PRIMARY SYSTEM. 
19 
plain division of rocks at their side, and facts probably will there be found which will settle 
the question of their elevation. The uplifts on the Mohawk conclusively prove, that besides 
the general uplift of the whole mass of the primary, partial uplifts of the same mass took 
place; and there is no reason whatever for restricting that action to that valley exclusively. 
In the examination of the Primary region, it is a fact of much interest to ascertain whether 
local uplifts took place ; and if so, to what extent the surface has been changed by them. 
The whole of the Primary region, with the exception of a few parts near its border, with 
the other class of rocks, is yet almost without an inhabitant. One mass of unbroken forest 
is stretched over its surface, operating greatly to prevent the action of the sun upon its soil; 
thus diminishing sensibly the mean annual temperature of the whole region, and sheltering 
swarms of insects, a pest to man and beast. Very little inducement has heretofore existed to 
settle that country; so much land of the highest grade of natural fertility surrounding it, with 
good roads, mills, schools, churches and other improvements, essential to civilized man; 
whereas, within that region, all is yet a wilderness ; not that it ought to be one, but merely 
from the circumstance that no farmer will settle on primary soil which is not calcareous, if he 
can get a calcareous one ; and so long as limestone, slate and other superior soils could be had 
at a reasonable rate, the primary ones of the wilderness could not be settled. With the rapid 
advance in population around the whole of the border, settlements will be extended within the 
wilderness, and every advance from the outer part of its circle will, in a high ratio, diminish 
the space to be settled. At the rate that improvements have gone on in western New-York, 
a half a century can not pass away without the forests of that region being levelled, and its 
arable land put in cultivation. Gneiss and granite form the great mass of the primary rock, 
the former, in general, very different from the gneiss of the second range; containing less 
mica, and its other constituents, quartz and feldspar, often showing the same parallelism as in 
mica, with less tendency also to alteration and decomposition. The gneiss and granite often 
alternate with each other, showing a like origin for the two rocks, as might be inferred from 
their composition being the same, the difference being merely this, that in gneiss the smooth 
surfaces of the mica are arranged in parallels, whereas in granite no disposition of the kind 
exists ; a difference which probably may be found to be of no greater importance than noticed 
in other rocks, some of which show, in parts, but few divisions, whilst in others they are more 
numerous. In the rocks which succeed to the primary ones, the divisions into layers and 
courses are almost, if not invariably, formed by argillaceous matter, usually fissile ; and the 
more homogenous the mass, should it be of carbonate of lime, the fewer are the layers or 
parallel divisions. In the upper mass of the chalk in the neighbourhood of Paris, there are 
no divisions excepting those formed by the layers of flint, which are arranged in parallels ; and 
were it not for the flint, the chalk would, like the granite, show no lines of division dependent 
upon composition, and therefore not stratified; the granite, like the chalk, where not water- 
worn, also shows a mass whose surfaces are parallel to each other. The predominant colors of 
the granite and gneiss are red and greenish, owing to the feldspar, which is usually of those 
colors, and is in excess as regards the two other constituents. The mica is generally black, 
the quartz white and glassy. At Little-Falls and in other places the feldspar shows a dispo- 
