105 



that witnessed in the argillaceous rock on the other side of the 

 mountain. 



The only organic remains hitherto met with in the belt of 

 red sandstone and shale which traverses New Jersey, are the 

 marine vegetable relics already spoken of; the species denomi- 

 nated fucoides Alleghaniensis being by far the most usually 

 found. 



ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. 



The argillaceous composition of this rock, and the extent to 

 which it is affected by cleavage joints, unfit it, to a great extent, 

 for usefulness as a building stone. In other parts of its wide 

 range, at a distance from the Kittatinny Mountain, the for- 

 mation includes a highly valuable seam or bed of fossiliferous 

 iron ore, which is becoming well known throughout the central 

 counties of Pennsylvania and Virginia ; but this valuable mineral 

 is wholly wanting where the rock rises to the surface to form 

 its most southeastern belt at the base of the Kittatinny, and this is 

 the portion of it which alone crosses the State of New Jersey. 



In that part of the formation which ranges between the Water 

 Gap and Wallpack Bend, two or three spots occur where copper 

 ore may be seen in small amount ; but all hope of discovering in 

 this region a valuable vein of this mineral, must prove, I conceive, 

 entirely illusory. At an early period in the settlement of the dis- 

 trict, two or three excavations were undertaken in search of the 

 ore, at the western base of the Blue Mountain, near Paha quarry, 

 but nothing was reached of sufficient value to reimburse the ad- 

 venturers. The mining holes are now obstructed by rubbish, but 

 the specimens of the ore indicate nothing to warrant a renewal 

 of the attempt. 



A few indications of copper ore, chiefly the green carbonate, 

 amounting in reality to little more than stains upon the rock, 

 occur in the gorge of the Water Gap, connected apparently 

 with the lower portions of Formation V. Nothing in the geology 

 of the Blue Mountain or its neighbouring rocks, so far as the 

 portion of it l\'ing within New Jersey has been investigated, sug- 

 gests the occurrence of metalliferous veins of any magnitude; in- 

 deed, the structure of the whole region is adverse to the supposi- 

 tion, though various legends of the ores of silver and lead having 



