1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



559 



company me there, and he cheerfully assented. 

 Mounting his horse, and accompanied by mysell 

 on foot, we went about six miles in a north direc- 

 tion; but so many years had elapsed since he had 

 casually observed the place, and the deep dells 

 and hills, clothed with their everlasting woods, re- 

 sembled each other so much, that we passed an 

 entire morning wandering about, climbing one hill 

 and descending another, till I began to think he 

 had been mistaken, and told him so; but he pro- 

 posed trying another hill side, called Snake Run 

 Mountain, and there I followed him. Being in 

 advance of me, I heard him hallo, and immediate- 

 ly knew, from the cheerful sound of his voice, that 

 the game was found. lie approached me, hold- 

 ing in his hand a piece of very ancient travertin, 

 which I recognized at once; and leading me to 

 the brow of a hill, at least 350 feet above the level 

 of the Sweet Spring, I saw, to my great surprise, 

 a huge mural escarpment of travertin skirting the 

 brow of the hill, with the weather-worn remains 

 of old stalactites, whilst the body of the rock re- 

 sembled in every particular the recent one at the 

 cascade, abounding in large pipes of calcareous 

 matter, which had formerly enclosed logs and 

 branches of wood. The pendent stalactites con- 

 sisted of concentric circles, and there was the 

 complete evidence that a stream of mineral water 

 of great breadth, containing carbonate of lime, 

 had for a great length of time passed over this 

 brow and formed the rock. The surface of the 

 rock in many parts was interspersed with what 

 are vulgarly called pot-holes, being circular perfor- 

 ations made in rocks by pieces of rock and gravel, 

 kept whirling in them by streams of water, simi- 

 lar to those which I have seen at the summit of 

 the lofty hills of Lake George, in the state of New 

 York. This Snake. Run Mountain stood as 1 

 found by compass, N. N. E. by E. from the 

 Sweet Springs; and Peter's Mountain, of which 

 I could get a peep through the trees, bore east of 

 the place where 1 stood. 



Here was an extraordinary phenomenon! an 

 immense deposite of travertin lying 350 feet above 

 the level of the spring from which it probably was 

 derived. It seems to be susceptible of no other 

 explanation, than that the level of the valley was, 

 at some remote period, much higher than it is now, 

 and that the springs were at least at this level. 

 The Snake Run Mountain is a large limestone 

 outlier from Peter's Mountain, such as are con- 

 stantly found in the valleys. Before these were 

 scooped out by the retiring currents, it is probable 

 the whole surface of the now deeply sulcated re- 

 gion was continuous, and that the springs issued 

 from the bottom of the ocean. When the valleys 

 were swept out, these knobs, hills and spurs, be- 

 ing hard compact transition limestone, resisted, and 

 were left; whilst the conglomerates, shales and 

 sandstones, were carried away: since that period, 

 the softer parts of the formations occupying that 

 part of the valley where the springs now are, have 

 been gradually worn down, and a new direction 

 given to the stream, whilst the old travertin re- 

 mains a monument of the ancient level, and one 

 of the strong geological proofs of the process of 

 denudation. 



These mountainous countries have undergone 

 great changes. I frequently found fragments of 

 conglomerate sandstone (old red) abounding on 

 the slopes and in the valleys, together with slabs 



and pieces of encrinital limestone, which are not 

 to be found in situ, except this last, which I found 

 near the summit of White Rock Mountain, acon- 

 spicuous eminence, a few miles west by south 

 from the White Sulphur. The conglomerates 

 appear to have lain above the highest existing 

 summits, and to have been swept away. 



From British Has' amhy. 

 ON PUTRESCENT MANURES. 



Putrescent manures, as we have already seen, 

 consist of all animal and vegetable substances 

 which can be reduced through decomposition, fer- 

 mentation, and putrefaction, into such a state as will 

 render them fit to assist the melioration of the land, 

 and to forward the purposes of vegetation. When 

 combined, they form a saponaceous, solid mass of 

 great nutritive power, well known to farmers under 

 the common term of "muck;" which, although 

 seemingly an uncouth expression, conveys an idea 

 distinct from that which is meant by dung. Of 

 these, the most generally useful are composed of 

 the excrements of animals; for that which passes 

 through them is not composed alone of the residue 

 of their food, but also of certain secretions of other 

 matter in the intestinal canal, so that the dung, 

 even of those which are supported entirely on 

 vegetables, partakes more of an animal than of a 

 vegetable nature. The food on which they are 

 supported, and their state of flesh, also make an 

 essential difference in the quality of the manure, 

 If the stomach of an animal be filled with provi- 

 sion which contains but little nutriment, and which 

 is composed of fibrous matter which it is difficult 

 to decompose — for instance, straw alone, without 

 grain — this will pass through the intestines in al- 

 most the same state as it was eaten. The dung will 

 contain less of that secretion which belongs to ani- 

 mals whose flesh has not been deprived of its 

 nourishing juices; though even this small quanti- 

 ty serves to give the straw a stimulus to putrefac- 

 tion. But the excrement of animals which have 

 been supported upon nutritive food — as corn and 

 pulse, or the oleaginous seeds of rape and linseed, 

 though given in the shape of cake — and which 

 are thus maintained in high condition, imbibes 

 much of that property to whieh we have alluded, 

 which thereby yields a more fertilizing manure 

 than that furnished by lean stock. This, indeed, 

 is strikingly exemplified by the difference observa- 

 ble in that produced by stall-fed cattle, and those 

 kept in the straw-yard; and there can be no doubt 

 that the fatter the animal the richer will be its 

 dung.* 



It has been thought that the dung of ruminant 

 animals — oxen and sheep — when pastured, is pre- 

 ferable to that of horses, also kept at grass, which 

 is supposed to be owing to the greater quantity of 

 animal juices secreted with their lbod in the act of 

 chewing;t but the fact requires to be established 



*It is stated in the Norfolk Report, that 10 loads of 

 dung from cattle fed upon oil-cake, have been found to 

 answer as well as 16 from beasts fed upon turnips. — 

 p. 420. 



fOutlines of Agriculture, by A. Hunter, M. D., F. 

 R.S.,&c. p. 11. 



