No. 275.! 
235 
The geology of Warren county is quite simple. By far the largest 
portion is gneiss. A part of Queensbury is underlayed by the Trenton 
limestone. It is found, also, at Caldwell and Bolton, skirting for a 
few rods in width the border of Lake George. The character and va- 
lue of this rock has already been spoken of under the head of marble. 
Gneiss and hornblende are the predominant rocks; subordinate to 
them are beds and veins of serpentine, primitive limestone, and a mix- 
ture of the two constituting the peculiar marble which has already been 
noticed. The Kayaderosseras range is composed of gneiss very dis- 
tinctly characterized. Veins of coarse granite frequently traverse it, 
and which sometimes spread out into beds of irregular width. It never 
occurs in masses sufficiently heavy to impart a granitic character to any 
portion of the county. 
The soil of Warren county is sufficiently productive to answer all the 
ends of the husbandman. It is mostly diluvial, and is made of gravel 
and loam combined in such proportions as to form a strong soil well 
adapted to grass and English grain. 
The predominance of the diluvial beds gives an interesting character 
to the whole county. The extent and depth of those beds, together 
with their frequent occurrence in rounded and conical hills, or their ex- 
tension in prolonged narrow ridges for miles in extent, give evidence of 
former agencies which cannot be mistaken. I may here remark, that 
the lower valleys and those adjacent to the primary rocks, or lying be- 
tween the transition and primary, present those accumulations of gravel 
and boulders^ into conical hills and waving ridges, far more distinctly 
than any other sections of the country. In fact, though it would not 
be proper to say that the primary is bordered by diluvial hills, still this 
constant occurrence along certain lines, and those mostly which lie 
along the base of the primitive hills, will arrest the attention of the ob- 
server. The particular constituents of those gravel hills merit atten- 
tion. I found them composed generally of particles of the adjacent 
rocks. Thus, through the township of Lewis, in Essex county, those 
hills are made up mostly of particles of the hypersthene rocks, and at 
least two -thirds of all those accumulations of gravel in the whole north- 
ern section are composed of the same materials Hence they have not 
been brought from a distant region, but have been furnished in the im- 
* A remarkable boulder exists in Warrensburgh, near the bridge. It is about 30 feet in 
height and 80 feet in circumference. It is entirely above the ordinary diluvial of the country. 
It forms a very remarkable monument of the powerful agencies which were in operation in an- 
cient tim^s. 
