Mineralogy of Orange County, JV. Y. 323 



rial requisite in subduing these lands to useful purposes; for limestone 

 of the best quality is every wliere at hand in that vicinity, as well as 

 wood and Peat for converting it into quick lime. 



The road by which I crossed the Drowned Ijands 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 fouj- hundred feel in height, 

 of a conical form, and visible for ten or -fifteen miles up and 

 down the valley in v\^hich it is situated. Here the mineralogical dis- 

 trict 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 sectio)i 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, it is 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 distinct fossils. At one spot, No. 8 on the map, 

 it has 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 

 Limestone, or soil every where intervenes between these two rocks at 

 the 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, I have not 

 been able to determine with that degree of precision I could wish. 

 The general direction of the primitive strata is coincident with the 

 elongation of the chains of mountains, or swells, to which they severally 



