88 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



remain thrifty and fresh all Summer. Noxious insects are 

 absolutely' unknown, and the water is perfect. No region 

 can excel this in either wild or cultivated fruits. We are, 

 however, in the very heart of the Appalachians, twenty-five 

 miles from a town of any size, the same distance from any 

 good market, ten miles from one railroad and fifteen from 

 another. If here are rest and quiet personified, so here is 

 isolation enthroned. 



GEOLOGICAL FEATURKS. 



The geology of this region is not well understood. In 

 several reports, made hy the geologists of the State and by 

 the General Government, the formations have been lumped 

 together as Laurentian and Huronian, but no thoroughly 

 detailed studies have been made. The rocks are granites and 

 syenitic granites, gneisses and gneissoid schists, talcose and 

 chloritic schists, with many intersections by at least two series 

 of dikes, some of these of enormous extent. The granitic 

 and syenitic rocks often carry a predominance of quartz, and 

 form sharp ridges. The gneisses and schists generally weather 

 off into rounded summits, with more gentle and fertile slopes. 

 Passing across the countrj', from south-east to north-west, we 

 should have a cross section of the region showing its general 

 geological structure. The Roan is made up of rocks which 

 have been called Laurentian, and they are much disturbed 

 and intersected by dikes of greenstone. They dip to the 

 south-east at a high angle, and the whole mountain is mono- 

 clinal in structure. Passing on across the plateau above 

 described, until we reach the foot of the eastern slope of the 

 Unakas, we come to an aggregation of talcose and chloritic 

 schists, gnei.sses and strata and .seams of quartz, which 

 series has been referred to the Huronian. 



This group continues to occupy our section until we come 

 to the foot of Iron Mountain, on the north-west, where it 

 abuts, abruptly, and without any transition series, upon a 

 heavy bedded quartzyte, referred by the geologists who have 

 studied it, to the Potsdam. I intend in a future article to 

 furnish detailed sections, and to attempt to elucidate some 

 points in regard to the nomenclature of these rocks, which, I 



