow, Duplin and New Hanover counties, Gum swamp in Brunswick and Columbus, and White marsh and Brown marsh in the same section. All of them abound in valuable timbers, cypress, juniper, poplar, maple, oak, &c., and the industries of getting shingles, staves and other products of the forest are very actively pursued.

        The most productive farms in the State have been reclaimed from the borders of many of these swamps, and have proved practically inexhaustible. Lands in Hyde county, cultivated for a period of one hundred years continuously in corn, without the application of manure, show no apparent loss of fertility. The swamps themselves, and also the country around them, seem conducive rather than prejudicial to health--the timber-getters, engaged in the very depths of mire and water, appearing to be peculiarly exempt from malarial poison, if, in fact, it exists in the swamps.

CANALS.

        In the construction of canals, North Carolina claims a proud pre-eminence; for as far back as 1790, was authorized by the Legislature of the State the construction of the Dismal Swamp canal, connecting the waters of Pasquotank river (North Carolina) with those of Elizabeth river (Virginia). This was required to be done by private subscription, and it was so done; and thus was completed the existing Dismal Swamp canal, undertaken thirty-five years before the great Erie canal was completed, and eighteen years before the Pioneer canal of New England--the Middlesex--was opened for use. This canal served its purpose usefully for nearly a century. Recently it has been sold, perhaps for other uses, because other means of inter-communication, swifter and more capacious, have largely superseded it.

        In addition to this, early steps were taken to improve the navigation of several large streams in this State, large volumes of water in their lower courses finding entrance into good and convenient harbors, but, in their middle courses, interrupted by rocky obstructive ledges, above which, in several instances, there were long

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stretches of natural slackwater, with practicable navigation for comparatively long distances. These undertakings were made a long time since. Thus the Cape Fear Navigation Company, with power to construct canals, received a charter to improve the Cape Fear river in 1795; the Roanoke Navigation Company and the Neuse River Navigation Company in 1812; the New River, the Tar River, the Catawba River and the Cape Fear and Yadkin River companies in 1816.

        Upon all these schemes vast sums were spent, and little accomplished. Projectors were all disappointed, because, in all instances, the costs far exceeded estimates, and the relative poverty of the people and communities and the inability to enlist the aid of capital abroad, as was subsequently the case in the early days of railroad construction, compelled the ultimate abandonment of the effort, and left our river-sides with here and there some partially finished section of work, like the Weldon canal, to become available in after generations as valuable water-power.

        Of late years, the Albemarle and Chesapeake canal, connecting by a cut of a few miles waters in Virginia and North Carolina--the waters of Chesapeake bay with those of Albermale sound--gives navigation to sea-going vessels and opens up an inland navigation from Newbern to Norfolk, and, for smaller vessels, through the Clubfoot and Harlow canal, from the waters of Beaufort harbor.

        The following statement comprises about the present condition of our waterways:

        "There are eleven hundred miles of inland steamboat navigation in North Carolina. Ocean steamers of large burden come into Wilmington and Beaufort, and the Old Dominion and Clyde lines of coastwise steamers come to Newbern, Elizabeth City and Washington via the Albemarle and Chesapeake canal. The sounds are navigated by a large fleet of light-draft and fast steamboats that furnish abundant means of transportation for passengers and freight between the numerous points where they touch. Steamboats run up the Chowan and Black Water to Franklin, Va., and up the Meherrin to Murfreesboro; up the Roanoke to Halifax; up the Neuse to Kinston; up the Trent to Trenton; up the Cape Fear to Fayetteville; up the Tar to Tarboro; up the Scuppernong to Cresswell; up the Alligator to Fairfield; up the Cashie to Windsor; up the Perquimans river to Belvidere; up the Little river to Woodville; up the Pasquotank many miles above Elizabeth City; up the North river to Indian Township, and up Moccasin river and Swift creek to the head of navigation.

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PORTS AND HARBORS.

        Along the coast of this State, extending from Back bay, within the Virginia boundary, nearly to the South Carolina line, is a series of narrow barriers of land, interspersed with marshy, rush-covered flats, which seem to have been purposely interposed by nature between the tumultuous outside ocean and the placid expanses of water lying within; inland seas, with all the repose and safety of interior lakes, yet with some of the features of the outside coast lines, inasmuch as the eye sweeps sometimes over a boundless stretch of waters, enlivened with all the animation of the maratime landscape, the full-spread sails of the merchantman, the white wings of the fishing craft, or the trailing smoke of the swift flying steamer, until it rests far away upon the sandy beach and the thin fringe of shrubbery that forms the background. These inland waters, the Sounds, as they are known, are in themselves so smooth as to constitute safe harbors from the perils of the ocean, deep and navigable, but interrupted by shoals and bars; yet in the deep bays and estuaries providing ports for the vessels engaged in the coasting trade, a class of shipping at one time also having a large West India trade.

        But, important as these inside bays and ports are and always will be, their importance must always be controlled by the access to them from the open sea, and which is imperatively dominated by the location and permanency of the inlets, and the depth of water upon their bars.

        In the history of our coast there is nothing that presents itself as so unstable and capricious as some of these inlets, almost literally here to-day, there to-morrow. Once there were inlets into Currituck sound, with good depth of water, now there are none--one closed in 1775, one in 1828. Opposite the eastern opening of Albemarle sound was once an inlet; now occupied by dangerous Kitty Hawk and the fatal Killawil dunes. A little farther south, opposite Roanoke Island, was once the deep inlet of Nag's Head, through which the earliest English adventurers made their entrance and found a convenient landing-place on the shores of the famous island. That inlet has long been closed, and on the solid land which now fills its channel stands the hotel which forms the noted summer resort of "Nag's Head." Opposite the lower end of Roanoke Island opens Oregon inlet, which for many years has provided safe entrance for vessels drawing ten to twelve feet of water into the waters of the sound. Thence down the coast, through the very thin line of "banks," are two or three unsteady, unsafe entrances, opening and closing at the will of the outside waters. Passing down the coast opens Hatteras

Illustration

NEW RIVER, JACKSONVILLE--WILMINGTON, NEW BERN & NORFOLK RAILROAD.

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inlet, not far from the cape of that name; and this, with Ocracoke inlet, forms the usual most reliable access to the inland waters of the great sounds, Pamlico and Albemarle.

        Along these sounds, at various points, deep and broad estuaries extend back to the mouths of large rivers, the Chowan, the Roanoke, the Tar, the Neuse, together with such streams as the Pasquotank, which in its relation to the artificial channel of the Dismal swamp canal, has given existence to one of the most thriving of these inland ports--Elizabeth City. Thus along these inland waters have grown up ports of importance, to be estimated more by their value in relation to domestic trade than to foreign commerce; for Washington and Newbern, both possessing fine harbors and easy access, are controlled by the limitations imposed by the depth of water in the inlets or on the shoals within the channels, so that the foreign trade once enjoyed by them, and carried on in a smaller class of vessels than now regarded as profitably adapted to foreign trade, is now practically suspended. But in their interior operations they are ports with a magnitude of business that emphasizes the prosperity of the sections of country tributary to them, and the waters of the sounds are enlivened with fleets bearing away the limitless variety of contributions to American commercial prosperity--cotton, lumber, shingles, naval stores, corn, the products of truck farming, etc.

        Just under Cape Lookout opens, between Core and Bogue sounds, and at the mouth of Newport river, the inlet which lets into Beaufort harbor. Vessels drawing twenty feet can enter readily from the sea, and, in twenty minutes, are lying snugly at their anchorage or at their wharves. It is entered at all times, except against a north or northwest wind. It is a harbor of refuge in time of storm, from the enemy in time of war, a rendezvous chosen as the basis of naval operations, as during the war of the Revolution, when the fleet destined for the attack on Charleston first concentrated here; when, in the war of 1812, captured prizes were brought in here for adjudication, and when in the late Civil war, the harbor was filled with war vessels and transports of the Federal Government. The water within the harbor is sufficient for the largest merchant vessels, yet it is not a commercial port of value, for the reason that no great navigable stream brings to it the riches of the interior, and because the single line of railroad which reaches it has not yet been able to divert the current of traffic from its accustomed channel.

        Down the coast, below Beaufort, several inlets open into the sounds at the mouths of tide-water rivers, such as White Oak and

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New river. But the water on their bars is shallow, and these bars so shifting as to forbid the expectation that they will ever add to the number, value or fame of our ports and harbors.

