234 Geological and Miner alogkal Notices. 



such decisive evidences in the boulders of New England and the wes- 

 tern states. In Brown's tract, (a wilderness region lying norlheasty 

 richly stocked with game and filled with delightful lakes,) I am inform- 

 ed by those who frequent it for hunting, that the eminences are com- 

 posed of rugged, primitive rocks covered with a hardy growth of ever- 

 greens. It is probable, from the investigations on the northwest and 

 east near Lake Champlain, where the primitive rocks are found, that 

 it is but a short distance from BoonviJle to the junction of the trans- 

 ition limestone with the earlier formations. In fact, all that part of 

 the state north of the Mohawk and Black rivers is described in Ma- 

 clure's sketch and map as primitive, although further examinations 

 may modify this view; and if I mistake not, the bed of the Black river 

 near Boonville is partly in granite, and the High falls are made by a 

 granite ledge, or dyke — although as my recollection of these observa- 

 tions is indistinct, I would not assert them with entire confidence. 



New Locality of Calc Spar. — Information from a young farmer 

 that "they found diamonds in his neighborhood," induced me to visit 

 the spot he pointed out, expecting as usual to find fine crystals of 

 quartz. It was on the western bank of the Dry Sugar river, and on 

 clearing away a large quantity of earth and stones, several tortuous 

 vertical cracks were discovered, six or eight feet long, in some parts 

 of sufficient width to insert the hand, and filled with wet argillaceous 

 earth, containing great numbers of loose imperfect crystals of calc 

 spar. The face of the rock on each side of the vein was entirely 

 covered with an incrustation of beautiful crystals. Their form is 

 represented by figures 96 and 97, of Shepard's Mineralogy — the 

 equiaxe of Haiiy, with the lateral angles replaced by tangent planes 

 variously produced — also figure 19, PI. 3, in Cleaveland's Mineral- 

 , ogy. Some of the crystals are an inch in length — " six sided prisms 

 with pentagonal sides, terminated at each extremity by three penta- 

 gonal faces, which stand on alternate lateral planes, and form with 

 them an angle of 116° 34'." The rock is very hard and divided 

 into layers of from two to twelve inches, and it requires much labor 

 and care to extract the specimens without injury. 



Green Coccolite. — Large boulders of green coccolite and glassy 

 quartz, in about equal proportions, are found interspersed with those 

 of granite in Boonville and Leyden, and when laid up in the farm 

 walls, with the fresh fracture exposed to view, the pieces have a most 

 beautiful appearance. I have found pebbles of this kind in the Mo- 

 hawk at Rome, and at the foot of High falls on Black river — thirty 

 five miles apart. 



