Jlf>. Barnes' Section of the Canaan Mountain, fyc. 9 



tide into tiie market; but it failed, and has been since aban- 

 doned. The opening for this purpose, was made by Jesse 

 Torrey, on the land of Andrew Hunter, in the township of 

 New-Lebanon, about half a mile north-west of the springs. 

 The peat of the upper part of the bed is coarse and light, 

 but at the depth of three feet its texture is fine and compact, 

 and its colour a deep chesnut brown. It burns with a clear 

 white flame, and in general resembles that described by th6 

 Rev F. C- SchaefFer, in the Am, Jour, of Science, Vol. I. 

 pp. 139 and 140. The peat of this region is supported by 

 a^we blue clay, remarkably viscid and tenacious, and free 

 from all other substances. It is used for setting vats and 

 cisterns, and is a good material for making brick. The soil 

 of the low grounds is well adapted to the growth of grass, 

 and where it can be sufficiently drained, to the growth of 

 grain also. The prairie is surrounded by an abundant 

 growth of swamp ash, Fraxinus Jvglandifolia ; elm, ulmus 

 Americana; soft maple, acer ruhrum; and alder, alnus ser- 

 rulata. The shrubs are chiefly berry-alder, Prinos verti- 

 cillatus; several species of willow, salix; and spice-bush, 

 JLaurus Benzoin, 



Ascending the first step* of our section, we find a sol- 

 id table land of a clayey loam. It is a good strong soil, but 

 tough, and of difficult cultivation. Wheat and rye sown on 

 it are frequently "winter-killed." The surface is overspread 

 with bowlders of gray-wack(b), and rohite quartz(c). The 

 gray-wack appears to be the ruins of an extensive stratum 

 not at present found in place, any where in this region, to 

 which my observations have extended. It is of the coarse 

 granular kind denominated rubblestone,f and appears to 

 have had its position immediately above the highest rock in 

 our section. It is sometimes of a porphyritic structure, [A) 

 as appears from the specimens before you. Wells sunk in 

 this table-land give us frequent opportunities of observing 

 the sub-soil, or what the farmers call the "■hard-pan.'''' It is 

 the blue clay of the peat bottoms with a large admixture of 

 gravel, so firmly cemented as to render it difficult to be brok- 

 en up with a pick-axe. Wells of the usual diameter, are 

 sunk to any required depth without the least danger of "cav- 



*See the plate. tEaton. 



Vol. v.— No. 1. 2 