        Between the island known as Smith's island, at the southern extremity of which is the dreaded Cape Fear, the "promontorium tremendum" of DeBry's map, and the main land on the west, pours in the Cape Fear river, the only large river in the State--the only one in fact between the Hudson and the Savannah that makes directly into the ocean, for, before reaching it, all the others are swallowed in long and wide bays, estuaries or sounds.

        Here might be expected a harbor of easy entrance and ample capacity. Therefore we find a new England colony of adventurers seeking settlement and homes within its shelter in 1660, followed by a colony from Barbadoes in 1662-'63, and thenceforward continued occupation, founding of towns, opening up of plantations, enlargement of population and increase of wealth up to the present day. In early times the class of merchant vessels, or even of war vessels, was small and draft light, so that the question of depth of water on the bar and in the inner channels never seemed to have been presented. In all probability there never was occasion for it, for there was but a single entrance--that between Smith's and Oak islands, and that secured sufficient water for all vessels using the harbor. But in 1761 a long-continued tempest cut through the banks between Smith's island and what was long afterwards known as Federal Point, forming, until recently closed, what was known as New Inlet. The waters turned into this new channel in time attained a depth of water equal to that on the old or main bar, and eventually reduced the depth of water on that, in 1839, to about nine feet at low water, the New inlet bar at the same time showing ten feet, and becoming the channel through which most of the coasting trade was conducted. This reduction in depth involved diminution in trade, and Wilmington was seriously menaced with the loss of its most valuable commerce. Therefore the State of North Carolina began the work of relief, continuing it from 1823 to 1828, when the General Government very properly assumed the duty and the cost. The operations for many years consisted of efforts to deepen and clear the channel of the river for some miles down by dredging, but chiefly by the construction of jetties, and after some years of labor and a large expenditure of money, a gain of two or more feet in depth was effected. The work was suspended, and resumed in 1852, and directed to attempts to close the New inlet by closing the entrance between Smith's and Zeke's islands, and fair progress was made, when, in September, 1857, a great storm swept

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away nearly all that had been accomplished, and efforts were abandoned until 1870, when they were resumed with determined purpose and with large appropriations. This has been done until the breach between Smith's and Zeke's islands was closed, and eventually the flow through New inlet finally checked. This is not the place for the details of this important work, the present object being only to show by what methods the usefulness of the Cape Fear river, in its relation to material and domestic commerce, has been restored. This has been done by the erectiom of a solid dam more than a mile in length and with a breadth of from ninety to a hundred and twenty-five feet, knit together by natural grass and oyster shells, until it is apparently impregnable to the assaults of the fiercest tempests. The effect on the depth of water on the main bar was not at once appreciable; but in two or three years, and assisted by the process of suction dredges, a great gain has been made, so that whereas in 1878, when the shortest soundings in the Bald Head channel were nine feet, in 1882 they were fourteen feet, and now, there is twenty to twenty-two feet and more at high tide.

        The Government is now at work with purpose to deepen the water on the bar to twenty-six feet, or thirty, which is thought to be practicable. Doing this, a safe and deep harbor is found inside at Southport and thence up to Wilmington, with the gains already made, in a channel which affords, up to the wharves, a depth of twenty-two feet or more.

        The importance of these improvements are already recognized nationally and in their relation to the business of Wilmington. The customs receipts have quadrupled; and as vessels of large tonnage can now cross the bar and come up to the city wharves for freight, the cotton receipts of the port have mounted up annually to nearly two hundred thousand bales, and they find shipment in a class of vessels which had never entered the port until the improvements in the channel were made--the freight steamships of from one thousand two hundred to one thousand eight hundred tons burden.

        The improvements which affect beneficially both Wilmington and Southport are none the less important to the latter than to the former. Southport has a capacious land-locked harbor, of great depth and free from dangerous shoals, and it becomes a safe harbor of refuge during storms, and in cases of disablement of vessels at sea by storm or other accident; and the benefits already accrued are ample compensation for the cost of the various works. The increased accessibility of the harbor also gives it great value as a coaling station, lying in the path of an enormous coasting and Gulf trade, and the first port that can be

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reached by vessels bound north who find themselves short of supplies.

        Wilmington, or the Cape Fear river harbor, during the civil war illustrated some peculiar features of value. With its ease of access it was also readily defensible. One of its fortifications successfully repelled the first assaults of one of the largest and strongest squadrons and the fiercest and most terrible bombardments known in naval annals. It did indeed succumb in the second and more formidable attempt; but not until after three or more years of effort to capture or to close the port were the blockading vessels, which alone kept the Southern States in communication with the outer world and kept up some semblance of trade, effectually excluded. It is stated that the number of blockaders, as they were called, those that ran the gauntlet and got in safely with their cargoes, was, from May 20, 1863, to December 31, 1864, about two hundred and sixty; prior to May 20, 1863, fifteen; and after December 31, 1864, ten, making a total of two hundred and eighty-five.

        South, or rather west, running down the coast, which at the mouth of the Cape Fear makes a course at right angles with its former direction, there are only two harbors, both of minor importance--Lockwood's Folly and Shallotte--with capacious and safe anchorage inside, but with little more than five feet water on the bar, except with favorable wind and tide.

WATER POWERS.

        During the past few decades, the cheapening of coal and the necessity for locating on railroad lines in order to avoid the expensive hauling over poor country roads, have led to the greatly increased use of steam, and to a corresponding neglect of water powers in manufacturing enterprises. One after another, even a number of corn and flour mills, on the banks of North Carolina streams, have been abandoned in favor of the mills established about towns and cities and operated by steam on a larger scale.

        But in spite of this tendency, many of the water powers near railroad lines have been developed to their full capacity, as at Rocky Mount, Haw river, and Rockingham; and Weldon and Roanoke Rapids promise soon to be great manufacturing centers. The builders of mills at these places have shown their faith by their works, and in reply to a recent inquiry as to the relative merits of water and steam power for operating cotton mills, these men express a preference for water power, if a good one can be had sufficiently near the railroad.

        

Illustration

WATER POWERS--NARROWS OF THE YADKIN.

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        This distance of most of the North Carolina powers from railroad transportation is the factor that has prevented their development; but the transmission of power by electricity promises to do away with this disadvantage by making it practicable to locate the factories on the railroad lines and still operate them by water power, whether one or twenty miles away. This new factor is giving a new and greater importance to our water powers than they have had before. It is rendering practicable not only the development and use of the hitherto inaccessible large powers, like the Narrows of the Yadkin, but it also renders possible in many cases the concentration of several small water powers into a single factory, though these water powers may be miles apart on one or more streams.

        The largest and most important powers in the State are on the Roanoke, Yadkin and Catawba rivers, but on a number of other streams, notably on the Cape Fear and its tributaries, are many powers of sufficient magnitude to operate large factories. On the Roanoke river, in North Carolina, the possible water developments are limited to that portion of the stream between Gaston and Weldon, where there is a fall of eighty-four feet in a distance of about nine miles; and the possible developments here range in the aggregate under different conditions from twelve thousand to twenty thousand horse power. This is to be divided between two companies, the Roanoke Navigation and Water Power Company, and the Roanoke Rapids Company. The canal owned by the former of these starts at Rock island, a short distance below Gaston, and terminates just below Weldon, having a total length of about nine miles. The total available fall in this canal is seventy-eight feet, of which thirty-three feet is available at the upper locks, about three and one-third miles below the head of the canal, and the remaining forty-five feet is available at the lower end of the canal.

        The canal of the Roanoke Rapids Company is only about one mile long, the lower end of it, with an available fall of twenty-five feet, emptying into the river at a point about opposite the upper locks in the old canal. The upper end of this Roanoke Rapids canal is extended up the river about a mile, by diking certain islands and connecting them with dams. It is claimed that this canal will develop from five thousand to seven thousand horse power. Already one factory has been built at its lower end (about four and one-half miles above Weldon) and others are now in process of construction.

        On the Dan river and its tributaries in North Carolina there are several fine water powers, some of which have already been developed,

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especially on Smith river at Leaksville and on the Mayo river at Mayodam.

        On the Tar and Neuse rivers there are but few valuable water powers; one on the Tar at Rocky Mount (fully developed) and one or two on the Neuse, near Raleigh, (partially developed); Millburnie, about six miles from Raleigh, where there is a partially developed power, with an available fall of about twelve and one-half feet; and the Falls of the Neuse, three miles above the Raleigh and Gaston railroad, which latter power can be entirely used by the paper mills erected here. On the Cape Fear river, Smileys and Buckhorn falls are undeveloped powers of some magnitude and promise. The first of these is about five miles from the Atlantic Coast Line railroad and has a fall of twenty-seven feet in a distance of three and one-half miles, and the second, at a distance of about seven miles from the Seaboard Air Line railroad, has a fall of twenty feet in a distance of one and one-half miles.

