9 J 



mountain, a part of the Massanutton, and it is not improbably the 

 fact. 



Should coal ever be discovered in this region, it will probably be 

 anthracite ; and certainly the character of the rocks of the Massanut- 

 ten, so far as they have yet been examined, is not adverse, if it be 

 not favourable, to the opinion that the search for this mineral might 

 be attended with success. 



In passing some distance south and west of Strasburg, the strata 

 resume their former eastern dip, having here apparently been too re- 

 mote from the mountain, to experience much violent dislocation or 

 change of direction when it arose. 



In the counties of Rockingham, Augusta and Rockbridge, lime- 

 stone and slates, alternate as before ; the former in some places 

 passing into veined varieties, and occasionally presenting bands and 

 beds of marble of a good quality. A roll in the strata, or some 

 change and irregularity in the dip, will usually be found to attend 

 the veined or marbled varieties of the limestone, and may be looked 

 upon as a useful guide in the search for quarries of the ornamen- 

 tal rock. A bed or beds of hydraulic limestone, runs along the valley 

 not far from its eastern side, to an extent not yet determined. In 

 the neighbourhood of Shepherdstown, this rock has been quarried, 

 and found highly valuable in the formation of water cement. A 

 similar limestone appears on the North river, about nine miles from 

 the Balcony falls, and at some intermediate points, but as yet no 

 analysis has been made of the rocks from these localities, and but 

 imperfect trials have been made of the lime obtained from them. It 

 would appear that a limestone of analogous character is found also 

 in Botetourt county, and even further south. 



An analysis of the hydraulic limestone from the neighbourhood of 

 Shepherdstown, shows it to contain nearly a third its weight of 

 alumina, while the common limestone of the vicinity, and indeed 

 of the Valley generally, contains but a small proportion of this 

 earth. A mere analysis, however, is not always sufficient to de- 

 termine the value of the material, for the purposes of a cement ; 

 and should, therefore, be accompanied with direct trials calculated to 

 test its qualities in this respect. Attention is only beginning to be 

 directed to this subject, which is one to which, from the character 

 of some of our great works of improvement, a minute geological 

 and chemical investigation might be very beneficially directed. 



