15 



the two margins of the extensive belt above traced, do not belong 

 to the primary class, but that most of the included valleys consist 

 of an ancient secondary limestone, while the Green Pond JMoun- 

 tain is composed, throughout its whole length, of yet more recent 

 formations of the middle secondary date. 



To convey a more accurate conception of the areas occupied 

 by the several parallel but somewhat detached belts of primary 

 strata, which together constitute this broad chain of Highlands, 

 we would call attention, in the tlrst place, to the manner in which 

 this whole range of hills is subdivided by several long, narrow 

 longitudinal valleys. 



It will be seen by inspecting the Geological Map, that these 

 divide the whole chain into two continuous parallel mountain 

 belts, traversiiig nearly the entire breadth of the State, and form 

 also several minor interrupted ridges, skirting the former on the 

 northwest and southeast. 



Delineating severally the limits of these primary ridges, we 

 begin on the southeast at Mine Mountain. This first tract of the 

 gneiss rocks includes the whole of the elevated ground which 

 commences at Morristown with the name of the Morris Moun- 

 tain, and terminates under the name of Mine Mountain, in 

 the fork of the north branch of Raritan river and Pepack 

 Brook. 



These primary strata, bounded on the northwest by the lime- 

 stone and other secondary rocks of Mendham Valley, have their 

 margin coincident very nearly w^ith the course of the turnpike 

 from Morristown to the village of Mendham. Thence they are 

 traceable to the south, following the course of the north branch 

 of the Raritan as far as its junction with Mine Brook: from this 

 point they range to the northeastward, parallel with Mine Brook 

 itself, as far as Vealtown, from which their margin is a somewhat 

 undulating line, by Mount Kemble back to Morristown. Except 

 where the short belt of limestone of the Mendham Valley comes 

 in contact with the gneiss, its border, as here traced, is every 

 where overlaid by the red shale and sandstone strata of the middle 

 secondary formation. The general structure of the ridge, as re- 

 spects the dip and direction of the strata, is such as strongly to 

 imply the presence of an anticlinal axis traversing it longitudinally 

 from northeast to southwest, to which, in all probability, its rocks 