        On the Deep and Haw rivers, tributaries of the Cape Fear, are a number of valuable powers, both developed and undeveloped, and located at these developed powers are more than a dozen cotton mills and a number of grist and saw mills. The most valuable of the powers on Deep river is two and one-half miles above its junction with Haw river, at Lockville, on the Seabord Air Line railroad. Here the canals formerly used for navigation purposes can now be used for operating extensive factories, though at present there are located here only a small roller mill and a grist mill. The total fall at this point is twenty-four feet, which will develop from six hundred to eight hundred horse power at all seasons of the year. Between this point and Carbonton there is only one available water power, that at Gulf, which operates McIver's mills. But from Carbonton up to Jamestown, where the river crosses the Southern railroad, there are a large number of water powers, both developed and undeveloped. The developed water powers operate some half dozen cotton factories and a number of grist and saw mills.

        On Haw river, the first power occurs some three miles above its junction with Deep river, and between this point and the upper boundary of Alamance county there is a succession of powers quite similar to those on Deep river above Carbonton; eight of these powers on the main stream and three on the tributary streams operate cotton mills, and a large number of minor powers operate grist and saw mills.

        The Yadkin river, at and just above the Narrows, is one of the greatest power centers in the State, and will probably be developed in

Illustration

WATER POWER, TAR RIVER--ROCKY MOUNT.

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the near future. Here the river has cut its way down, in a narrow gorge, across a series of very hard and tough volcanic rocks to softer rocks below. Starting at the lower end of the Narrows gorge, three to four miles long and one hundred to five hundred yards wide, in the distance of ten miles the river has a fall of more than two hundred feet, an average of more than twenty feet to the mile. The conditions do not favor the location of factories directly on the banks of the stream, but in the near future there will probably be ten thousand to twenty thousand horse power developed and transmitted from the Narrows region to factories located and operated on the railroad a few miles distant. Below the Narrows and between that point and the Carolina Central railroad there are four prominent shoals which may be considered available for water powers: (1). Bluetts falls, about four and one-half miles above the railroad, where there is a fall of eight or nine feet in a distance of one thousand feet; (2). Grassy Island shoal, five and one-half miles above the railroad, where there is a fall of about thirty-five feet in a distance of four and one-half miles; (3). Swifts Island shoals, about seven miles below the Narrows, where there is a fall of eighteen feet in two and one-half miles; (4). Gunsmith shoals, two and one-half miles above the last named, where there is a fall of nine and one half feet in less than half a mile. Above the Narrows below the Southern railroad there are some half dozen shoals that can be developed into important water powers. Above the Southern railroad crossing, near Salisbury, are a number of smaller powers.

        Of the tributaries of the Yadkin and Pee Dee rivers are a number of smaller, but valuable powers in Iredell, Davie, Surry, Wilkes. The most unique and interesting of the smaller streams in the State are those in portions of the sand hill region, such as Hitchcocks creek, in Richmond (tributary to the Yadkin), and Rockfish, in Cumberland county (tributary to the Cape Fear). The sand here serves as a sponge for the rain water, which flows by numerous springs into these creeks with but little variation between the winter and summer supply. The former of these streams is only seventeen miles long, and yet on it are located six cotton mills and several grist and saw mills. As illustrating the great benefits of such manufacturing establishments to the communities in which they are located, it may be stated that these cotton mills in Richmond county, operated by such small streams, have paid out to the people in wages, taxes and fuel during the past five years over $1,000,000.

        The next great manufacturing center after Weldon on the Roanoke and the Narrows region on the Yadkin, should be somewhere on

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the western North Carolina railroad near where it crosses the Catawba river, or west towards Hickory. For several miles below this railroad crossing, and in the long bend for twelve or fifteen miles above this point, are a number of shoals or rapids in the Catawba, with a fall ranging from five to fifty feet in distances of from a few yards to two or three miles. These might be developed separately to operate independent factories, or following a larger plan, supported by larger capital, the several shoals might all be connected by electric wires and the power cencentrated at some central point. The powers included within this region are: (1). Sherrill's Ford shoals, with a fall of thirteen feet in one and nine-tenths miles. (2). Monbo shoals, with a fall of six feet. (3). Long Island or Crawford's Island shoals, with a fall of twenty-three and one-half feet in one and seven-tenths miles. (4). Buffalo shoals, with a fall of eleven and four-tenths feet in 0.66 of a mile, within a few miles below the Western North Carolina railroad crossing. Above this railroad crossing, and below the crossing of the Lenoir Narrow Gauge railroad from Hickory, (5). Lookout shoals with a fall of fifty-four feet in three and two-tenths miles. (6). Lower Little river shoals with a fall of nine and seven-tenths feet in one and one-tenth miles. (7). Canoe Landing shoals with a fall of nine feet in one and nine-tenth miles. (8). Great Falls, with a fall of fifteen feet in one mile. (9). Horsford shoals, with a fall of thirty-one feet in two and nine-tenths miles, and (10). Devil's shoals, with a fall of thirteen and eight-tenths feet in one mile. The South Fork of the Catawba, the three Broad rivers and Green river, each though much smaller streams than the Catawba have a number of water powers, many of which have already been developed and are now operating cotton mills, and a still larger number of undeveloped or partially developed powers. Also several other tributaries of the Catawba which descend rapidly from the forest-covered mountains--notably the Linville river--possess promising water powers. There are other important water powers on the Catawba, both above and below this region, several of which operate cotton, grist and saw mills.

        The powers on streams west of the Blue Ridge have been little developed, and individually will not attain the importance of some of those further east; but they are numerous, and in the gorges, which are often deep and narrow, dams can be constructed at small cost. Electric transmission will in the near future, render practicable the concentration of power from several of these smaller developments.*

        * NOTE--For more detailed information see "Water Powers of North Carolina," Bulletiu No 8. North Carolina Geological Survey.


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COMMERCIAL FISHERIES.

        The fishing industry of North Carolina ranks as one of the most important business enterprises of the State, and in the coastal regions is no doubt of greater value than any other single branch of trade. There are few States having so large a population so entirely dependent on the fisheries for a livelihood, and there are few sections in which the general facilities for prosecuting the industry are more favorable. The fisheries, therefore, possess a great economic interest to the State, and indirectly to the country at large; and a proper knowledge of the extent, conditions and needs of the industry becomes a matter of considerable importance to the citizens of the Commonwealth.

        The coast of North Carolina, following the outer shores, is only about three hundred miles long, but if the sounds, estuaries and other indentations are considered, a coast-line nearly one thousand five hundred miles in length is disclosed, along the entire extent of which the prosecution of commercial fishing is made possible by the configuration of the shores and the adjoining bottom, the absence of high or rocky shores, and the preponderance of low, sandy stretches and shallow water areas, permitting the employment of pound nets, seines, and gill nets under the most favorable circumstances.

        The characteristic physical features of the coastal regions of North Carolina are the low, narrow, sandy islands and peninsulas which skirt nearly the whole ocean front of the State, between which and the mainland are numerous sounds, some of large size, which are the principal fishing grounds, while the mainland is very irregular in outline and is intersected by a number of large and small streams.

        The principal fishing grounds are the sounds and lower courses of the streams emptying into them. Fishing in the upper courses of the rivers is usually of a non-commercial nature, and is unimportant.

        The sounds of North Carolina are Currituck, Albemarle, Croatan, Roanoke, Pamlico, Core and Bogue, each of which deserves brief notice.

        Currituck sound is the most northern sound in the State. It runs parallel with the coast, and extends from the Virginia state-line to the eastern end of Albemarle sound, with which it merges. It is forty miles in length, and from three to four miles in width. For a body of water of such size the depth is extremely shallow, in no place being more than nine feet. Except during periods of dry weather the water is fresh, although at one time it communicated

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freely with the ocean by means of Caffey inlet, which was closed in the year 1800. Prior to this time the sound contained marine fish, but at present only fresh water and anadromous fishes are found in it. Black bass (locally called chub) and white perch are very abundant, and at the proper season rock and herring enter the Sound in considerable numbers. The catch of black bass is probably greater than in any other part of the State, if not the largest in the country. The region is annually visited by enormous numbers of wild fowl, and is one of the most noted hunting resorts on the Atlantic coast.

