223 



various directions from the main axis of the ridge, or at the heads of 

 ravines. They may extend from the bottom of the hills to near their top, 

 or they may form a layer of only a few feet in thickness at the very top. 

 In every case the outcrops are found to be surmounted with a series of 

 very hard layers which are usually from one to three feet in thickness. In 

 several places they pass into the soft sands beneath and these in turn give 

 way to the ordinary tertiary clays still further down. In nearly every 

 case the rocks weather greenish and are irregularly stratified. In one lo- 

 cality, near Hardy's Mill, in Greene county, occurred numerous fossil 

 leaves among which there have been determined Magnolia and Kalmia 

 leaves ; the entire absence of beech, chestnut and hornbeam leaves among 

 those found indicate the base of the tertiary rather than any portion of 

 the tertiary above the eocene. This is the position in the geological 

 column assigned these forms by Professor L. W. Ward, who studied the 

 materials collected by the writer. 



The result of the studies made on these irregular deposits, occurring 

 with such extreme irregularity in the ridge and of such peculiar hard- 

 ness, stated in brief, was that they were metamorphosed sandstones. The 

 compact character of the quartzites, their glassy surface on fracture, which 

 is remarkably conchoidal, might lead one to imagine dynamical disturb- 

 ances of marked nature. But there are no attendant facts such as contin- 

 uity or great extent of surface. They are exhibited in localities some dis- 

 tance removed from each other and with no connecting deposits that show 

 any metamorphic characters. But that they have become indurated on 

 exposure, here and there, and constitute immense quartzite blocks, often 

 acres in extent, was evident. At a locality known as Lovelady's, on Beech 

 creek, in Greene county, there are several exposures that are quite hard 

 on the surface but are softer within, finally yielding to moderate pressure 

 to say nothing of blows. From this point to that of greatest induration is 

 but a few hundred yards ; it was hence concluded that the metamorphic 

 processes were still in vogue and these most certainly were not dynamical 

 in character. In Brazil, Dr. J. C. Branner has observed similar facts of 

 metamorphosis,* and these corroborate the view here suggested of meta- 

 morphism through weathering processes. "Where longer weathering has 

 obtained the masses are often rounded as if water worn, but in the great 

 number of exposures this feature is scarcely apparent. 



^'Transactions Am. Phil. Soc, 1889, XVI., pp. 419-420. 



