160 Miscellaneous Facts and Observations. 



It cannot be doubted, that, at some future day, 

 immense stores of plaster will be discovered within 

 the limits of the United-States, especially, perhaps, 

 in those parts in which limestone, marble, and other 

 forms of calcareous earth, and pyrites abound. Such 

 are the counties of Lancaster, York, and Dauphine, 

 in Pennsylvania ; a considerable extent of country in 

 the state of New- York ; and the great valley of Berke- 

 ley, or Shenandoah, in Virginia. It is even certain, 

 that plaster was formerly found in some of these dis- 

 tricts, though the particular spots in which it existed, 

 are no longer known. The " transparent limestone," 

 a quarry of which (according to a MS. by the Edi- 

 tor's father) was found in Lancaster-county, at least 

 thirty years ago, is not now known. — Immense quan- 

 tities of plaster have, however, been found in the 

 state of New- York, particularly on the Nine-mile- 

 Creek, or outlet of the Owasko-lake, and at the Falls 

 of the Genessee (Jenisseia) River. At the Falls of 

 Niagara, on the Canada side, the Editor has seen 

 large masses of this substance, some of which is daily 

 forming by the union of the sulphuric acid (for there 

 are great stores of pyrites there) with the limestone. 



32. It is believed, that hitherto plaster has been 

 found in the greatest abundance, and indeed almost 

 only, in those districts of the Union, in which we dis- 

 cover the most decided vestiges of organic remains, 

 in the strata of limestone. This remark particularly 

 applies to the State of New- York, the adjacent cal- 