        Albemarle sound and tributaries are next in order. This sound has the distinction of being the largest coastal body of fresh water in the world. Its extreme length from east to west is sixty miles, and its maximum width is fifteen miles, the average being six to eight miles; it, therefore, contains about four hundred and fifty square miles. The water is normally quite fresh, but during periods of excessively dry weather it becomes salt or brackish, especially at its eastern end, where it drains into Roanoke and Croatan sounds.

        Of all the North Carolina sounds, this is the most important from a fishery standpoint, and it is probable that there are few bodies of water of similar size in the world having more extensive fisheries. It is especially remarkable for its level bottom and uniform depth of water, and the absence of strong currents and tides, except those of infrequent occurrence resulting from gales. The importance is due to the fact that the region is annually visited by enormous bodies of shad, ale-wives, striped bass and other desirable economic species, and the natural conditions permit the employment of seines, pound nets, gill nets and other devices in almost limitless numbers.

        Eight rivers enter the sound, four on the north, two on the west, and two on the south, in nearly all of which more or less extensive fisheries are carried on. The Chowan and Roanoke rivers, which flow into the western end of the sound, are among the largest and most important in the State, and have large fisheries in the portion adjacent to their mouths. The North, Pasquotank, Little and Perquimans rivers, on the north, and the Scuppernong and Alligator rivers on the south are short, wide streams, the most important as regards fisheries being the Pasquotank and Alligator.

        Roanoke and Croatan sounds lie to the south of the eastern end of Albemarle sound, and extend parallel with the coast; they are separated by Roanoke Island. Roanoke sound lies to the east of the island, and is eight miles long and one and one-half to two miles wide. It is very shallow throughout its length, except in a narrow channel which skirts the shore of the island. Croatan sound has

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the same length as Roanoke sound, but is two to four miles wide and is much deeper. Most of the drainage from Albemarle sound passes through it. The combined area of these bodies of water is seventy-five miles. Important gill-net and other fisheries are prosecuted in these sounds.

        Pamlico sound and tributaries are of commanding importance. With the exception of Long Island sound, this is the largest sound on the Atlantic coast of the United States. It is about seventy-five miles long, and from ten to thirty miles wide, the area being about one thousand eight hundred and sixty square miles. On the north it communicates with Albemarle sound, through Roanoke and Croatan sounds, and much of the water of Albemarle sound finds entrance into the ocean through it; on the south it joins Core sound. The general depth is fifteen to twenty feet. The sound is separated from the ocean by long, narrow strips of sandy land called "Banks," through which the water of the sound finds exit at New, Hatteras, and Ocracoke inlets. The land known as the "Banks," consists chiefly of low, barren sand hills, with occasional patches of scrubby vegetation. Two important rivers, the Pamlico and Neuse, enter the sound from the west, their mouths being broad estuaries in which considerable fishing is done. Pamlico sound contains a great wealth of both fresh-water and salt-water fish. The large bodies of anadromous fish which occur in the sounds to the north all pass through it. The salinity of the water permits the entrance of menhaden, squeteague, spots, mullet, sheepshead, whiting, hogfish, bluefish, etc., in large numbers. Large areas are covered with a natural growth of oysters, a product which has recently attained marked prominence.

        Core and Bogue sounds, communicating with Pamlico sound on the north, and extending first in a southwesterly and then in a westerly direction, form a long and narrow body of water about fifty miles in length, and from one to six miles in width. Their area is about one hundred and sixty-five square miles. These communicate with the ocean through Beaufort, Bear and Bogue inlets. The water is very shoal, varying from one to ten feet, and not averaging more than four or five. The people living on the shore of these sounds are very generally dependent on the water for a livelihood, and the fisheries carried on are very extensive. The principle species taken are mullet, squeteague, bluefish, spots, hogfish, Spanish mackerel and whiting. The catch of the two first-named fish is larger than in any other body of water on the Atlantic coast.

        Other sounds.--South of Bogue sound the coast is fringed with five small, shallow sounds, known as Stump, Topsail, Middle, Masonboro

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and Myrtle sounds. These have but little bearing on the fisheries at present, and are chiefly important because of the possibilities they have for oyster production and cultivation. White Oak and New rivers, the only streams of importance between Beaufort entrance and the Cape Fear river, also have natural oyster beds. New river, in the opinion of Lieut. Winslow and many others, contains some of the finest oyster ground in the world, although the absence of shipping facilities until a very recent date has delayed the development of this important resource.

        Fishing in the ocean is prosecuted with gill-nets and seines at many places along the coast, but is especially important on the shore between Cape Hatteras and Currituck sound, where the winter fishery for bluefish has become famous. The species taken in greatest numbers, are, in addition to bluefish, trout, spot, mullet, drum, whiting, Spanish mackerel and sheepshead.

        In the vicinity of Wilmington, considerable line fishing is done at times on the blackfish banks located several miles off shore, sea bass, grunts and pigfish being the species taken.

        The shore between Cape Hatteras and Bogue Inlet has a number of seine fisheries for porpoises, which congregate in this region in large numbers during the colder months.

        The statistical data herewith presented cover the entire commercial fishery interests of the State, including the river basins. From the three general tables which follow, a clear conception may be gained of the condition and extent of the fisheries as they existed in 1890. (The last available census returns.)

        The prominent features of the first table, showing the number of persons employed in the industry are: the small proportion of vessel fishermen, and the large number of shore and boat fishermen, the disparity being greater than in almost any other coast State. The total fishing population, numbering ten thousand two hundred and seventy-four, is much larger than that of any State in the South Atlantic group.

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II--TABLE OF APPARATUS AND CAPITAL.

DESIGNATION. No. Value.
Vessels fishing . . . . . 54 $ 30,550
Tonnage . . . . . 530.72 . . . . .
Outfit . . . . . . . . . . 12,129
Vessels Transporting . . . . . 74 53,000
Tonnage . . . . . 1,084.87 . . . . .
Outfit . . . . . . . . . . 5,350
Boats . . . . . 3,816 162,905
Steam flats . . . . . 20 24,000
Pontoons or pile drivers . . . . . 26 1,470
Apparatus of capture--Vessel fisheries    
Seines . . . . . 16 3,975
Lines . . . . . . . . . . 2
Tongs . . . . . 110 284
Apparatus of capture--Shore fisheries    
Seines . . . . . 1,257 95,674
Pound nets . . . . . 950 80,394
Gill nets . . . . . 90,980 154,582
Fyke nets . . . . . 36 384
Skim nets . . . . . 728 2,798
Lines . . . . . . . . . . 55
Pots . . . . . 1,165 1,755
Tongs, rakes and forks . . . . . 1,369 4,173
Miscellaneous apparatus . . . . . . . . . . 202
Shore property and accessories . . . . . . . . . . 306,506
Cash capital . . . . . . . . . . 303,800
Total . . . . . . . . . . 1,243,988

        The capital invested in the fishing industry was $1,243,988, and the value of vessels and their outfits was $101,029; of boats, pile drivers and steam flats, $188,375; of apparatus of capture, $344,278; of shore property and working capital, $610,306. The minor factors in the investment are brought out in the above table.

        

III.--TABLE OF PRODUCTS.

SPECIES. POUNDS. VALUE.
Alewives, fresh . . . . . 5,219,979 $48,865
Alewives, salted . . . . . 11,261,084 115,771
Black bass, fresh . . . . . 406,330 20,420
Black bass, salted . . . . . 1,200 72
Bluefish, fresh . . . . . 1,151,380 29,398
Bluefish, salted . . . . . 193,814 4,205
Catfish, fresh . . . . . 53,685 1,246
Channel bass, fresh . . . . . 136,950 1,404
Channel bass, salted . . . . . 28,865 515
Croakers, fresh . . . . . 227,345 5,461

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Croakers, salted . . . . . 84,120 2,406
Hels, fresh . . . . . 160,615 9,726
Flounders, fresh . . . . . 48,630 894
Hogfish, fresh . . . . . 251,370 7,830
Hogfish, salted . . . . . 5,150 141
Menhaden, fresh . . . . . 12,410,400 16,171
Mullet, fresh . . . . . 974,815 19,178
Mullet, salted . . . . . 2,610,216 78,065
Mullet roe, salted . . . . . 950 165
Perch, fresh . . . . . 583,204 22,098
Perch, salted . . . . . 26,270 671
Pike, fresh . . . . . 40,510 1,765
Pompano, fresh . . . . . 9,750 780
Red horse, fresh . . . . . 60,550 1,779
Sea bass, fresh . . . . . 33,075 1,158
Shad, fresh . . . . . *

        * Number, 1,612,594.


