IGNEOUS ORIGIN OF LIMESTONE. 



45 



" modification of the rock has been effected, we discern a very distinct stratification, the 

 " beds dipping steeply towards the southeast." 



Besides the disci-epancy in the dip, and for which no cause lias licen assigned, I am at a 

 loss how to reconcile the prodigious extent of igneous action, and the total rnodification of 

 the rock with the very distinct stratijication ; for, it would seem, that when there had been a 

 prodigious extent of igneous action, and a total modification of the rock, the planes of strati- 

 fication would have disappeared. 



I am disposed, after reviewing all the facts which are contained in the above extracts, to 

 maintain that they do not go to support the metamorphic theory, and that it is more agreeable 

 to all the phenomena which have been observed, to place the primitive limestone of 8t. Law- 

 rence, Essex and Orange coimtics with the igneous rocks ; but, that I may ])lacc this view in 

 a light still more clear, I shall give the following additional facts and illustrations : 



& 



a. lamestone. 



b. Granite. 



The annexed diagram shows the position of a mass of coarse crystalline limestone, about one 

 and half miles southwest of Clintonville. It is charged, as usual, with brown tourmalin, im- 

 perfect crystals of scapolite, p3Toxene, mica, and a few other simple minerals usually included 

 in this rock.' It will be observed that it is beneath the gi-anitc, which is a mass fifty or sixty 

 feet thick. The limestone rises only about fifteen or twenty feet above the surface of the 

 ground, along which it extends sixty or seventy rods. It is a bold bluff of rock, the upper of 



which is granite, and the lower limestone. 



The diagram No. 6 is introduced for the 



purpose of illustrating relations of a character 

 similar to those in the preceding cut. The 

 limestone is composed of the coarse crystal- 

 line particles so common to this rock. The 

 rock which overlies it, is a sienitic gi-anite, 

 traversed by regular joints or divisional seams^ 

 which impart to it much the appearance of 

 stratification. This locality is in Fowler, St. 

 Lawrence county, near the village of Halesborough. The Oswegatchie at this place cuts 

 through it in many places, disclosing the relations of these two rocks. The best locality for 



■^^'T^,:^.. 



^iciuuc \,ii.inite. 



