130 
GEOLOGY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
to account for, one for example on the eastern side of the Yad¬ 
kin, near the road leading from Lexington to Salisbury ; but the 
person who shall examine the country extensively, will be satis¬ 
fied of the truth of the proposition here stated. In treating far¬ 
ther of the geology of North Carolina we have to notice, 
1. Two bodies or formations of sandstone. 
2. Three bodies of transition slate rocks. 
3. Five bodies of primitive rocks. 
Sandstones. A formation of sandstone with trap rocks asso¬ 
ciated, has been mentioned, as extending from the northern part 
of Massachusetts, with interruptions, into South Carolina (section 
21.) Its range and extent in North Carolina will be seen by a 
reference to the map. Commencing in Granville 3 or 4 miles south¬ 
east of Oxford, it passes through Orange and Wake, Chatham 
and Moore, Montgomery and Richmond, and Anson ; but through 
some part of Moore, Montgomery, and Richmond, it is covered 
by tertiary sands and clays. It is of course traversed by four of 
the large rivers of the state, the Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear and Pedee. 
Its upper boundary crosses Tar River at Robards’ Mill, the streams 
that form the Neuse, three or four miles above their confluence, 
the Cape Fear and Deep rivers a little above Haywood, Deep 
River a second time, three or four miles below Evans’ bridge, 
and a third time, above the mouth of Richland creek, and the 
Pedee a little below the mouth of Rocky River. On the Tar, 
its width is not more than six or seven miles. Its lower limit 
on the Neuse, is a little above the mouth of New Light creek 
in Wake, about the mouth of Buckhorn on the Cape Fear, and 
above the Grassy islands on the Pedee. From thence it passes 
by Wadesboro’* into South Carolina, Brown creek running its 
whole course in this formation. It approaches to within a mile 
of the University, and has a breadth of between 15 and 16 miles, 
on the road leading from Chapel Hill to Raleigh, meeting the 
primitive of Wake, on the south side of Crabtree, at a distance 
of abouthalf a mile from that stream. It is nowhere much wider, 
and generally narrower than where this road crosses. It has less 
elevation than the formations on each side of it, so that as we 
approach it, we seem to come to the edge of a broad valley. 
From the hill on which the University stands, the prospect is 
extensive towards the east, and south-east, but limited in the op¬ 
posite direction. Its upper surface may be about 400 feel above 
the sea, and though everywhere gently undulating, it nowhere 
rises into hills of any considerable height. Throughout its whole 
extent, there is probablj' no one, that is more than 200 or 250 
feet above the general level. 
The principal constituent of this formation is a fine-grained, 
greyish, or reddish sandstone, whose particles are cemented by 
* There is in Richmond County, between Catleges’ and Mountain creeks, 
a body of the same kind of rocks, but whether connected with the other, or a 
separate and independent mass has not been ascertained. 
