FARMERS' REGISTER— GEOLOGY OF VIRGINIA. 



505 



ceous (granite ! I have often m ondered why this ano- 

 maly did not strike the capacious and hi^ldy trill- 

 ed mind of JefTerson ; and why he, or some other 

 of the many reflecting; men of Virginia was not 

 led by it to inquire, what else there mif^ht be in 

 store for the jjood j)eople of that state? By ne- 

 glectinfj to seek for tlicm, we unf^ratcfully reject 

 the proffered kindness of our Creator; the laws 

 of inanimate matter are, in this respect, in unison 

 with those that tjovcrn animated nature: v,c are 

 furnished with the material and means, but in or- 

 der to stimulate us to useful and healthful industry, 

 we must labor in their appropriation. God f^ives 

 us the earth and the seed, but we must ploup:h and 

 sow, or we can never reap; so he has bountifully 

 placed within our reach innumerable valuable rocks, 

 mmerals and combustibles ; but to enjoy them, we 

 must delve into the bowels of the earth — and hav- 

 in<^ found them, we must bj- various laborious 

 processes render them fit for our use. To those 

 who are accustomed to rojjard these thinfjs, it is 

 ditTicult lo determine which causes the most pain- 

 ful sensations, to oliserve how fcv/ coal mines, in 

 comparison to what mi<iht be, are opened in the 

 nei<ihborhood of Richmond; or tiie want of skill 

 exhibited in the selection and workinp: of those re- 

 cently oj)ened. Nor is the deposite of the bitumi- 

 nous coal upon the granite, the only geological 

 anomaly of this quarter. Proceeding from Char- 

 lottesville towards Richmond, almost immediately 

 after you leave the Talcose formation of the Blue 

 Ridge, you are astonished at the fertility of tlie 

 soil. You can scarcely j)ersuade yourself that you 

 are travelling over a country of primitive rocks. 

 Soon however you discover that the fertility is not 

 universal, but confined to })atches of a ])rick-red 

 covering that overlay the disintegrated materials of 

 the primordial formations ; and upon seeking fur- 

 ther into this curious matter, your surprise is not a 

 little increased upon discovering that this brick- 

 red covering owes its existence to the disintegra- 

 tion of a rock which, in most other places, i.<; ex- 

 ceedingly slow to decompose — and which, when de- 

 composed, forms a cold and inlK)spital)le soil. It is 

 the hornblende sienite. Here it is surcharged with 

 iron, which oxidating by exposure to the atmos- 

 phere and moisture, the rock freely disintegrates, 

 and the oxide of iron being set at lilierty, imparts its 

 coloring to the ground, and fertilizes the soil in an 

 extraordinary degree. 



Professor Hitchcock, in his report of a geologi- 

 cal survey of Massachusetts, makes the following 

 remarks in relation to the efTect of iron upon a 

 soil : 



" No ore except iron occurs in sufTicient quanti- 

 ty in the state to deserve notice in an agricultural 

 point of view. In the west part of Worcester 

 county, the soil for a width of several miles across 

 the whole state, is so highly impregnated with the 

 oxide of iron, as to receive from it a very deep 

 tinge of what is called iron rust. This is particu- 

 larly the case in the lowgrounds, where are fre- 

 quently found beds of bog ore. I do not know very 

 definitely the effect of this iron upon vegetation, 

 but judging from the general excellence of the 

 farms in the Brookfields, Sturbridge, Hardwicke, 

 New-Braintree, Barae, Hubbardston, &c. I should 

 presume it to be good. Certainly it cannot be in- 

 jurious ; for no part of the county exceeds the 

 towns just named in the appearance of its farm- 

 ing interest — and nearly all the county, as maybe 



Vol. [.—64 



seen by the map, is of one formation. It would be 

 an interesting ])roblem, which in that county can 

 be solved, to determine the precise influence of a 

 soil highly fcirruginous upon vegetation." 



Next in geological and statistical importance, I 

 v/ould place the mineral springs of Virginia; and 

 these would (brm a legitimate subject of investiga- 

 tion to those who should be appointed to conduct a 

 geological survey. 



I am not aware of any portion of country of the 

 same extent jjossessing an equal immbcr and varie- 

 ty of mineral springs as the counties of Bath, 

 Greenbrier and Monroe. This is a sul)ject ujwn 

 Avhich one might easily compose a book; but I 

 must confine myself to a few lines. The waters 

 are thermal and cold : the former of ^ arious de- 

 grees of intensity. I'hey hold in solution a variety 

 of niefals, earths, acids, and alkalies, combined in 

 various proportions, and suited to relieve the sufTer- 

 ini:s of invalids from a number of diseases. Mi- 

 neral springs of less interest than these have ex- 

 cited the attention of the learned in almost every 

 age and country ; and Virginia owes it to her high 

 mental standing, independently of every other 

 consideration, to assist the cause of science by in- 

 vestigating the causes of the high temperature, and 

 making accurate analysis of tliese valuable waters. 

 It is the duty of states, as it is of individuals, to fur- 

 nish their quota to the general stock of informa- 

 tion ; and tiiis is peculiarly the duty of a republi- 

 can state, whose happiness, nay, whose very poli- 

 tical existence depends upon an improved slate of 

 the minds of its citizens. Mr. John Mason Good, 

 in his " Book of Nature," after describing the 

 liarren state of society in the middle ages, says : 

 " We have thus rapidly travelled over a wide and 

 dreary desert, tliat like the sandy wastes of Afri- 

 ca, has seldom been found refreshed by spots of 

 verdure; and what is the moral.' That ignorance 

 is ever associated with v/retchedness and vice, and 

 knowledge with happiness and virtue. Their con- 

 nections are indissoiul)le ; they are woven in the 

 very texture of things, and constitute the only 

 substantial difference between man and man," and 

 I would add befv.cen slate and state. 



Has the heat of these waters any connection 

 with volcanic phenoujcna.' or is the temperature 

 entirely chemical, originating in the decomposi- 

 tion of sulphuret of iron, as I suggested some 

 years ago in a pa])er |)ublished upon the suliject.' 

 At the Hot Springs, tiie hot sulphur water and the 

 cold pure water issue out of the calcareous rock at 

 tiie base of the Vv'arm Spring mountain, within a 

 ihw feet of each other. One of these Virginia 

 Springs makes a copious deposite of calcareous 

 lufa ; and at anolher, you perceive newly formed 

 chrystals of sulphate of iron. The White Sul- 

 I)hur Spring takes its name from a rich while de- 

 posite, and the Red Sulphur from one of that co- 

 lor. If this is not an uncommon and a highly inte- 

 resting section of country, calling aloud lor inves- 

 tigation, and meriting legislative interference, then 

 have I taken an entirely erroneous view of the 

 subject. 



The Warm Spring mountain is while sandstone. 

 The rocks of the Valley of the Hot Springs are 

 calcareous, argillaceous and siliceous. They are 

 all nearly vertical. At first the two former, and 

 afterwards the two latter alternate. They have 

 all lieen deposited in a horizontal posi'ion, and be- 

 tween their narrow strata arc thin layers of clav 



