Gold Region of North Carolina. \ 5 



not lying upon the surface, but regular members of the series 

 of strata, and inclined at the same angle with the others. It 

 will generally be necessary that they should have been 

 weathered to make the pebbles of which they are constituted, 

 appear distinctly, but the same is true, not only of the transi- 

 tion, but often also of the secondary rocks.* When they lie in 

 the bed of a rapid stream, the softer cement is worn away by 

 the attrition of the sand, and the pebbles still adhering by one 

 side, give to the rock a wonderfully rugged and fantastic ap- 

 pearance. " See," said a planter who like myself had come 

 to the Beaver-dam mines to witness the operations that were 

 carrying on, but knew nothing of me or my business there, 

 " see," said he, laying his hand upon a large rock which the 

 workmen had just turned over in the bed of the stream, "this 

 is pretty near equal to the millstone grit of Moore." The 

 millstone grit of Moore belongs to the old red sandstone, and 

 is constituted of quartz pebbles, varying from the size of fil- 

 berts to that of hens' eggs. Geologists are sometimes blind- 

 ed by prejudice and preconceived opinion, but it will not be 

 doubted that the rock which drew this remark from a man 

 who knew nothing of the science, was truly a conglomerate. 

 It is a rock resembling most intimately that upon which he 

 laid his hand, that constitutes the sub-stratum at the Beaver- 

 dam, Parker's and Read's mines, extending at the former 

 some miles up the creek, but confined to narrower limits at 

 the other two. At Read's it appears to be covered by argil- 

 lite, but it alternates with argillite, hornstone, siliceous slate, 

 compact feldspar and other rocks at the narrows, and in oth- 

 er places. 



Some geologists have been in favor of discarding the tran- 

 sition class altogether, nor if it is to be retained, has the pru- 

 dence and safety of referring to it the strata under considera- 

 tion, been perfectly apparent. 



But the tendency of modern observations appears to be to 

 shew the propriety of retaining' the class, employing the 

 term as the name of an assemblage of rocks, not very well 

 defined perhaps, but of which we obtain a tolerably accurate 



* See Maclure's observations, page 18, and Buckland on the structure of the 

 Alps, in the Annals of Philosophy for June, 1821. Speaking of the oolitic or 

 Jura limestone, he says, " It is full of organic remains resembling those of the 

 English coral rag ; but from the compact nature of the matrix in which they 

 are imbedded, these are visible only on the surface of the weathered blocks." 



