OF NORTH AMERICA, 
105 
Limestone spar runs in veins and detached masses, through the whole of this formation, both it, 
and the grey wacke-slate contain quantities of cubic pyrites ; galena has likewise been found near Lancaster, 
and many veins of the sulphate of barytes traverse this formation, W'hich runs about 25 to 30 miles south 
east , and nearly parallel to the great transition formation. A similar formation , about fifteen miles long, 
and tw’o to three miles wide, occurs on the north fork of the Catabaw river, running along Linville and 
John’s mountains, near to the Blue ridge; a bed of transition rock, commencing on Green pond moun- 
tain, Jersey, runs through Suckasunny plains, increasing in width as the primitive range decreases, until 
it joins the great transition formation between Easton and Reading. — On the west side of this partial 
transition formation, from the Potomac to the Cataba, between it and the great western transition range, 
a series of primitive rocks intervenes, something different from the common primitive, having the struc- 
ture of gneiss; with little mica, the scales of which are detached and not contiguous ; much felspar, rather 
granular than crystallized; mica-slate, with small quantities of scaly mica; clay-slate, rather soft and 
without lustre, the whole having a dull earthy fracture, and gritty texture, partaking of transition and 
primitive, but not properly belonging to either; this rock is always found on the edge of the primitive, 
before you come upon the transition , but no where in such quantities as in this range ; there are many 
varieties of it, so that it imitates almost every species of the common primitive rocks, but differing from 
them, by having a dull earthy fracture, gritty texture, and little or no crystallization. 
About ten or twelve miles west of Richmond, in Virginia, there is an independent coal formation, 
twenty to twenty five miles long, and about ten miles wide, it appears to bo not far distant from the 
range of the red sandstone formation, it is situated in an oblong bason accompanied by whitish free- 
stone, slaty clay, etc. with vegetable impressions , as well as most of the other attendants of that formation ; 
this bason lays upon, and is surrounded by primitive rocks. It is more than probable that within the 
limits of so largo a mass of primitive, more partial formations of secondary rocks may be found. 
A great variety of mineral substances is found in this primitive formation , such as garnets in the 
jrantVe , from the size of a pin head to the head of a child ; staurotide; andalusite; epidole in great abundance ; 
trenolite; all the varieties of magnesian rocks; emerald, touching graphic granite and disseminated in the 
granite of a largo extent of country; adularia; tourmaline; hornblende; sulphate of barytes; arragonite etc. 
From the number already found, in proportion to the little research that has as yet been employed, 
there is every reason to suppose, that in so great an extent of crystalline formation, almost every mi- 
neral which has been discovered in similar situations on the ancient continents , will bo found on this. 
The metallic substances which arc found in this primitive, are generally extensive like the forma- 
tion. Iron pyrites run through vast fields, principally of gneiss, and mica-slate; magnetic iron ore forms 
vast beds, from ten to twelve feet thick, generally in a hornblende rock, occupying the higher eleva- 
tions, as at Franconia, high lands of New-York; the Jerseys; Yellow and Iron mountain, in the west of 
North Carolina, etc. etc. Black, brown, and red hematitic iron ores are found in Connecticut and New- 
York , etc. Crystals of octahedral iron ore arc disseminated in granite (some of which have polarity, as at 
Brunswick) and in many varieties of the magnesian genus; black lead exists in beds from six to twelve 
feet wide, traversing the States of New-York, Jersey, Virginia, Carolina, etc. IS'ative and grey copper ore 
occur near Stanardsville and Nicholson’s Gap, disseminated in a hornblende and epidote rock, bordering 
on the transition; molybdena is found at Brunswick, Maine; Chester, Pennsylvania; Virginia; North Ca- 
rolina , etc. Arsenical pyrites have been discovered in largo quantities in the district of Maine ; rutile, 
and menachanite exist in a large bed, on the edge of the primitive near Sparta, in Jersey, having a 
large grained marble, with menachanite and negrine imbeded in it on one side, and hornblende rock on 
the other ; this bed contains likewise large quantities of blende; detached pieces of gold have been found 
in the beds of some small streams in North Carolina and other places, apparently in a quartz rock. 
Manganese has been found in New York, North Carolina, etc. Near the confines of the rod sandstone 
and primitive formations, a white ore of Cobalt has been worked above Middletown on the Connecticut 
river, and it is said near Morristown in New-Jersey. 
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