Steamboat Line to Fayetteville, N. C., (130 miles, fare $5.00); to Smithville, at the mouth of Cape Fear, (30 miles, fare $1.50.)
Wilmington (16,000 inhabitants) is on Cape Fear river, 25 miles from the sea. It is well built. The staples are turpentine and resinous products. The vicinity is flat and sandy. At this point the railroad changes from the New York guage, 5 feet, to the Charleston guage, 4 feet 8 inches.
The journey from Richmond to Charleston can also be made by way of Greensboro, Charlotte and Columbia. This route leads through the interior of the country, and, though longer, offers a more diversified scene to the eye.
To Greensboro, on the Richmond & Danville and Piedmont Railways, is 189 miles; thence on the North Carolina Railway to Charlotte, 93 miles; then on the Charlotte & S. Carolina railway to Columbia, S. C., 107 miles (Nickerson’s hotel, $3.00 per day, newly fitted up); thence by the Columbia Branch of the South Carolina Railway to Charleston, 130 miles.
Salisbury, N. C., 150 miles south of Greensboro, is the most convenient point to enter the celebrated mountain regions of North Carolina. A railway runs thence to Morgantown, in the midst of the sublime scenery of the Black mountains, and in close proximity to the beautiful falls of the Catawba. Charlotte (hotel, the Mansion House), is in the center of the gold region of North Carolina, and the site of a United States Branch Mint. It is also the scene of the battle of Guilford Court House, during the revolutionary war.
The capitol, in Columbia, is considered a very handsome building.
Charleston.
Hotels.—*Charleston Hotel, Mills House (newly furnished), both on Meeting Street. Charges, $4.00 per day. *Pavilion Hotel. Mr. Butterfield, proprietor, $3.00 per day, also on Meeting Street. Planter’s Hotel, Church Street, Victoria House, King Street, both $2.50 per day.
Telegraph Office, on Broad near Church Street; branch office in Charleston Hotel.
Post Office, on Hazel Street, near Meeting.