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nishing a lime fully equal to that of the valley, and that the extent to 

 which it exists in the deep valleys of this region, renders it accessi- 

 ble for agricultural purposes on almost every farm. Many beauti- 

 ful and fertile spots possessing the advantages here stated, lie en- 

 closed among these mountains, which, with facilities of transporta- 

 tion, must, at some not distant day, be looked upon as choice places 

 of the state. 



Iron ores similar to those of the valley, abound on the flanks of 

 mountains where the limestone occurs, and many successful fur- 

 naces are supplied from this source. At Jordan's furnace, near the 

 Mill mountain, castings of a very superior quality are made from a 

 hematite procured in the neighbourhood of Brushy ridge ; and at 

 no great distance above, on the Jackson's river, the enormous 

 water power which is here given by the torrent as it makes its way 

 through the Rich Patch mountain, is in part applied to give action to 

 the machinery of a large and successful forge. Facts of this kind, 

 though new to very few, are calculated to fix our attention upon the 

 great resources in materials and motive power which these wild dis- 

 tricts of the mountains possess, and thence to illustrate the public 

 advantages which are at some future day to flow from the establish- 

 ment of proper facilities of communication with them, and the direc- 

 tion of wealth and enterprise to the practical developcment of the 

 riches which they contain. • 



Most of the rocks of this region, contain numerous fossil impres- 

 sions. The bare sandstones on the summit of the North mountain, 

 seen from the road in passing from Lexington to Covington, display 

 a great profusion of encrini and other zoophytes ; and the sand- 

 stones of the Mill mountain, Ritch Patch mountain, &e. present 

 similar vestiges of organic life, together with hollow casts and marks 

 of shells. In addition to such traces the surface of these rocks oc- 

 casionally exposes those waving ridges which are known to geo- 

 logists as ripple marks, and which are referred by them with almost 

 undoubted certainty to the same causes as arc found at the present, 

 day, producing precisely similar markings upon the sandy surface 

 of the ocean beach. Large exposures of the rocky surface, thus 

 beautifully rippled, may be seen in numerous parts of the North 

 mountain, and the other remoter ranges, and under the above view 

 of the origin of this curious feature of the rocks, are calculated in a 



