No. 275. 1 
139 
The general direction of the Highlands crossing this county, is nearly 
east and west, while the line of bearing of the individual ridges compo- 
sing them, is about southwest and northeast. Thus, a ridge forming 
about the middle of the range on the Rockland line, gradually ap- 
proaches the western margin of the mountains, until it emerges and 
forms a part of the northwestern margin of primitive country. Nume- 
rous ridges terminate thus in Warwick and Monroe, and do not re-ap- 
pear north of the great sweep of the Ramapo. 
A very striking feature in these Highland mountains, is the absence 
of long continuous ridges; of these, there are none. They are all bro- 
ken up into short abrupt hills, many of them 1,000 and 1,200 feet 
high. 
Another striking feature is, that the southern terminations of these 
ridges are very generally abrupt, many of them perpendicular naked 
cliffs, having the appearance of being broken off, while the northern 
terminations are gradual, and slope gently to the surface, and disappear. 
Butter hill and Woodcock mountains are exceptions to the above ap- 
pearances: but even Butter hill, steep as it is, has not the ragged bro- 
ken appearance which many southern terminations exhibit. 
WHITE LIMESTONE, PRIMITIVE OR GRANULAR LIME 
ROCK. 
This rock has a distribution of some extent in the county. Begin- 
ning on the Hudson river, it is first observed half a mile northwest of 
Fort Montgomery. It is here several rods in width, and can be traced 
two miles northeast from the line of Rockland county. It here lies 
confusedly, the stratification indistinct, rising into short and broken 
ledges; it is white, and every where full of plumbago, pyrites of iron^ 
boltonite and serpentine, so much so, that it can scarcely be recognized 
as a white stone. It is, wherever noticed in this vicinity, small, crys- 
talline, and very hard for this rock; this stratum or bed takes the direc- 
tion of the granitic rocks, in which it is embraced, the line of bearing 
being northwest and southeast nearly. 
Proceeding from this point, directly northwest, six or seven miles 
along the gorge through which Fort Montgomery creek reaches the Hud- 
son, we reach another bed of this rock. This point is a few rods north- 
west of the Forest of Dean mine. Here this rock, interstratified with 
the granitic and hornblende rocks, occupies a breadth of nearly or quite 
a mile, being wider than where seen at any other place. 
