yS JOURNAL OF THE 



The Ce?itral Granite Belt. — This belt extends obliquely 

 across the State from near Roxboro, in Person county, to 

 the South Carolina line along the southern border of Meck- 

 lenburg. Its width varies from ten to thirty miles, and it 

 occupies a total area of about three thousand square miles 

 in the following counties: Western half of Person, including 

 the region about Roxboro; the south-eastern portion of 

 Caswell, the north-western half of Alamance, the larger 

 part of Guilford and Davidson, south-eastern portions of 

 Davie and Iredell, Lincoln and Gaston and the larger part 

 of Rowan, Cabarrus and Mecklenburg. In this belt 

 throughout its entire extent road material of most excellent 

 quality is abundant. The prevailing characteristic rocks 

 are syenite, dolerite (trap), greenstone, amphibolite, granite 

 and porphyry; and, as will be seen from this list, the tough 

 hornblende and augite rocks predominate. Dykes of trap 

 rock, some of them of considerable extent, are to be found 

 in almost every portion of the belt. So uniformly tough 

 and durable are these materials that one could hardly go 

 amiss in making selections for road construction. 



The Central Slate Belt. — This region lies just east of the 

 central granite belt, and extends obliquely across the State 

 from Virginia to South Carolina. Its eastern border lies 

 against the Deep River sandstone basin described above 

 (p. 23). It varies from twenty to forty miles in width and 

 includes all or portions of the following counties: The east- 

 ern half of Person, the north-western part of Durham, the 

 south-eastern part of Alamance, nearly all of Orange, 

 Chatham, Randolph, Montgomery, Stanly and Union; the 

 eastern part of Davidson and Rowan, and the north-western 

 part of Anson. A considerable portion of this area is rich 

 in other mineral products, but the entire belt, as compared 

 with the central granite belt, is poor in road materials. 

 The rocks are mostly siliceous and clay slates, with a 

 considerable admixture of chloritic and hydromicaceous 



