126 Topography of the Guyandot and Sandy Rivers. 



clay and sometimes in limestone ; vast quantities of it are found, on 

 Papaw creek, a branch of Duck creek, in deposits of blue clay ; 

 shooting into the most perfect crystalline forms and possessing the 

 lustre of burnished gold. The brown sulphuret or magnetic py- 

 rites, is the most common in coal beds, and is used in the manufac- 

 ture of copper as at Wheeling and at other places. The materials 

 for the composition or formation of the pyrites, all exist in the veg- 

 etable matter forming the coal ; and the same heat which partially 

 fused the vegetable mass, would also set at liberty the principles ne- 

 cessary to the generation of the sulphurets. Argillaceous iron ores 

 are often found in the marly clay, or clay beds below the coal, but 

 never I believe in contact with the coal itself. In the N. E. part of 

 Ohio, the ores thus found are used, to a considerable extent, in the 

 manufacture of iron. 



Topography of the Guyandot and Sandy River Region. 



The space occupied by the tributary branches of these two streams, 

 covers an area of about one hundred and twenty miles of latitude, 

 and one hundred miles of longitude. Their headwaters rising a 

 little north of the thirty seventh degree, and interlocking with those 

 of the Clinch and Holstein rivers, and some of the western tributa- 

 ries of the New river or Kenawha. Their extreme branches de- 

 scend from the most elevated peaks of the Cumberland group of 

 mountains, and from the flat mountains or table lands, found be- 

 tween the heads of the Holstein and the Guyandot. In their de- 

 scent from this elevated region, they pass through some of the most 

 wild, broken, and picturesque country to be found in the west. 

 Immense deposits of sandstone rocks, piled up in enormous masses 

 to the height of fifteen hundred or two thousand feet, compose all the 

 centre part of this region. The streams are confined to narrow ra- 

 vines and valleys so deep as hardly to admit the rays of the sun at 

 noon day. Except near the borders of the larger streams, this 

 whole district is a perfect wilderness. The scanty population which 

 is widely scattered over its surface, obtain their support by hunting 

 and digging the roots of the Ginseng, an article as highly prized by 

 the Chinese, as their more delicate teas are by us. This beautiful 

 plant grows with great luxuriance, and in the most wonderful abun- 

 dance, along the rich virgin soil of the hill and mountain sides, com- 

 posed of the disintegrated sandstone, and the decayed- leaves of the 



