Critical Notices [pp. 509-544]

1853.1 Ctitical A7otice.~. 509
ART. VI 1.-CRITICAL NOTICES.
ifa~tt Uham~e1 Borings. Professor llolmes, of the Charleston
College, has made a succin9t examination and classification of the
~orings, by Lt. Maffitt and others, in and about the harbour of
Charleston. The object of these several borings is the deepening of
the channel of the harbour, and the supply of the city with pure
water; the latter object being pursued within the city, by the arte sian process. As yet, there is no certainty reached with regard to
the prospect of success by this operation. The shaft has been sunk
already to the depth of a thousand feet or illore, the auger now pene trating what geologists term the cretaceous formation, beneath which
* it is anticipated that the supply of water will be found. In respect
to the channel borings, the experiments discover that the bar to the
harbour exhibits a bed of calcarcous or limestone rock; a circum stance which greatly increases the fcasible~ess of any project for
dredging and deepening the entrance. The work, we believe, is in
progress, or about to be begun seriously-Congress, d5 well as the
State and City authorities, having made the requisite appropriations.
In the coui~e of the borings and surveys, facts have been developed
of a sort generally to interest the student and man of science. We
detach and condense such portions of the report of Professor llolmes
as are of this description:
"The tongue of land upon which Charleston is built, was origi nally a flat peninsula, having Ashley River on the West, and Cooper
on the East; these uniting, to the South of the city, form the bay
and harbour, and discharge their waters into the ocean about six
miles below.
"There were five creeks which emptied into the Ashley, four into
the Cooper, and one at the point of the peninsula. These have all
been for the most part filled up, and the few slight ridges of yellow
sands which extended from river to river in lines from N. E. to S.
W., parallel ~ that of the sea coast, have been levelled. Strikingly
developed in the Sea Islands, these ridges are a characteristic feature
of the lands bordering upon the ocean, and are known as the yellow
sand-hills, which produce the fine long-stapled cottons in such per fection. In appearance, they resemble the ground swell of the ocean
observable on the coast when the wind is from the East; and it is
to this ground-swell that I am disposed, in part, to attribute their
formation; and not entirely to the drift sands which compose the