34 GEOLOGICAL. 



Tlils. earth is undoubtedly a wreck of u ibtiijer 

 world ; a new combination of old materials. Fire 

 and water have been the principal agents in ac- 

 complishing this work 3 and changes are constant- 

 ly going on, sometimes with slow, at other times 

 with rapid, and rJways with unceasing steps. 



To adopt tiie language of Werner, this country 

 of the v/cst is entirely of secondary formation. — 

 Here are no primitive or transition recks, unless 

 a lew scattered ones, which have been either 

 brought from a distance by water, or ejected hy 

 volcanoes from the bowels of the earth — and 

 wlilch may therefore be considered as exotic sub- 

 stances. I have as3'etseenbut shlstic, calcareous, 

 and siliceous rocks, besides gypsum : with the 

 exception of a few of granite at Montezuma, one 

 of wliich is very large. The existence of these 

 primitive substances in this country', is a great 

 curiosity. These rocks may have been conveyed 

 here from the rocky mountains, from Labrador, 

 or the country north of Lake Superior. But T 

 have much to say on this subject, which I shall 

 reserve until I see more of this country. In Europe 

 all the three great formations run into each other, 

 or are in a state of close approximation. In this 

 region the secondary predominates over the whole 

 western country. This then is thehaUiat of coal ; 

 here it must be found of the best quality, and most 



