C'ALCAPvEOUS REGION. 



47 



Barton too informs ns, that the aboriginals of the 

 west have no words in their languages to express 

 earthquakes and volcanoes, while equivalent terms 

 are common and familiar in the dialects of the east.* 

 With earthquakes volcanoes are commonly connect- 

 ed, and in fact, abundance of basaltes is found in the 

 Alleghany mountains and their valleys. 



Fossil shells too, have been observed in the primi- 

 tive limestone in the environs of lake Ontario and 

 Niagara.! 



Veins and ramifications of limestone might be 

 mentioned also out of these principal regions. There 

 are some in the district of Maine, which supply 

 Boston with lime. Rocky Point, in lake Champlain, 

 is of limestone, as are no doubt other parts in that 

 lake : so are several districts in the neighbourhood 

 of New York : but the most singular instance I am 

 acquainted with in the southern states is that of a > 

 ridge, the breadth of which is not above fifteen yai dii 

 at a medium, and sometimes does not exceed three, 

 though it extends above two hundred miles, from the 

 P'otowmack to the Roanoke. As this vein is com- 

 monly on the surface, it may be traced with the 

 more certainty, because it is the only one that sup- 

 plies all the flat country with lime. Its distance from 

 Red Ridge or South -west Mountain, to which it runs 

 parallel, does not exceed from three to five miles. 



It is well known that an earthquake happened in the Kaskaskias 

 in 1795, the year Mr. Volney arrived in the United States. Pumice 

 stone too, which is undoubtedly a volcanic production, (see 2d vol, 

 of this work, p. 4&,) has been found floating down^the Missouri, and 

 travellers assure us, that a volcano actually exists up that river. On the 

 Ouachita volcanic productions are very common. 



t Liancoui-t's Tifavels.vol. ii,' 



