20 Jlir* Barnes^ Section of the Canaan Mountain^ ^c. 



If the earth on which we live is composed of " the frag- 

 mentsofan earlierworld,confusedlyhurled together;" andof 

 that, even without revelation, we have demonstrative proof 

 in every part; we need not wonder why New-England is 

 mostly primitive, and New- York mostly secondary. ^Vliy 

 the Catskills are gray-wack, and the Rocky mountains gran- 

 ite. Why the Ural mountains are quartz, and the summits 

 of the Andes clink-stone. 



When we contemplate the immense tracts of sand and al- 

 luvion, we cease to inquire what has become of the ruin rent 

 from the ragged mountains, or furrowed out from the deep 

 valleys. When we observe that the valley of the Nile is not 

 alone a w^atered garden — that the valley of the Mississippi 

 contains vastly greater tracts, scarcely yet emerged from 

 the flood — when we see that Atlas not alone looks down on 



an ocean of sand 



Za 



haraon the east, of seven hundred miles broad, and of length 

 unknown — when we survey the globe in its extent; and to 

 that the science of Geology has respect — we cease to in- 

 quire what has become of the ruin produced by the demo- 

 lition of mountains, and the destruction of continents. 



Iron Ore. 



The boundary between the primitive and the transition, 35 

 the depository of a very extensive tract of Iron Ore. The 

 ore-beds in Kent and Salisbury,(dd) the beds in Lee,(cc) 

 Richmond, Hancock, New-Lebanon, (ee) several in the 

 counties of Rensselaer and Washington; the great range of 

 iron ore in Vermont, and on Lake Champlain, exhibit evi- 

 dences of a continuity in this formation of iron, from near 

 the ocean to the St, Lawrence* This tract of iron ore range? 

 north and south, and, for aught at present known to the con- 

 ti'ary, mny extend to the pole, the central point o^ magnetic 

 attraction. Are there, in other places, any similar instances 

 oi bipolar direction, in the beds of iron ore?* 



Accompanying this range of iron ore is a range of white 

 ranular lime-stone, (y) from the ocean to Canada. This is 

 affirmed to Le the true metalliferous Iime-stone of authors. 



r 



*!mmeiise beds of magnetic iron ore extend, with little interruption, from 

 Canada to the neighbourhood of New- York,— 5n*cc'* A. M, Jr. p. 81. 



