220 
PRIMARY ROCKS. 
gneiss rock of Manhattan Island. These veins pen- 
etrate only the oldest rocks, the clay slate being 
the latest in which they are found. The intrusion 
of these veins seems to have produced very little 
disturbance in the rocks containing them. 
We meet with the primary rocks as far to the 
north on this continent as human discovery has 
yet extended. The Werner Mountains, on the coast 
of Greenland, which, according to Scoresby, rise tq 
an elevation of 6000 feet, are composed of primitive 
rock, granite, gneiss, mica slate, hornblende slate, 
&c. Primitive rocks also abound on the west coast 
of Greenland, in connexion, however, with second- 
ary, tertiary, and alluvial. On the west side of 
Baffin's Bay, as far as the seventy-fourth degree of 
north latitude, Captain Parry found the predomina- 
ting rock to be primitive, and of the same varieties 
as the preceding. As we come to the south we 
find the hills bordering on Hudson's Bay, which 
have an average elevation of about 800 feet, and the 
highest summits not exceeding 1500 feet, to con- 
sist chiefly of primitive rocks similar to those al- 
ready mentioned, and abounding in interesting min- 
erals, such as zircon^ beryl, garnet, actynolite, tremo^ 
lite, rock crystal, asbestos, rhomb spar, iron ore, cocco^ 
lite, graphite, &c. Tracing the country still farther 
south, along the coast of Labrador and Newfound- 
land, we still find the primary formations constitu- 
ting the mountain ranges of Canada, New-Bruns- 
wick, and Nova Scotia, and bounding the coast 
through the whole extent of New-England. Indeed, 
the primary formations occupy nearly the whole 
area of the New-England States. From their ex- 
treme eastern boundary they range westward, fol- 
lowing the St. Lawrence to the lower extremity of 
Lake Ontario. From that point or at the Thousand 
Isles, the edge of these formations may be traced in 
a southeast course to the southern point of Lake 
George. Farther south than this the western bounds 
