TRANSITION R,OCKS. 



235 



the planes of this strata making any sensible angle 

 with the horizon," Slc. (Geol. Report, 1836.) This, 

 then, will be one very important distinction between 

 the transition and secondary rocks. We have al- 

 ready enumerated the rocks of which this formation 

 is composed, viz., slale, graijwacke and graywacke 

 slate, and limestone ; the latter we find of all colours, 

 from a white to a dark blue or black, often inter- 

 mixed with graywacke slate, and containing crystals 

 of calcareous spar and gypsum. M'Ciure describes 

 it as occurring in beds of from 50 to 5000 feet in 

 width, alternating with the rocks above mentionede 

 Near the borders of the primitive there occurs a 

 sortof silicious aggregate, having particles of a light 

 blue colour, from the size of a pin's head to an egg, 

 held together by a cement of slate or quartz. The 

 limestone, graywacke, and graywacke slate gener- 

 ally occupy the valleys, and this quartzy aggregate 

 the ridges. '* Among which," says M'Ciure, "is 

 what is called the country buhrstone or millstone 

 grit, which must not be confounded with another 

 rock likewise called millstone grit, which is a small- 

 grained granite, with much quartz, found in the prim- 

 itive formation." 



The old red sandstone, which we have placed as 

 the last and uppermost of the transition series, 

 covers a considerable extent of country in the Uni- 

 ted States, and is evidently of mechanical origin, 

 being composed chiefly of quartz mingled with mi- 

 ca and feldspar. Sometimes it is a conglomerate, 

 made up of fragments of the primitive and the other 

 transition rocks. It was probably tliis rock that 

 M*Clure called millstone grit. We have already 

 stated that it alternates with the transition lime- 

 stone, and that its layers are often divided by beds 

 of clay either soft or indurated. 



Prof. Renwick, speaking of the old red sand- 

 stone group, under which he includes graywacke, 

 remarks, that he " first observed it in the State of 



