GEOLOGY. 23 



the hills the comiferous limestone is succeeded by sandstone 

 which continues to their summits. 



The dip of the rocks from the Alatoona mountain, which is 

 the western limit of the primary formation at that point, to the 

 base of the Lookout mountain, is either nearly vertical or south 

 of east. The strata of the Lookout mountain, on the contrary, 

 all dip to the west. This circumstance indicates here, as it 

 does father north in the same range of mountains, a violent 

 contortion and folding over of the strata, presenting the ap- 

 pearance of a succession of waves with their sloping sides to 

 the east, and their crests curling over to the w^est. If it be 

 imagined that the strata constituting the existing kinds of rocks 

 were originally deposited in a nearly horizontal position ; that 

 afterwards by the settling of the whole, from the contraction 

 of the superficial crust of the earth, they were thrown into 

 wave-like ridges, hanging over to the west; and that then, by 

 the denuding action of violent currents of water sweeping 

 down the narrow valleys, and acting with most force on their 

 eastern edges, the superior strata were removed to the present 

 depth, we shall have a correct idea of the character of the 

 palaeozoic formation of the State, and a satisfactory solution 

 of the uniform dip of the strata, either in an eastern or nearly 

 vertical direction, be obtained. The denudation has been 

 greatest in the Oostanaula valley, and less in the small valleys 

 between Chattoogatta, Taylor, Pigeon, Missionary and Look- 

 out mountains. The abundance of the remains of crinoidea, 

 cyathophylla, favosites and catinapora, proves the existence of 

 extensive coral reefs along the northwest portions of the State 

 at a period anterior to that of the Devonian and Carboniferous 

 formations. 



The Appalachian coal field merely touches the extreme 

 N. W. corner of the State ; and the only deposits of bituminous 

 coal hitherto found in Georgia are on the summit of Lookout 

 mountain, and in the Raccoon mountain, which lies imme- 

 diately to the west of it. Anthracite coal has not yet been 

 found, although the formations in which it exists occur. 



T\\Q primary rock formation, embracing the sedimentary 

 non-fossiliferous strata, is, in a geographical, agricultural, and 

 manufacturing point of view, by far the most important in the 



