Mineralogy of East Tennessee. 61 



champaign country at their mutual base. Through this whole 

 extent of country we rarely meet with any remarkable falls 

 of water ; the obvious reason of which is, that the rocks are 

 so soft that they are easily worn down to the4€vel pf the beds 

 of rivers. But shoals, or shallows, are frequent, and are 

 formed by beds of rounded sandstone, spread out into a broad 

 base, over which the water often rushes with no small violence 

 and noise. 



The mountains are generally, though not always, sterile, 

 and produce nothing but forest trees ; but the valleys are, 

 with hardly an exception, rich, and productive of every vari- 

 ety of " grass and herb yielding seed, and fruit-tree yielding 

 fruit." Nor are they less favoured in the mineral kingdom ; 

 possessing the greatest abundance of all the most useful and 

 necessary minerals, of which we shall now proceed to speak 

 in order. 



All the country included under the boundaries mentioned 

 above, with the exception of some primitive ranges of moun- 

 tains on the southeastern side, is apparently transition. This, 

 it will be seen by a reference to Mr, Maclure's excellent map, 

 will extend the boundary of his transition class considerably 

 farther northwest, and make it include Cumberland Mountain 

 and all East Tennessee. This would be evident from com- 

 paring the northwestern part of Virginia, which Mr. Maclure 

 has included in his transition tract with all East Tennessee. 

 Every mineralogist must observe the identity of the minerals 

 of the two countries as well as that of their stratification and 

 general formation. The limestone in the valleys, and the 

 sandstone on the mountains, lie in strata which make an angle 

 of from 25 to 45 degrees with the horizon. The limestone 

 bears the impressions of shells, but rarely, if ever, of vegeta- 

 bles, and contains beds of hornstone, but not of flint, or what 

 can properly be called flint. 



The rock which lies in the lowest valleys, and often rises 

 into pretty high hills, and is seen forming blufls on the banks 

 of the rivers, is limestone: it is of a dark blue, approaching to 

 a gray, as it is exposed to the air, and often appearing quite 

 white. Its fracture is compact in one direction ; in another it 



