No. 50.] 
467 
the Rock city. It is approached along a ridge extending from the base 
to the top of the hill, of gradual ascent, and terminating at an eleva* 
tion of not less than six hundred feet. Other hills, upon the oppo- 
site side of the valley, and of less altitude, were determined by Col» 
Hawley to be above six hundred feet in height. 
The suburbs of the city extend for a distance of fifty rods, at least, 
beyond the more densely congregated masses of rock. Passing through 
them, vv^e come among masses more and more nearly associated, until at 
length we reach the continuous ledge. In the midst of the huge blocks, 
one in particular, from its shelving over all around, has attracted atten* 
tion. Its base is narrow, and its height, upon the lower side, nearly 
twenty feet. From this, every where around, are blocks of the con- 
glomerate, varying from fifteen to thirty-five feet in height. Most of 
them are rectangular. Some have been so slightly separated as to 
leave a space between of but a few inches. Others have been thrown 
asunder several yards. The disintegration and removal of large mass- 
es in the midst of groups, have spread out fine court-yards. More 
than an hundred acres, it has been reported, are covered by these frag- 
ments, at this single locality. The plat occupied by the immediate 
breaking up of the strata, is much less, though an area sufiiciently 
large to embrace all the masses that have successively slipped down 
the declivities, may be even much larger. The whole scene of the 
outcrop is in the highest degree imposing, and impresses upon the 
beholder the conviction that the name has not been unfitly chosen. 
The principal features of interest, separate from the general forms 
and arrangement of the masses are the irregularity in stratification, the 
distribution of iron ore, and the component parts of the rock. 
Near the bottom of most of the masses, the stratification is regular ; 
but the upper portions are more generally irregular. Between the re- 
gular and irregular the line is very distinctly drawn, both above and be- 
low. The inclination of some of the irregular strata was more than 
thirty degi'ees. 
Iron seams, varying more than an inch in thickness, are to be seen in 
many of the blocks. They are of no constant direction. In some por- 
tions they are parallel to the plane of the horizontal strata, and in others 
inclined as many as fifteen degrees. Here curved sojas nearly to com- 
plete a cylinder, and there vertical. They are altogether distinct from 