5,675,063 		301,942
Shad, salted . . . . . 93,350 4,073
Sheepshead, fresh . . . . . 90,665 4,000
Sheepshead, salted . . . . . 55,680 1,981
Spanish mackerel, fresh . . . . . 82,950 5,978
Spanish mackerel, salted . . . . . 8,550 276
Spots, fresh . . . . . 227,160 5,289
Spots, salted . . . . . 181,100 5,573
Strawberry bass, fresh . . . . . 28,075 1,106
Striped bass, fresh . . . . . 562,841 31,973
Striped bass, salted . . . . . 5,500 165
Sturgeon, fresh . . . . . 175,210 4,467
Squeteague, fresh . . . . . 1,640,160 39,958
Squeteague, salted . . . . . 245,517 8,898
Whiting, fresh . . . . . 35,300 1,231
Miscellaneous fish, fresh . . . . . 474,452 12,851
Miscellaneous fish, salted . . . . . 87,963 2,362
Refuse fish . . . . . 18,500 173
Porpoises . . . . . **

        ** Number, 1,747.


. . . . . 		4,398
Shrimp . . . . . 144,200 5,435
Crabs . . . . . 47,400 1,185
Terrapin . . . . . 26,552 4,690
Turtle . . . . . 17,725 1,024
Quahogs or clams . . . . . *

        * Weight of edible part; represents 28,269 bushels.


226,152 		12,090
Scallops . . . . . *

        * Weight of edible part; represents 4,000 bushels.


18,000 		800
Oysters . . . . . *

        * Weight of edible part; represents 807,260 bushels.


5,650,820 		175,567
Total . . . . . 51,799,142 $1,027,669

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        In the third table, the quantities and values of each of the important objects of capture are shown. All products are reduced to the common unit of a pound in order that the full extent of this phase of the industry may be given in one summary. The basis for the principal reductions is explained in a foot-note to the table. It is seen that 51,799,142 pounds were taken, with a value of $1,027,669.

        The objects of fisheries may be systematically grouped as follows to show the importance of the different classes represented:--

        The most important single product of the North Carolina fisheries is the shad, the value of which was $306,015; this sum was considerably in excess of the selling prices of the next important species, the oyster, which was $175,567. The alewives, locally called herring, had a value of $164,636, after which the principal species were mullet, worth $113,414; squeteague, locally called trout, worth $48,856; bluefish, worth $33,603; and striped bass, worth $32,138. The other products are relatively unimportant.

        A knowledge of the relative and actual effectiveness of the different forms of apparatus employed in the fisheries is of great practical advantage to the fishermen.

        The seine is the form of apparatus that takes the largest amount of fish and yields the greatest money returns. In 1890, 17,984,830 pounds of fish, valued at $401,036, were caught in this way.

        The seine fisheries of the Albemarle section are more important than those of any other part of the State, and it is probable that the number of large shad seines there operated is greater than elsewhere in the United States. The counties bordering on the sound and its tributaries, which maintain the most valuable seine fisheries are Chowan and Bertie. In that portion of Dare county bordering on Croatan sound, there are also important seine fisheries. In Pamlico sound, Beaufort and Craven counties have valuable fisheries of this kind. Carteret county leads all others in the value of its seine fisheries, the sales of fish amounting to $86,195; Dare, the next important county, followed with $52,111; after which came Bertie, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Onslow and Beaufort counties.

        

Illustration

STEAM SEINE FISHING.

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        Next to the seine, the pound net is the most productive means of capture, although the value of the catch is less than that of the gill nets; thus 8,282,562 pounds of fish valued at $123,606, were taken.

        Few changes in the fisheries of the State during the past decade have been more remarkable than the large increase in the number of pound nets. In 1880, only one hundred and seventeen such nets were set in the State, while in 1890, there were nine hundred and fifty. The pound-nets are most numerous in the Albemarle region, but are also employed in the other sounds, and the rivers emptying into them. This form of net was introduced into Albemarle sound in 1870, since which time it has exerted a marked influence on the development of the fisheries, by supplanting to a greater or less extent the older types of apparatus because of its greater cheapness and efficiency.

        Gill nets take somewhat smaller quantities of fish than pound-nets, but the catch has a greater value, owing chiefly to the large numbers of shad secured which have a relatively high valuation. Considerably more than half the shad credited to the State are taken in gill nets, the catch being 3,348,577 pounds, valued at $175,388.

        Gill nets are most numerous in Dare county, in which the gill-net catch is far more valuable than in all the remaining counties combined, this prominence being due to the enormous quantities of shad taken. Carteret and Onslow counties rank next in importance, the principal part of the catch being marine species.

        Of the remaining forms of apparatus used in the capture of fish, lines are the most prominent, although when compared with seines, pound nets and gill nets, they are insignificant. Line fishing on a commercial basis is followed only in Onslow, New Hanover, and Sampson counties, and quantities of fish taken are small. The aggregate catch was 380,375 pounds, having a value of $13,003, the principal species being hogfish and squeteague.

        Skim nets are used in greatest numbers on the Roanoke, Tar, and Neuse rivers in the capture of shad and alewives. In 1890, 247,148 pounds of fish, worth $10,581, were taken by this means. Eel pots are sparingly employed in four counties--Currituck, Dare, Hyde, and Beaufort--and their use appears to be increasing, especially in Dare county. Pots took 153,415 pounds of eels, for which the fishermen received $9,222. Fyke nets are the only remaining apparatus used commercially in taking fish, and these are only sparingly employed in Dare and Sampson counties, where they catch small quantities of catfish, mullet, perch, red horse, sheepshead, striped bass, and squeteague. The total yield was 24,885 pounds, valued at $716.

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        The porpoise industry and the fishery which it supports are of less extent than formerly, owing to the diminished inducements offered to the fisherman by the low prices received for the raw products. In 1890, only two firms were engaged in handling the porpoises, in preparing their hides, and in trying out their oil. The number of porpoises killed was 1,747, for which the fishermen received $4,398. The resulting manufactured products were valued at $10,350.

        North Carolina is the most southern State in which the menhaden fishery and industry are carried on. The fishery may be said to be the only one except that for oysters in which vessels are employed, and it is the only off-shore vessel fishery in the State, although a considerable part of the fish handled, are caught in the sounds adjacent to the ocean and not in the ocean itself. The business is centered at or in the vicinity of Beaufort, where six factories were in operation in 1890. The capital invested in buildings, vessels, apparatus, etc., was $97,060, the number of persons employed was one hundred and eighty-seven, the value of the fish handled was $16,171, and the value of the manufactured products was $38,727.

        Most of the matter in the foregoing sketch was prepared by Dr. Hugh M. Smith, of the division of fisheries, from data obtained in an investigation of the fishing industries of North Carolina by the U. S. Fish Commission. Valuable information on certain features has also been furnished by Mr. S. G. Worth, formerly Superintendent of Fisheries in North Carolina, and now an officer of the National Commission.

        Dr. W. R. Capehart, of Avoca, Bertie county, the third of his direct generation engaged in commercial fishing, in a letter dated March, 1896, says:

        "In the Albemarle sound and its tributaries, the steam and horse power seines have invested in realty approximately $100,000, and personalty $58,000, and this requires an annual expenditure of about $31,000 to keep up the wear and tear on the above valuations; and it must be born in mind that much of this annual expense is of a very perishable nature, as is the case with all coastal property, especially fishing apparatus.

        These plants give employment for about two months to one thousand persons, whose combined wages for this brief period aggregate $40,000. A few competent seine riggers and menders find a few months additional employment each year, which swells the above wage account about $5,000 more.

        The approximate annual value of the catch in seines for the territory under discussion, is $176,000. This includes the iced fish

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shipped in boxes to northern markets, and twenty thousand barrels of salt fish, valued at $82,000, which are sold almost exclusively in this and adjoining states.

        The scrap and waste from these seine fisheries is converted into fertilizing material, and gives an additional $8,000 to the annual value. Bear in mind that all of the above refers to seine fishing alone in the Albemarle sound and its tributaries.

