No.275.j 
231 
The general arrangement of the transition rock is as follows: — The 
sandstone, which is so perfectly exhibited in the great gorge at Keese- 
ville^ in it progress north, passes beneath the Trenton limestone, or as 
it has usually been denominated, the transition limestone. The latter 
rock from Port- Kent, as it continues north, skirts the lake the w^hole 
length of the county, and extends west five or six miles. The sandstone 
at this distance makes its appearance by emerging from beneath the 
limestone, and may be traced farther west for the distance of five miles. 
Beneath this are the primary rocks. We have then a broad belt of the 
old transition rocks extending north the whole length of the county, and 
west from Lake Champlain about ten miles. This general statement 
requires a single modihcation, viz: that the transition passes around the 
great primary chain of mountains at the north, and they therefore ex 
tend into Franklin county without any interruption; and we may 
pass into Franklin, or even St. Lawrence county, on the great transi- 
tion formation, without encountering the primary rocks. 
From this statement it will be perceived that the axis of the prima- 
ry mountains terminates south of the provincial Ime. The whole range 
slopes rather abruptly as it continues on the north side of the boundary, 
but soon disappears entirely, or is lost in the perfect levels of Low^er 
Canada. The termination of the northern highlands of New- York is 
Covey hill, over which there is a good road running nearly parallel with 
the provincial line and about two miles north of it. Having attained 
the summit of this ridge on the Canada side, the traveller may view the 
whole of that triangular portion of country lying between the St. Law- 
rence and the Sorel rivers; it is spread before him as on a map. The 
whole appears, with trifling exceptions, as a vast wooded plain, pre- 
senting to the eye an agreeable variegation of water, dark and light 
shades of forest trees, and skirtings of blue mountains in the distance, 
in sufficient profusion to produce as fine a landscape as the lover of na- 
ture can wish. 
The most remarkable phenomena of the transition rocks occur in con- 
nexion with the sandstone. They consist in fissures more or less deep, 
running through the rock in various directions. One of the most re- 
markable of them occurs at Covey hill, or as it is more usually called 
on the New-York side, at the Flat rock. This fissure, or gulph, is about 
half a mile in length and sixteen rods wide, and is bounded by perpen- 
dicular w^alls of sandstone. A small stream runs through it and forms 
in the gulph a small deep lake. The distance from the surface to the 
water, as measured by Dr. Churchill of Champlain, is 150 feet— -the 
depth of water 150 feet. The direction of fracture is north 70^ west. 
