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ITS HISTORY, CONDITION,
AND RESOURCES
BY
SAMUEL A. DRAKE
WITH MAP
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS1879
Copyright, 1879, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
Trow’s
Printing and Bookbinding Company,
205-213 East Twelfth Street,
New York.
Georgia, one of the thirteen original Statesof the American Union, has Tennessee andNorth Carolina on the N., South Carolina andthe Atlantic Ocean on the E., Florida S., andAlabama W. The Savannah river separatesthe State on the E. from South Carolina; theSt. Mary’s, on the S., divides it in part fromFlorida; the Chattahoochee, on the W., flowsbetween Georgia and Alabama for nearly halfits course. Georgia lies between 30° 21′ 39″and 35° N. lat., and between 81° and 85° 53′38″ W. long. It is 320 miles long from N. toS., and 256 miles in its greatest breadth fromE. to W., with an area of 58,000 square miles.
Surface.—Georgia has three distinctly markedzones, varying in soil, climate, and productions.Her sea-coast is similar to that of the Carolinas,being skirted by fertile islands, separated from[Pg 4]the mainland by narrow lagoons or by sounds.This section is essentially tropical. Beginningat the sea-coast, a gradually ascending sandyplain extends northward and westward as faras the head of navigation on the Savannah,Ogeechee, Oconee, and Ocmulgee rivers, whereit meets a Primary formation. Augusta, Milledgeville,and Macon indicate the northernlimit of this tract. Here begins the hilly andfinally mountainous region, the most extensive,fertile, and salubrious of the State. A secondplateau, 60 or 70 miles broad, stretches abovethe falls of the rivers until it meets the southernmostranges of the great Appalachian chain ofmountains which traverses Virginia, NorthCarolina, and northern Georgia under the nameof the Blue Ridge, and is finally lost in Alabama.This picturesque district extends in Georgiafrom Rabun county in the north-east corner ofthe State to Dade in the extreme north-west,where the summit of Lookout Mountain dominatesthe valley of the Tennessee. Here arethe sources of the two principal rivers of theState; here is the gold-producing region; andhere is also the theatre of some of the most sanguinarybattles of the civil war. The elevations[Pg 5]of the Blue Ridge vary from 1,200 to 4,000feet. In the south-east of the State is the extensiveOkefinokee swamp, which has an estimatedcircumference of 180 miles, is filled withpools and islands, and is the congenial home ofalligators, lizards, and other reptiles.
Rivers and Harbors.—There are many finerivers in Georgia. A north and south line passingthrough Macon would nearly divide thestreams flowing into the Atlantic from thosedischarging into the Gulf of Mex