17. TISCAUORA TOWNSHIP. F\ 365 



these is at Donnally's mill where a stream made up of the 

 waters from the upper part of Buckwheat valley passes 

 through the ridge to join Raccoon creek. The other is 

 about two miles farther west and close to the commence- 

 ment of the anticlinal mentioned above. The road through 

 this gap is long as it cuts obliquely through the ridge and 

 is a perfect wilderness of the great Laurel (Rhododendron) 

 which grows here in greater profusion than I have seen it 

 anywhere else in the county. Another road about half a 

 mile farther west passes through or rather over the Ham- 

 ilton sandstone where the point of the syncline is flattening 

 down. The sandstone runs out as it approaches the lime- 

 stone which appears below it. 



The Chemung group, {VIII.) 



Of all the soils in Perry county that on the Chemung 

 shale is among the poorest, and of all the Chemung dis- 

 tricts that on Hominy ridge is the most uninviting. High, 

 steep, and rough it presents little to attract the farmer, and 

 the wonder arises why so much of it is cleared. The streams 

 have cut deep cross-ravines as they usually do in these rocks, 

 and the roads winding or climbing straight up the hillsides 

 are in some places almost impassable. This wide stretch 

 of open or partly wooded shale land gives the geologist a 

 clear proof of the greater thickness of the Chemung group 

 here than at its southern outcrop at Rockville, where it 

 does not occupy more than a third of the space. 



The western part of the outcrop of the Chemung rocks 

 combined with that of the Hamilton, forms one of the 

 roughest parts of Perry county. Much of it has never been 

 cleared, and it would be well to allow many acres now 

 stripped of timber to revert to their forest condition. 



