92 White Sandstone. — " Old Red Sandstone." 



the Alleghany range, a proof of their great altitude. They are 

 composed of different varieties of slate, slaty clay, and fine and 

 coarse grained sandstone rocks. On the top of this range, is found 

 a fine grained saccharine, white sandstone, in some parts of the bed 

 nearly crystalline. The general structure, color, and form of the 

 grain, are similar to that of the great white sandstone rock, under- 

 lying all the valley of the Ohio, varying in depth from four hundred 

 and fifty to nine hundred feet ; and in which the principal reservoirs 

 qf salt water are uniformly found. At Massillon, on the northern 

 verge of the valley, in Stark county, Ohio, in the table lands on 

 the head of the Muskingum, a similar rock comes to the surface. 

 It is very white, free from mica, and almost crystalline, similar to 

 this on the Sewell mountains, and there are strong reasons for con- 

 cluding it to be the northern termination of the white sandstone rock 

 deposit ; a few miles below Zanesville, the deep seated rock strata 

 rise rapidly to the surface, although not so abruptly as in the moun- 

 tain ranges. A few miles above Zanesville, the muriatiferous rocks 

 are reached at one hundred and fifty feet, and a white sandstone 

 rock comes to the surface similar in quality to the upper white sand- 

 stone rock, found in boring salt wells near McConnelsville, which 

 affords an additional fact in support of this opinion. This rock is 

 not found on the surface at any intermediate spot across the whole 

 width of the valley, but lies at a great depth beneath the superin- 

 cumbent strata, which occupy the space between these two points. 

 The white sandstone rock reposes upon a thick deposit of " red sand- 

 stone," and this is the only place west of the Alleghany range, where it 

 has made its appearance on the surface, at least, no similar fact has 

 come to my knowledge. It may be called a fine conglomerate, 

 made up of irregularly shaped grains, from the size of a mustard 

 seed to that of a pea, cemented by quartz ; color, dark brown or 

 chocolate, and is very similar to specimens in my collection from 

 the valley of the Connecticut.* In the salt wells on the Musk- 

 ingum, a rock of the same character is found at great depths, inter- 

 mixing with the white sandstone rock. Its geological position is far 

 below all our other surface rocks ; but here we find it on the top of 

 a mountain pushed up from beneath the superincumbent strata. 



* Most if not all the red sandstone in the valley of the Connecticut, is now 

 admitted to be the new and not the old, although it was at first supposed to be the 

 old.— -Ed. 