        Now we come to pound or dutch nets, which will be considered for the same territory exclusively. As compared with seines this comprises by far the greater quantity of material. There are no less than 1,125 of these pound nets spread in the waters of the sound and its tributaries, which give employment to about 1,200 persons, with combined wages for the season of no less than $42,000. To give very briefly some idea of the cost of putting in this number of pound nets, it will not be amiss to state a few of the items. About one hundred and twenty-five boats valued at $15,625 are employed; about 32,000 pine poles, from fifteen to thirty-five feet in length are required, and cost in the aggregate $5,500; no less than 265,000 yards of netting (twelve to twenty-four feet in depth), is used and at a cost of $110,800.

        The output from these 1,125 pound nets may be summarized as follows: 7,900 boxes (iced) fish, mostly shad, and 40,500,000 fish, mostly herring. The iced fish are worth about $85,000, and the others $140,000.

        Thus it will be seen that from these two sources alone--seines and pound nets--that no less than $387,925 are invested in the fisheries, apparatus, and in the annual wages paid, and that the value of the catch approximates $409,000. And there are no less than 2,200 persons employed in prosecuting the work.

        There is no room to make mention of the other forms of apparatus or the resulting catch from them, except to a comparatively new departure in one branch of the fishing industry. I refer to the sturgeon fishing, now conducted almost exclusively for the roe sturgeon, which are valued for the large roe. This roe is converted by a very simple process--the application of German salt in a particular proportion--into a relish of much popularity in Germany and Russia, known as caviar. This caviar is packed into oak kegs or kits holding one hundred and twenty pounds each and shipped via New York to the foreign destinations referred to. The product is worth thirty three and one-third cents per pound at present, and the price is rather upward than otherwise in its tendency.

        There are more than a hundred boats and over two hundred and fifty persons employed in the prosecution of this branch of fishing.

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        The increase in the volume of business done on the Albemarle and its tributaries may be briefly summarized by these facts recently obtained from transportation companies. From 1882 to 1892--ten years--the increase of iced fish shipped was from 13,700 to 23,900 boxes. From 1892 to January, 1896, the shipments have climbed to 42,400."

Very respectfully,

W. R. CAPEHART.


        Comparing Dr. Capehart's later data with that of the United States Fish Commission for 1890, it will be observed that the Albemarle Sound and its tributaries present a most remarkable increase. In round numbers the 1895 value of the catch there is very nearly equal to four-fifths of the total value of the catch for the State at large for the former year:

        
Source of Catch. 1890: Value of Catch; State at Large. 1895: Value of Catch; Albemarle Sound and tributaries.
Seines . . . . . $401,036 $184,000
Pound Nets . . . . . 123,606 225,000
Total . . . . . $524,642 $409,000

        If the increase in the whole State has kept pace with that of the Albemarle sound, the value of the 1895 catch must have reached the two-million dollar mark.

SHELLFISH.

        In the saline waters of North Carolina abound oysters, clams, scallops, crabs, shrimp, and diamond-back terrapin, in perfection of flavor. In commercial importance the oyster is of far greater value than all the others combined, and will be treated accordingly in what follows.

        The abundance in which oysters were found along the Atlantic coast of the United States, and their superior excellence, made them at once, upon the settlement of the country along the waters which provided them, an article both of subsistence and luxury. With the increase of interior population and the provision of quick and ready means of transportation, the use of them was enormously enlarged, and the distribution of them, in all the forms of use, became co-extensive with the American continent, and was not confined to that broad area, for Europe, in the diminution of its own supplies, and also in its recognition of the superiority of the American oyster, has been for a number of years a large consumer. The consequence is the depletion of many grounds once regarded as inexhaustible, the diminution

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in other waters where diminution seemed impossible, followed by the assertion of local rights, attempts at the exclusion of invading trespassers, contention, bloodshed; finally legislative action and the effort to define rights by law, with power to assert and secure them by force; and all this made necessary because human nature knows no moderation in the use of the abundant free gifts of Providence, or in the attainment of that which leads to competency or wealth.

        The attempt to retrace the steps of past waste and neglect is what invariably follows in locking the stable door after the horse has gone--vain regrets and fruitless self-reproach. All the deep research of science, all the costly experiments of artificial breeding, all the labor of planting new territory of waters, will not bring back to Connecticut, New York, Maryland and Virginia the store they wasted and the abundance they so universally squandered.

        It happens that there remains one treasure-house not yet plundered, one great water granary whose doors are not yet thrown wide open. North Carolina, overlooked and despised in the Eldorado of the Chesapeake, now, when the glories of the latter are fading, is found to possess what, with prudence, patience, legislative wisdom and local self-control, may be converted into a field quite as prolific as the once teeming oyster waters of Maryland and Virginia. Its sounds, its bays and its creeks, extending along the coast for hundreds of miles, give promise of natural conditions that will assure in time as large a product as ever existed in other waters. Some of these North Carolina waters are too much freshened by the influx of fresh-water rivers to have been the habitat of the native oyster, or to be made available as beds for artificial culture; but in all the other waters which exist in the largest proportion, to which the salt waters of the ocean have ready access, the native oyster has always been found, and of great excellence. In the depletion of the oyster grounds of the Chesapeake and other waters, the enterprise of the oystermen of those localities was on the alert to save their industries from ruin, and the invasion of the North Carolina waters was rewarded with the discovery of a large relatively untried area. To check what threatened to effect here what had been done elsewhere, and to secure the people of North Carolina in the possession of their rights, the aid of legislation was earnestly invoked.

        One of the first decisive steps taken was the enactment of a law, ratified March 11, 1885, directing the State Board of Agriculture to cause a survey to be made, both of natural oyster-beds and private oyster gardens, with reference to the culture of shellfish. Under the act, the Governor was requested to ask the Federal Government to

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detail some person in the public service, expert in such matters, to make the necessary surveys. In compliance with the request Lieut. Francis Winslow, U. S. N., was detailed. He has made two reports, extracts from which are here made.

        In his first report he says the waters subject to the jurisdiction of North Carolina, consist mainly of twelve sounds, extending along the coast and connected with each other from the Virginia line in Lat. 36° 33′ W. to the Cape Fear river in Lat. 34° 53′ W. These sounds are Currituck, Albemarle, Roanoke, Croatan, Pamlico, Core, Bogue, Stump, Topsail, Middle, Masonboro and Myrtle, and four estuaries known as Bogue, Bear, Brown and New inlets. The harbor of Beaufort and the mouth of the Cape Fear river form other inlets. Some of these sounds, such as Albemarle and Currituck, being principally fresh water, are excluded from the consideration of oyster culture. Albemarle Sound receives the waters of several large rivers, and contains within its own limits 5,631,400,000 tons of fresh water. The other waters are all suitable to the growth of the oyster in its native beds, or for its propagation by planting, Lieutenant Winslow says in his second report:

        'Since the survey has been in progress, knowledge of the possibilities of the locality and of the business has become diffused among the citizens, not only of North Carolina, but of other States, and the effect has been to induce a large number of people to enter grounds. In Dare county, forty-three entries have been made, comprising at least twenty-six thousand acres. In Hyde county, three hundred and thirty-nine entries have been made comprising fully twenty-six thousand acres; and in Carteret County, ninety entries, comprising nine hundred acres. Of these entries sixty-eight are by residents of other States, and four hundred and four by residents of North Carolina. Entries are still being made and warrants for surveys are still coming in, and in the course of another year it is quite possible that the territory may be doubled. But, as it is, an aggregate of fifty-three thousand acres entered is a sufficiently gratifying indication of the value of the survey and of the legislation it brought about.

        The cultivation of this immense tract will require a great deal of time, money and labor. Thousands of people must be employed and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent. But every dollar so expended goes to increase the material wealth of the State, and the employment of every man insures additional comforts and conveniencies to the families of the citizens of the seaboard counties. It is with pleasure that I have noted that one of the first, if not the first, to venture in this new field, is a citizen of Hyde county, who is reported to have

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abandoned a profitable lumber business for the purpose of engaging in oyster growing, and who has, I understand, the intention of making as his original outlay a sum about equal to the total value, prior to 1886, of the whole oyster industry of the State.

        The natural beds have not only been defined and located, but under the recent law much additional area adjacent to them has been set apart and excepted from entry. These areas are the public grounds, and by law they include the natural beds and sufficient area adjacent and surrounding them, to provide for their natural expansion. The provision for allowance for natural expansion has been liberally construed, as will be seen by the following summary of the areas of the natural beds and public grounds:

        
County. Area Public Grounds. Area Natural Beds.
Dare . . . . . 4,604.16 2,118.25
Hyde . . . . . 6,891.94 1,642.90
Pamlico . . . . . 4,495.61 437.00
Carteret . . . . . 4,561.40 1,012.50
Total . . . . . 20,553.11 5,210.65

        Or the area of the public grounds exceeds that of the natural beds by 15,343 acres. The natural beds of that portion of the State not under the operation of the new law comprise 3,381 acres; or the total acreage of natural beds is 8,591.

