D7\ Allen on West River Mountain. 73 



find, at from eighteen to twenty-four feet deep, logs of 

 wood and other vegetable substances, in a tolerable state of 

 preservation. At the lower end of this plain, and where 

 the river was probably once bounded, a quarry of siliceous 

 slate appears, which is worked for use in building, &.c. ; and all 

 interspersed through this, we find bituminous shale and blind 

 coal or anthracite, as you will observe by the specimens, with 

 frequent pieces of iron pyrites, lenticular spar, crystaHzed 

 quartz, &ic. in connexion. Over this, the alluvial deposits 

 appear, in regular order, consisting of gravel, sand, clay, 

 and loam. No rocks, except slate, are found in the neigh- 

 borhood for several miles around, although all the incrusta- 

 tions or natural cements, as in pudding stone, appear to be 

 carbonate of lime. The water is generally sweet and good. 



Should you wish any other information as respects locali- 

 ties in this neighbourhood, I will furnish them with pleas- 

 ure. 



Yours respectfully, 



MOSES HALE. 



Troy, October 6, 1818. 



Art. IX. — On the Question, whether there are any traces 

 of a Volcano in the West River Mountain — in a letter to 

 (the Editor from Dr. Jonathan A. Allen. 



Rrattlehorough, T^ermont, July 31, 1820. 



West-River Mountain having been announced, in the 

 annals of the American Academy, as volcanic, and in 

 Bruce's Mineralogical Journal, as " presenting no traces of 

 an eruption," I was induced to examine the evidence. 



I have not only several , times visited the mountain, but I 

 have availed myself of the accounts of those who resided 

 in this vicinity, at or near the time when the eruption 

 was said to have happened. There is now living in this 

 town, an old man of acknowledged veracity, who, at the 

 time of the reported explosion, resided at Fort Dummer, 

 about two miles distant from the spot. He F.avs, that he 



Vol. m No. 1. 10 



