These mountains attain an elevation of from 1,200 to 4,000 ft.-The coast of Georgia extends S. S. W. from Tybee sound to Cumberland sound, a distance of about 100 m., with a shore line estimated at 480 m. Though generally uniform as to course, it is very irregularly indented, and is skirted by numerous low islands which extend parallel to the shores. The principal of these from N. to S. are Cabbage, Ossabaw, St. Catharine's, Sa-pelo, St. Simon's, Jykill, and Cumberland. The inlets and sounds which divide the islands from one another and from the mainland are generally navigable, but too shoal to admit vessels of more than 100 tons. Vessels of larger dimensions can enter only four harbors: Savannah, Darien, Brunswick, and St. Mary's. The bar of the Tybee entrance of the Savannah has 19 ft. of water; that of the Sapelo entrance of the Altamaha, 14 ft.; that of St. Simon's sound (entrance of Brunswick harbor), 17 ft.; and that of St. Mary's river, 14 ft. These figures represent the least water in the channel ways at low water of mean tides; the mean rise of tides on this part of the coast varies from 7 ft. in the Savannah to 5.9 ft. in the St. Mary's.-The Savannah, the largest river of Georgia, and the boundary toward South Carolina, rises by two head streams, the Tuga-loo and Keowee, in the Appalachian chain, and near the sources of the Tennessee and Hiawassee on the one side and of the Chattahoochee on the other.

From the junction of these confluents (lat. 34° 28') the river has a S. S. E. course of 450 m. to the sea, which it meets near lat. 32° and Ion. 81°. It is navigable for large ships to Savannah, 18 m., and for steamboats of 150 tons to Augusta, 230 m. further; and by means of a canal round the falls navigation for small steamboats is prolonged for 150 m. above. The Chattahoochee rises near the W. constituent of the Savannah, pursues at first a S. W. course, but at West Point (lat. 32° 52') on the Alabama line turns S. and enters Florida (lat. 30° 41') under the name of the Appalachicola. Its whole length to the gulf is about 550 m., and steamboats ascend it 300 m. to the falls at Columbus. Flint river rises in the hilly country S. of the Chattahoochee, and joins that river in the S. W. corner of the state after a course of 300 m.; it is navigable for steamboats to Albany. The Och-lockonnee, Withlacoochee, and Allapaha drain the S. section of the state, and pass through Florida to the gulf of Mexico. The Withlacoo-chee and Allapaha by their junction in Florida form the Suwanee. Next to the Savannah, the Altamaha is the largest river falling into the Atlantic. It is formed by the junction of the Oconee and Ocmulgee, which rise in the hilly region S. of the Chattahoochee and flow for about 250 m. nearly parallel to each other, when the latter bends to the east and unites its waters with those of the former.

The main river is navigable for sea-going vessels to Da-rien, and steamboats ascend the Ocmulgee to Macon and the Oconee to Milledgeville. The Ogeechee drains the country between the Savannah and Altamaha, and has a S. E. course of 200 m., with 30 or 40 m. of sloop navigation; its southern branch, the Cannouchee, is navigable for 50 m. The Santilla and St. Mary's drain the S. E. section of the state; both are navigable for sloops about 40 m., and for boats much further; the St. Mary's forms the boundary toward Florida. The N. and N. W. sections of the state are drained by the Tacoah, the Notley, and other tributaries of the Hiawas-see; and by the Oostenaula and Etowah, which, uniting at Rome, form the Coosa, one of the tributaries of the Alabama. The Tallapoosa, also a tributary of the Alabama, has its sources in this state between the Coosa and Chattahoochee.-Georgia is naturally divided into two regions distinguished by their geological structure, as well as by their topography, climate, and vegetable productions. The line of the first falls which are met with in ascending the streams marks here, as well as further N., the ascent upon the platform of granitic and palaeozoic rocks, which stretches on to the Appalachian mountains.

This line crosses the central portion of the state from Augusta on the Savannah, by Macon on the Ocmulgee, to Columbus on the Chattahoochee. It is nearly parallel with the range of the Alleghanies, which crosses in a N. E. and S. W. direction the northern portion of the state; but it is so distant from these mountains that the intervening hilly region of the metamorphic and lower Silurian rocks is here much broader than elsewhere along the eastern slopes of the Alleghanies. The width of the belt is not far from 150 in. On the south it is succeeded immediately by the lowest tertiary, the eocene, whose sands, clays, and calcareous and sili-cious strata are seen reposing upon the ancient metamorphic slates and gneiss along the line of contact with these. The cretaceous formation only intervenes from a point almost in the centre of the state, near Macon, gradually widening in its outspread toward the west and pushing the outcrop of the overlying eocene further to the south. The cretaceous group is also seen at a few isolated points rising through the tertiary near the Ogeechee river.

S. of the line designated above, the whole country toward the gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean is occupied by the eocene and the modern tertiaries of the coast; a belt wider even than that of the ancient formations of the N. half of the state. In the alluvium, which attains an elevation of only a few feet above the water, skeletons of the mastodon, mylodon, megatherium, an extinct species of elephant, and of the ox, have been found; and beneath the muddy peaty soil in which they lie the sands and clays are of the post-tertiary formation, containing fossil shells, all of the same species that now live in the neighboring salt water. In Bartow co. the limestones of the lower Silurian are met with just N. of the Etowah river, and the formation extends toward Tennessee, till in the N. E. corner of the state it is overlaid by later members of the palaeozoic rocks, which finally are capped by the coal formation. Near the junction of the limestone with the metamorphic rocks immense deposits of iron ore are found, in the latter ranging N. E. from the S. E. corner of Bartow through Cherokee co. Gold was discovered in 1829 in Habersham co. It occurs in veins and alluvial deposits in almost every county X. of the central line of the state, the W. limit being the W. base of the mountains.