10 



THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. 



no country is more favoured than our own, in the nature, abun- 

 dance, variety, and distribution, of the most important mineral 

 treasures. The limits of these preliminary remarks can only present 

 the most general summary of our geological formations, or at most, 

 admit of nothing more than a mere sketch ; but the materials for 

 information are already abundant, and are yearly increasing, as may 

 be seen in the various public reports, in the transactions of our 

 learned societies, and in our journals of science. 



Of the primary and transition rocks, to which we may add the 

 coal formation and the silurian, we have immense ranges, ex- 

 tending in a north-easterly and south-westerly direction through 

 the continent, and comprising most of the minerals, and many 

 of the fossils, that are found associated with such groups in the 

 old world. 



The Alleghanies, (including many mountains having local names,) 

 following the general bearing of N.E. and S.W., and ranging 

 between the Mississippi and the Atlantic, form, with their branches 

 and connected chains, the great rain-shed of the countries east and 

 west ; and rising to two, three, four, and five thousand feet and 

 more,* give direction to the streams and rivers, that flow either 

 into the Mississippi, the Atlantic, or the great lakes, and the St. 

 Lawrence. 



Rocky Mountains. — In like manner, the far more stupendous 

 chains of the Rocky Mountains, whose loftiest peaks are reported 

 to be between three and five miles high,f give a geological cha- 

 racter to the regions east and west, in which directions the waters 

 flow to the Mississippi and the Pacific, while other contributions 

 descend to the Gulf of Mexico, and to the Northern Ocean. It is 

 to be regretted, that in the United States proper, there are no 

 mountain ridges, or solitary peaks, that pierce the regions of per- 

 petual cold. 



Mount WasJdngton. — Mount Washington, of the White Mountain 

 group in New Hampshire, which approaches a mile and a quarter 

 in height, and being in 44° of north latitude, on a continent whose 

 average temperature is many degrees below that of Europe, throws 

 off its snowy mantle only for a short season, in July and August, 



* Professor Mitchell, University of Chapel Hill, states that the top of Black 

 Mountain, in North Carolina, Is 6476 feet above the level of the ocean. See Am. 

 Journal, vol. xxxv. No. 2. 



t See Professor Renwick's Outlines of Geology. 



