20 Mi\ Barnes^ Section of the Canaan Mountain, fyc. 



If the earth on which we live is composed of " the frag- 

 ments of an earlier world, confusedly hurled together ;' ' and of 

 that, even without revelation, we have demonstrative proof 

 in every part ; we need not wonder why New-England is 

 mostly primitive, and New- York mostly secondary. Why 

 the Calskills are gray-vvack, and the Rocky mountains gran- 

 ite. Why the Ural mountains are quartz, and the summits 

 of the Andes clink-stone. 



When we contemplate the immense tracts of sand and al- 

 luvion, we cease to inquire what has become of the ruin rent 

 from the ragged mountains, or furrowed out from the deep 

 valleys. When we observe that the valley of the Nile is not 

 alone a watered garden — that the valley of the Mississippi 

 contains vastly greater tracts, scarcely yet emerged from 

 the flood — when we see that Atlas not alone looks down on 

 an ocean of sand — that the Rocky mountains have their Z^- 

 haraon the east, of seven hundred miles broad, and of length 

 unknown — when we survey the globe in its extent ; and to 

 that the science of Geology has respect — we cease to in- 

 quire what has become of the ruin produced by the demo- 

 lition of mountains, and the destruction of continents. 



Iron Ore. 



The boundary between the primitive and the transition, is 

 the depository of a very extensive tract of Iron Ore. The 

 ore-beds in Kent and Salisbury,(dd) the beds in Lee,(cc) 

 Richmond, Hancock, New-Lebanon, (ee) several in the 

 counties of Rensselaer and Washington ; the great range of 

 iron ore in Vermont, and on Lake Champlain, exhibit evi- 

 dences of a continuity in this formation of iron, from near 

 the ocean to the St. Lawrence. This tract of iron ore ranges 

 north and south, and, for aught at present known to the con- 

 trary, may extend to the pole, the central point of magnetic 

 attraction. Are there, in other places, any similar instances 

 of a. polar direction, in the beds of iron ore .''* 



Accompanying this range of iron ore is a range of white 

 granular lime-stone, (y) from the ocean to Canada. This is 

 affirmed to be the true metalliferous lime-stone of authors. 



*Immease beds of magnetic iron ore extend, with little interruption, from 

 Canada to the neighbourhood of New- York.— Bruce's A. M. Jr. p. 81. 