        The area reserved for the common fishery is thus ample for all time to come, and as these areas are excepted from entry, and as they include the natural beds, not only is an entry or appropriation of a natural bed prevented, but no person can, practically, enter near a natural bed. At the same time, as the grounds open to the general fishery are defined and known, the private cultivator is free from depredation under guise of the exercise of the common right of fishery. Thus the source of complaint of all classes interested is removed.

        The area entered will bring into the State Treasury over $12,000, a net gain over the entire expenses of over $7,000, and the taxes that eventually accrue to the counties and State may amount in the course of a comparatively few years to fully $10,000 per annum."

        Legislation is now ample, if enforced, to protect and promote the oyster interests of the State. It is unlawful to use any instrument but hand-tongs to take oysters from State grounds, violation of which is indictable as a misdemeanor. Only residents of the State are permitted to use instruments or boats upon State grounds; and non residents, upon conviction of violation of this provision, are to be fined not less than $500, or be confined in the county jail, to be hired out by the

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Commissioners of the county for a term not less than one year. Residents must obtain a license for the use of boats, and individuals desiring to catch oysters, whether on their own account or that of employers, must take out from the Clerk of the Court an annual license, paying for the same $2.50 and a Clerk's fee of twenty-five cents, and must make oath that he has been a bona fide resident of the State for twelve months next preceding the application for license. Oysters are to be culled on the public grounds when taken, and oysters of a specified size are to be returned to the waters on the public grounds. Oysters must not be taken from the public grounds between the first day of May and the first day of October. The control of the oyster interest is placed under charge of one Chief Commissioner, to be appointed by the Governor, and to hold office; and, to enable the Commissioner to discharge his duties of visiting the grounds and repelling and capturing interlopers, a patrol boat is provided, with authority to use arms when necessary.

        The oysters taken at the different points in the sounds and estuaries vary much in size, shape and flavor. The New river oysters are much prized for size and flavor, and are probably the best known abroad. But the markets of Wilmington, Newbern, Washington and other points are supplied from their various oyster grounds with a shellfish of a quality not inferior to those taken at New river. With the care in cultivation, and the protection given by law, it is only a question of time when the waters of North Carolina will yield as abundantly as the waters of the Chesapeake have done, and, in quality of the oyster, with no inferiority.

        The diamond-back terrapin is found in all the coast country, a delicacy in such demand and of such value as to have become the subject of legislative protection and of artificial cultivation.

        Clams abound, and are now recognized as valuable members of the family of shellfish. They are shipped in large quantities from Newbern, Morehead City, and many other points.

        The same may be said of scallops, soft-shell crabs and shrimp. These delicacies are abundant and find ready sale both in local and distant markets

AGRICULTURE.


                         "Every part of North Carolina has some one thing
                         That will make it distinctly a great section."A. K. McClure.

        The geographical position of the State, occupying a common ground between the sub-tropical growth of the South and the more

Illustration

A FORSYTH COUNTY FARM.

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hardy products of northern latitudes, and its geological formation, rising from a level with the sea on the east, through every degree of increasing elevation to the mountains of the west, where Mitchell rears his supreme summit, unite in the production of greater varieties of minerals, of forest, of flora and of agricultural products than are to be found in any like amount of territory in the United States.

        The palmetto, the magnolia and the live-oak are at home in the coast region, while among the mountains of the west the sugar-maple, the hemlock and white pines, the tamarack, balsam and rhododendron find congenial soil and climate for perfect development. "In the first case depression of level has associated the eastern section with the influences of the tropics; in the other the elevation has thrust it into association with Canadian atmospheric conditions. It will be readily understood, then, what a broad and fruitful field North Carolina presents, between the extremes presented, for the profitable culture of nearly all the field crops, vegetables and fruits grown in the United States--the rice of the coast and the buckwheat of the mountains; the cotton of the South and the flax of New England, the corn, the wheat, the rye and the oats, the potatoes, peas, sorghum, the tobacco, vegetables, fruits, grapes, grasses, everything,--which, if North Carolina knew herself, and if the stranger knew her as she ought to be known, would make her the most coveted and most prosperous country on which the sun sheds his fertilizing beams."

        This great variety and abundance of resources of different sections of the State not only might supply the wants of her own people but tend to stimulate and exchange among themselves of their surplus products, securing thereby better prices by the saving of freights over long lines of transportation.

        While, therefore, North Carolina may not compete with some of the other great agricultural states in such special product as each may excel in, yet combining the variety and universality of production, the capacity for self-sustenance, the "some one thing" that each section excels in; and added to these things the healthfulness and pleasantness of the climate, the beauty of the landscape, the hospitality of the people; the assertion is boldly and confidently made that she surpasses all the others.

        The soil of the eastern counties is mostly of alluvial formation, and remarkably easy of cultivation; cotton, corn, tobacco, peanuts, sweet and Irish potatoes vie with each other in making generous response to intelligent and kindly treatment of the soil; while stone fruits and pears, small fruits and garden products attest its almost

Illustration

HARVEST IN THE CATAWBA VALLEY--BURKE COUNTY.

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universal adaptation to all agricultural productions for the sustenance of mankind.

        It is in the eastern counties where the trucking industry has reached its highest development, rapidly increasing its productions from small beginnings, some ten years ago, to its present great commercial value. Here is the natural home of the sweet potato, North Carolina excelling all other states in the quantity and quality of its product.

        The Coastal Plain region gradually merges into the Piedmont Plateau, the divisional line between which may be said in a general way to transverse the State from northeast to southwest, passing a little east of Raleigh, the capital of the State; the Piedmont extending westwardly from this line to a tier of counties, bordering the Blue Ridge, where the Mountain region fairly begins. The Piedmont is that favored region where blend harmoniously the climate, soil and products of the east and the west, the north and the south; where the invalid seeking a soft but invigorating climate, where the farmer in search of land that never fails to make a return of the kindly fruits of the earth, where the vineyardist and orchardist whose products most excel, where the stock breeder and dairyman who need positive conditions for success, where the tobacco planter, determined with his "brights" to top the market, may each come and may each find a locality with conditions to meet his especial needs.

        To the westward lies the Mountain region, an elevated plateau, broken into chains and spurs of mountains and alternating valleys. No great surplus of valuable crops finds its way to distant markets from this region; few big farms require the labor of many hands; but the conditions excel for the industrious farmer, who may here surround himself with all those products of comfort and luxury which constitute an "independent living," corn, wheat, rye, oats, hay, Irish potatoes, apples, sorghum, buckwheat, butter, cheese, milk, honey and numerous vegetables. The field is a wide one for growing the finest winter apples; for dairy products, for vegetable growing, and for canning establishments. The uncleared mountains and hills grow heavy forests of valuable trees, their soil being equal if not superior to that of the valleys.

        This is that "Land of the Sky," written of in poetry and romance; the home of a brave, truehearted and kindly people; the paradise alike of the millionaire and the peasant--whose soft beauty and rugged grandeur are a perpetual joy and inspiration.

        Who, standing on the proud summit of Mount Mitchell and contemplating all the goodly State spread out before him, will not

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exclaim with the Hon. W. D. Kelly, of Pennsylvania: "North Carolina is the fairest portion of God's earth on which my feet have ever rested."

COTTON.

        North Carolina has never been among the foremost of the cotton growing States, for although nearly all of the ninety-six counties of the State make report of the crop in the census tables, as a matter of fact, more than one-half the cotton producing area is confined to twenty-eight counties. Nor have the farmers of this cotton section been so dependent on the planting of cotton, that they might not readily increase or diminish production by adoption of other crops to correspond with ruling prices in the markets of the world; hence, as should be expected, the statistics, such as were made from 1801 to 1840, when crop returns were first enumerated in the census reports, and the census reports from 1840 to 1890, all show that the cotton production of the State has been marked by greater fluctuations than that of any other State. The following table indicates the variableness of production, and gives the total products at different periods in the State's history:

        
YEAR. POUNDS. BALES.
1801 . . . . . 4,000,000 . . . . .
1821 . . . . . 10,000,000 . . . . .
1826 . . . . . 18,000,000 . . . . .
1833 . . . . . 10,000,000 . . . . .
1839, Census . . . . . 51,926,190 . . . . .
1849, Census . . . . . 29,538,000 . . . . .
1859, Census . . . . . 64,753,730 . . . . .
1869, Census . . . . . 62,901,790 . . . . .
1879, Census . . . . . 176,487,894 389,598
1889, Census . . . . . 160,396,497 336,261
1895, Dept. of Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . 339,499

        This fluctuation in production is undoubtedly due to variation in price, and to the ready adaptability of the soil to grow such other crops as corn, wheat, oats, tobacco, rice, hay, &c., which has wisely limited the production of cotton in large quantities to those counties where it is grown with greater profit. Even in these, the cotton acreage comprises but a small proportion of the total area.

