Mineralogy of Orange County, N. ¥. 323 
tial requisite in subduing these lands to useful purposes; for limestone 
of the best quality is every where at hand in that vicinity, as wellvas 
wood and Peat for converting it into quick lime. 
The road by which I crossed the Drowned Lands lay across Big 
Island, from which it takes a southerly direction over a small stream, 
called Quaker Creek, and enters Edenville just at the northern 
base of Mount Eve, a fine elevation four hundred feet in height, 
of a conical form, and visible for ten or fifteen miles up and 
down the valley in which it is situated. Here the mineralogical dis- 
itict may be said to commence ; but before entering upon the enu- 
meration of localities, I shall allude for a moment to the geological 
features of the country. 
The general character of the country is primitive ; consisting of 
lengthened swells of high land with broad valleys, whose direction is 
from north-east to south-west. A correct idea of it may be obtained 
from a cross section, as delineated on the accompanying map of 
Messrs. Young & Heron. ‘The section coincides with the New York 
and New Jersey states’ line. The Argillite is far removed in its char- 
acter from Mica Slate, or even that of the glazed Roofing Slate, nor 
has it any intermixture of Anthracite, like the same rock in many pla- 
ces in New England ; but, itis every where dull, soft, and extremely 
liable to decomposition. The White Limestone is highly crystalline 
throughout, and although its association with the Blue Limestone, 
might tend to confound it with more recent rocks, yet its imbedded 
Minerals, hereafter to be mentioned, clearly demonstrate its primi- 
tive character. The Blue Limestone abounds with Hornstone, and 
in some places with distinet fossils. At one spot, No. 8 on the map, 
ithas exhibited the oolitic character which belongs to the same-for- 
mation in. the vicinity of Saratoga. The juncture of the White 
Limestone with the Argillite has no where been observed, as the Blue 
mestone, or soil every where intervenes between these two rocks at 
surface. ‘That it is a contemporaneous formation however, with 
the gneissoid Sienite and the Argillite, scarcely admits of any more 
doubt than that the Blue Limestone of Warwick belongs to the same 
Period with that in the corresponding valley of Edenville. The in- 
clination and direction of the strata of these different rocks, | have not 
been able to determine with that degree of precision I could wish. 
‘Ae general direction of the primitive strata is coincident with the 
Slongation of the chains of mountains, or swells, to which they severally 
