104 THE MOUNTAIN. 



deposits of plains and valleys, the growth of the plant marks 

 the advancement of an eternal and divine progress. 



The soil of the Alleghany Mountain and its parallel 

 ridges exhibits the characters, mineralogical and chemical, 

 of the rock masses composing them. This may be asserted 

 of almost every country, to a certain extent, but it is espe- 

 cially true of mountain regions where there are no alluvial 

 or diluvial deposits. The material which forms the inor- 

 ganic mineral part of soils, comes, of necessity, originally 

 from the disintegration or wearing away of rocks which 

 have been previously fractured and crushed. 



The soil of valleys, of drift formations, alluvial deposits, 

 and diluvial flats, show a more heterogeneous composition 

 from the diversity of the materials composing them, as they 

 exhibit the lithological characters of the regions through 

 which the waters depositing them flow, or have flowed, and 

 from which they have been derived. 



The superficial deposit of crushed rocks, of gravel and 

 earth, supply these washings. They extend, with different 

 depths, from a few inches to several hundred feet over the 

 fractured surfaces of the rock-formations. From any given 

 portion of country were this deposit removed, there would 

 be presented the naked edges, jagged angles, and severed 

 faces of the different varieties of stratified or amorphous rocks, 

 from which the mass of superficial disintegration was origi- 

 nally derived. 



Of course, the prevailing mineral and geological elements 

 will give prevailing characters to this mass. If silicious 

 rocks predominate, the soil will be silicious ; if argillaceous 

 or calcareous rocks are in excess, the superficial deposits of 

 soil and fragments will show the predominance, with all the 

 characteristics, of these elements. The Alleghany and its 

 associated ridges have, as their geology reveals, the sand or 

 silicious element the great prevailing item ; the largest and 

 most ponderous masses of the geological formations of these 

 chains being silicious rock. This is especially true of the 

 Alleghany Mountain itself, which has been formed, as has 



