232 Geolosy, Mineralogy, Scenery, ¥e. 
branch of the great secondary trap formation which com- 
mences at that town ; but it will appear that it is not; on. 
the contrary, it is perfectly distinct—it is strictly a basin ; 
an island, (if I may say so,) of secondary trap, in the midst 
of an ocean of gneiss. 
We find accordingly, a total change in the minerals of 
the country. Very beautiful prehnite is found here abun- 
dantly, lying loose among the stones at the bottom of the 
precipices ; it isin mamillary and botryoidal masses, or in 
almost perfect spheres, and sometimes in veins, and the 
structure is in diverging fibres,—the colour a delicate green. 
I have seen it no where so fine or so abundant in this coun- 
try. Agates are also found here, and zeolites and some of 
them handsome. In other parts of the same tract, bitumin- 
ous stones are found. I havea piece of fibrous limestone, 
from this tract, which is so bituminous that it looks as if 
soaked in tar and will burn with flame. 
My time did not permit me to coast around this basin, 
and ascertain its extent and its relations with the precision 
which I could have wished. It evidently reached but a 
mile or two North of where I then was, and, returning to 
New-Haven, I rode through its length in that direction, and 
should place its entire length at seven or eight miles. Its 
breadth extended but a little way to the East of the North 
and south road which I was travelling, and judging from the 
contour of the hills to the West, I should imagine that 
it was succeeded by gneiss at the distance of two or three 
miles from the road. 
I know of nothing in this country similar to this basin, 
except the coal basin of Richmend, which, although small, 
is much larger than this. : | 
A friend,* to whom in a letter I described this basin, re- 
marks upon it :—‘'The county of Antrim, in the North of 
Ireland, presents numerous patches or districts of trap and 
basalt, in-such relative positions as to render it very evident 
that after a surface consisting partly of bare primitive, and 
partly of hard chalk with flmts had been formed, this was 
* The Rev. Henry Steinhauer, Principal of the Moravian Institution of 
Bethiem, Member of the Geological Society of London, and formerly a 
missionary among the Esquimaux of Lasrador. 
April 19, 1819.— Science, humanity,religion and friendship have now to'de 
plore the death of this excellent and able man, from whom, as Principal of 
the celebrated Moravian Seminary at Bethlem, inPean. and as an ardent 
cultivator of the natural science, this country had much to hope. uae 
