SANDSTONES. 
131 
a mixture of clay and oxide of iron, and which produces hy its 
decomposition, a soil of very moderate fertility ; more favoura- 
ble to the growth of corn, and cotton, and especially of the sweet 
potatoe, than to that of wheat. In its native state, it is distin- 
guished from the country west of it, by a growth of short-leaved 
pine. The south-eastern part of Orange is known as the piney 
woods. In some places the relative quantity of the clay and iron 
is greatly increased, and their results are argillaceous sandstone, 
or slate clay, decomposing into a very dark, liver-coloured soil, 
which is also characteristic of this formation. Such lands are li- 
able to wash when brought undo- cultivation, and the roads 
through them are execrable in a wet season. These different 
sandstones, are interspersed, and traversed, by masses and dykes 
of trap, commonly called iron rocks, some of which are crystal- 
line in their structure, and others a fine homogeneous paste, ap- 
proaching nearly in its characters to basalt. 
The rivers that flow through this body of sandstone, have very 
little fall in this part of their course ; the low grounds as well 
upon them, as upon the smaller water-courses that, are altogether 
within the limits of this formation, are wide, but inclined to be 
cold and " crawfishy," and liable to overflow, where the streams 
break down from the formations next to be noticed into the sand- 
stone, producing a greater elevation of the ground, and a mixture 
of soils of different kinds, one, two, three, or more very good 
plantations are formed. The property of Messrs. Bennahan, and 
Cameron, on the waters of Neuse, of Mrs. Patterson, on New 
Hope, of Cheek, Barbee, and the Morgans, close by the Univer- 
sity, of the vicinity of Haywood, in the Cape Fear, and of the 
Dunas settlement on the Pedee, are examples. In the latter case, 
the river exhibits"^ perfection the disposition to wind which is 
also characteristic or such as flow through the state under consid- 
eration. It would seem that after passing through the sterile re- 
gion above, and being dashed upon the flinty slates and horn- 
stones of the Narrows, and Great Falls, it testified by long circum- 
volutions its delight at finding repose in the soft bosom of the 
sandstone, and amidst the fertile fields that border it on either 
hand. 
Small nodules of compact limestone, and masses of a loose 
texture, have been found in this formation, in the upper part of 
Wake, in Anson, and elsewhere, and it is to be hoped that bo- 
dies of such size, as to meet the demands of the farmer, for the 
purposes of agriculture, may hereafter be discovered. Pieces of 
silicified wood are of pretty common occurrence. We have spe- 
cimens from the eastern part of Orange, and from Richmond. 
But the most important of the substances that are found imbed- 
ded in the sandstone, is unquestionably, coal. 
A seam of bituminous coal has been known to exist at the 
Gulph, on the north side of Deep river in Chatham county, for 
upwards of sixty years, but after having been opened, and used, 
