School History of North Carolina (From 1584 to the Present Time) | Page 5

other factories have been established, and are multiplying every year.
7. The sounds, and the rivers which empty into them, constitute a network of waterway for steam and sailing vessels of eleven hundred miles. They are separated from the ocean by a line of sand banks, varying in breadth from one hundred yards to two miles, and in height from a few feet above the tide level to twenty-five or thirty feet, on which horses of a small breed, called "Bank Ponies," are reared in great numbers, and in a half wild state. These banks extend along the entire shore a distance of three hundred miles. Through them there are a number of inlets from the sea to the sounds, but they are usually too shallow except for vessels of light burden. Along its northern coast the commerce of the State has, in consequence, been restricted; it has, however, an extensive commerce through Beaufort Harbor and the Cape Fear River.
8. The sounds, and the rivers in their lower courses, abound with fish and waterfowl. Hunting the canvas-back duck and other fowls for the Northern cities is a regular and profitable branch of industry; while herring, shad and rock-fishing is pursued, especially along Albemarle Sound, with spirit, skill and energy, and a large outlay of capital.
QUESTIONS.
1. What is the subject of this chapter? How may the mountains of North Carolina be classed? Describe each chain. Point out these mountains on the map.
2. Describe the Smoky Mountains. The Blue Ridge. The Brushy. The Oconeechee.
3. Describe the river systems of the State. Give the dividing lines between the systems. Describe the flow of the rivers of Western North Carolina. Trace the courses of these rivers on the map. What is said of the mountain gaps?
4. Where are the Catawba and Yadkin Rivers? What portion of the State do they water? Point them out on the map.
5. Describe the rivers of the third system. Where do they empty?
6. What do our rivers afford? What is said of our water power?
7. What mention is made of the sounds? Describe the banks. Point out on the map the sounds and the banks.
8. With what do the sounds and rivers abound? What important branches of industry are mentioned?

CHAPTER III
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GEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS.
A knowledge of the geology of a State affords the key to its soils; since the soils are formed by the disintegration of the underlying rocks, more or less mixed with animal or vegetable matter. The peculiar geological structure of the State furnishes the material for every possible variety of soil. In fact, there is no description or combination unrepresented. There are, first, the black and deep peaty soils of Hyde county and the great swamp tracts along the eastern border of the Tidewater section; then come the alluvious marls and light sandy soils of the more elevated portions of the same section; then the clayey, sandy and gravelly soils of the Piedmont and Mountain section, the result of the decomposition of every variety of rock.
2. From its western boundary to the last falls of its rivers, the rocks generally belong to that formation known as "primitive". Primitive rocks are easily distinguished; they are crystalline in structure, and have no animal or vegetable remains (called fossils) imbedded or preserved in them. The soils of this formation are not very fertile, nor yet are they sterile; they are of medium quality, and susceptible, under skilful culture, of the highest improvement. The primitive rocks are chiefly represented by granite and gneiss.
3. The rocks of the secondary formation appear in certain counties of the Piedmont section, and here the coal-fields occur, embracing many hundred square miles. This formation consists of the primitive rocks, broken down by natural agents, and subsequently deposited in beds of a thickness from a few feet to many hundred, and abounds in organic remains. The soils of this formation vary more than the former, as the one or the other of the materials of which they are made up happens to predominate.
4. The eastern section belongs to that which is known as the "quaternary" formation. Here no rocks like those mentioned above are found; indeed, rocks, in the ordinary sense of that term, are unknown. This formation will be best understood by regarding it as an ocean bed laid bare by upheaval through some convulsion of nature, and thus made dry land. Sandy soils predominate somewhat in this section, though there are tracts in which clay is in great excess, and other tracts in which vegetable matter is in great excess. Between these extremes there exist, also, the usual mixtures in various proportions.
5. Geology also affords a key to the mineral resources of a State. Those of the Tidewater section are summed up in its marls. That whole section is underlaid with marl at a depth of a