        While the average yield of cotton is shown to be less, a bale to the acre and twenty bales to the mule are not uncommon. This indeed, might be the rule under a wise system of rotation and a judicious use of fertilizers and leguminous crops.

        The quality of the fibre grown is excellent, the proportion of lint weight of seed being larger than the product of any other State

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        Of the seed product, 70,341 tons are reported in the census of 1890, valued at $718,741--no inconsiderable item in the value of the crop. But as the best cotton yields only about thirty-three per cent. of lint, evidently the tons of seed reported to a crop of over 336,000 bales, were less than half the actual product, which was in the neighborhood of 160,000 tons. The amount reported represented probably the sales, the balance going into home consumption.

        Compared with other States, North Carolina stands eighth in amount of production. "Neither as a whole, nor in any considerable portion of its area, is the cotton production of North Carolina distinguished for its density. Of the entire land surface of the State, 3.69 per cent. was devoted to cotton planting in 1889, or little more than one-third the proportion obtaining in the adjacent State of South Carolina." (Extract Census, 1890.)

        The counties producing the largest number of bales are, in descending order of production, Mecklenburg, Wake, Richmond, Robeson, Johnston, Edgecombe, Pitt, Wayne, Wilson, Anson, Cleveland and Union

TOBACCO.

        The easy adaptability of the soil of North Carolina elsewhere commented upon, and the increase or decrease in the production of different crops to fit the varying conditions of the markets, is not better illustrated than in the rapid and enormous enlargement of the tobacco area and product, as cotton, the other great money producing crop of the State, has been steadily declining in value. These two great crops may be considered correlative to each other, that one being predominant which for the time returns the greater remuneration. The price of cotton declining, tobacco remaining firm, cotton planting is curtailed, tobacco acreage increased. Should the reverse in prices occur, cotton would again increase and tobacco planting decline. This rule cannot apply to all the cotton district, nor to all the tobacco district, but a large scope of territory is common to the production of both crops, and it is this common ground which gives the preponderance to the one or the other.

        Nearly all the counties in the State raise tobacco, in patches for home consumption, if not for market; but the crop for market purposes was confined, as shown by the census of 1890, chiefly to thirty counties. Of these thirty, only eleven are accredited with over a million pounds, and these eleven counties produced two-thirds of the crop of '89. These are, in descending order of production: Rockingham, Granville, Stokes, Caswell, Person, Madison, Vance, Forsyth, Buncombe, Surry and Durham.

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        The following table shows the production for the State at large as given in the census reports since 1850:

        
  Acres. Pounds.
1850 . . . . . . . . . . 11,984,786
1860 . . . . . . . . . . 32,853,250
1870 . . . . . . . . . . 11,150,087
1880 . . . . . 57,208 26,986,213
1890 . . . . . 97,077 36,375,258

        Since the census report of 1890 was taken, the decline in price of cotton has greatly stimulated the production of tobacco in the counties of Wilson, Nash, Edgecombe, Green, Lenoir, Beaufort, Pitt, Washington, Franklin, Wayne, Wake, Martin, Bertie and Halifax.

        Some of these are now in the front rank of the tobacco producing counties of the State, both in quantity and quality of the product.

        Col. Cameron in his admirable treatise on tobacco, in the Handbook of North Carolina, issued in 1893, discredits the correctness of the census report of the crop of 1889, and in support of his position quotes from a very carefully prepared address of Mr. W. W. Wood, President of the State Tobacco Association, made to that body in August, 1891. Col. Cameron exonerates the enumerators of the census from carelessness or intentional error, and explains the discrepancy of their reports with the actual amount of production. Mr. Wood makes his estimates from entirely different sources, and reaches the conclusion that the crop amounted to 76,000,000 pounds. That Mr. Wood's estimate was none too large, and showing also the enormous increase in production during the past six years, the highest possible confirmation is now adduced.

        The U. S. Department of Agriculture, working carefully and constantly through its different agencies, is the most reliable authority on crop productions of any in the United States. The crop report for March, 1896, says:

        "Between 1888 and 1893, no returns of tobacco were published by the department, and a comparison of the figures for recent crops with those of receipts for manufacture and net exports, published by the Treasury, leaves ample room for a suspicion that the whole product was at no time reported. The correspondents' returns of yield and acreage compared with the year before, appearing in the monthly statistical reports for 1895, having been found to give a total product considerably less than that actually brought to light in previous years, the statistician instituted in December a special investigation of the subject, a circular of additional inquiries being sent to all the tobacco producing States. The results of that investigation are embodied in

Illustration

TOBACCO FIELD--SEABOARD AIR LINE.

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the following table, where the column showing farm values was computed from the prices reported in December, 1895. In most of the States where an increase appears a correction of last year's acreage is probably involved. North Carolina, however, with more than double the acreage and product reported in 1894, plainly shows the stimulus of local manufacture.

        The loss to the crop was severe in Virginia and in the mountain region of North Carolina:"

        
  Acres. Pounds. Dollars.
Connecticut . . . . . 6,579 9,928,000 1,638,120
Pennsylvania . . . . . 15,600 14,305,000 1,058,570
Maryland . . . . . 15,233 12,796,000 742,168
Virginia . . . . . 88,463 53,432,000 4,274,560
North Carolina . . . . . 143,156 114,525,000 10,536,300
Tennessee . . . . . 53,890 43,220,000 3,025,400
Kentucky . . . . . 223,574 179,553,000 9,526,909
Ohio . . . . . 35,969 25,358,000 1,318,613
Indiana . . . . . 13,435 8,760,000 770,080
Missouri . . . . . 10,580 8,718,000 758,466

        The statistics here given demonstrate the wonderful suitableness of certain sections of the State to the growth of tobacco.

        Standing sixth in point of production in 1879, fourth in 1889, in 1895 North Carolina forges ahead and stands second to Kentucky only in amount of production, and first of all the States in the value of her product, exceeding Kentucky by over one million dollars.

        An analysis of the figures show an average production of the State at large of eight hundred pounds per acre, worth nine and one-fifth cents per pound, giving the average value of yield per acre of $73.60.

        With the exception or Louisiana, whose product of sugar and molasses does not exceed in value per acre, no other State can approach, in agricultural product, the record here made of North Carolina's crop of tobacco.

        When it is considered that the bulk of a tobacco crop is necessarily of inferior grades, the superiority of our "brights" and "mahoganies" becomes apparent, which increase the average value to nine and one-fifth cents per pound, and to $73.60 per acre. To quote again from Mr. Wood's admirable paper:

        "Within her borders is produced such a variety of high grade leaf, and in such quantities as is nowhere else to be found the world over. Upon her high type of cutting leaf, the great cigarrette business of the world was built up. Her unsurpassed smokers, produced in the "Golden Belt," placed her granulated smoking

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tobacco at a premium over all others in the world. Her mahogany types of fillers and wrappers, are by chewers of tobacco, everywhere preferred before all others."

RICE.

        Historians tell us that the cultivation of rice dates back to nearly three thousand years B. C., and though it is indigenous to India, the first mention of its culture is among the Chinese. It was cultivated in Syria, four hundred years B. C., was introduced by the Arabs into Spain, and the fifteenth century, was planted by the Italians. The first rice raised in America was at Charleston, S. C., in the seventeenth century, and from that beginning sprang the rice crop of the present. Before the introduction of rice into this State, in 1738, the tide-water low lands were seeded to indigo, which gradually gave place to the more remunerative crop. Wild indigo still troubles the rice miller more than all other weeds, as its discoloring effect upon the cleaned product is disastrous. There are two varieties of rice, the white and the golden seed, both have adherents as to superiority. Rice can be grown upon all lands, but to be successful on an extensive scale, there should be proper facilities for irrigating the crop at its critical periods. The upland rice is inferior in size, color and weight