the same elevation, preserving a horizontal line, and 

 capping all the highest points of the ridge. The same 

 kind of sandstone, it is believed, occurs again at the 

 same elevation on the Laurel Hills: and it is more 

 than probable that the sandstone mentioned by Mr. 

 Cornelius,* as being found on the tops of the Cumber- 

 land, Lookout, and Rackoon mountains, (Tennessee,) 

 is of the same kind, and at a corresponding elevation. 

 Whether so or not, it is at least an interesting geolo- 

 gical fact, and worthy of attention. These rocks, 

 wherever they occur upon the South Mountain, do not 

 appear, at a distance, to possess any thing novel or 

 strikingly interesting ; but when approached, or viewed 

 from their base, they present an awful scene of confu- 

 sion, disorder, and ruins. The masses, which are of al- 

 most every dimension, from a cubic foot to that of some 

 hundred tons weight, lie piled upon each other to a 

 great height, and in every possible direction or posi- 

 tion that can add sublimity and horrour to the view. 

 Some of them are standing upright ; others of great 

 length are poised upon a single point of a rock, and 

 seem ready, by a small force, to be thrown down ; yet 

 the united efforts of many hands have not been able to 

 displace them. 



The circumstance which attaches to these rocks the 

 greatest degree of importance in the present case, is 

 that, notwithstanding they are of sandstone, exposed 

 to the bleak winds of the north, and the combined 



* American Journal of Science. 



