138 GEOLOGY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
ters of North Toe, and John's rivers, and some of the largest 
hranches of the Watauga. Linville mountain, the Grandfather, 
and several other high ridges and peaks in the neighborhood, be- 
long to the transition. This body of transition rocks was noticed 
by Maclure, but supposed by him to be an independent formation 
lying altogether on the eastern side of the mountains. "A simi- 
" lar formation about fifteen miles long, and two or three wide, 
" occurs on the North Fork of Catawba river, running along Lin- 
" vilie and John's mountain, near to the Blue Ridge." 
It is composed chiefly of sandstone, with some beds of argil- 
lite, and a few of limestone, in the North Cove. The soil pro- 
duced by its decomposition is poor, and the aspect of the country 
extremely wild and rugged. It is almost without inhabitants, 
and generally without roads, or improvements of any kind, all 
the travel between North Carolina and Tennessee, passing north 
of it through Ashe, or south of it through Rutherford and Bun- 
comb. The violence of the convulsions in which this remarka- 
ble feature in the geology of the state originated, is indicated by 
the whole structure and appearance of the region comprehended 
within, and lying around it. The highest point in North Amer- 
ica, east of the Rocky Mountains, is not more than fifteen miles 
distant, and instead of the long parallel ridges that compose the 
Alleghany range farther north, we have isolated masses, ridges 
directed towards every point of the compass, and the utmost con- 
fusion and disorder. Gold has been collected in considerable 
quantities from the streams of Cherokee county, which has also 
beds of iron and statuary marble. In the lower part of Buncomb 
are the Warm Springs, with a temperature of 104°. They rise on 
the bank, and in the bed, of the French Broad, give out con- 
siderable quantities of nitrogen, but contain very little mineral 
matter of any kind. 
65. Primitive formations of North Carolina. These of 
course comprehend all those parts of the state that have not been 
described as belonging to the more recent beds. They furnish 
examples of all the principal varieties of rock belonging to this 
class ; granite, gneiss, mica, chlorite, hornblende, and talcose 
slate, quartz rock, serpentine, limestone, etc., but are apparently 
not all of the same age. 
1. A vast body of granite rocks traverses the State in a north- 
easterly and south-westerly direction, including, if not the whole, 
the primitive part of the counties of Person, Caswell, (except the 
north-west corner,) Orange, Guilford, Randolph, Davidson, Row- 
an, Cabarrus, and Mecklenburg, also some of Lincoln, Iredell, 
Davie, Stokes and Rockingham. Within these limits there is no 
well defined gneiss, mica, or other primitive slate, serpentine, or 
limestone. Mica is rare, and in its stead there is chlorite or 
hornblende, but even these are not in general well characterized. 
There are very few imbedded crystals. The whole mass of rock, 
with a structure more or less of granitic, has an uncrystalline earthy 
