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region, in question, numerous interesting, and impressive views present themselves. Sometimes the strata of sandstone seem to have been broken down, into large tabular masses, which are promiscuously scattered about, or they are piled on each other, in wild disorder. In some places, this rock rises into conical hills, as in Licking county, near, and also north, and northeastwardly of the town of Granville. Here, these mounds, of a very friable sandstone, resemble, in appearance, at a distance, the limestone knobs, in the barrens of Kentucky. Sometimes these rocks rise into pillars, as in Fairfield county, whose summits are high and their angles acute, and, standing in piles not very distant from each other. The summits of these hills and pillars are often, nearly on the same level, and the seams which separate their strata, correspond through the whole series.

Hence, it is inferred, that these hills and pillars, once constituted a continuous mass, traversed by perpendicular fissures, and that the elements have operated the changes in them which we now see. Along the Ohio river, in the counties of Scioto, Lawrence, Gallia and Meigs, and in corresponding parts of Kentucky and Virginia, the hills assume a lofty aspect, of five and sometimes, seven hundred feet, in height, rising with acute angular sides. In front of the town of Portsmouth, the sandstone hill, on the Kentucky shore, rises, five hundred feet above the bed of the river. This rock constitutes the broken, and often abrupt surfaces of the hilly portions of Scioto, Lawrence, Pike, Jackson and Hocking counties. It lies in beds, between three and four miles east of the Scioto river, across Pickaway county, diverging from it, as we travel north, until at Columbus, in Franklin county, these beds are nine miles east of the Scioto river. From these beds stone is procured for buildings of various sorts, and the great aqueduct, across the Scioto river at Circleville, where the canal crosses the river, rests on pillars of this sandstone.

It is easily quarried, and answers many useful purposes. It underpins houses and barns;-and it is made into spring-houses, in the sandstone region. Of it, fronts of houses are built, in

Cincinnati, which look very well, though, it is not as durable a rock, as granite, or very hard limestone.

This stone is frequently used for grind stones, whetstones, &c. and large quantities of these articles, are used in Ohio, and begin to be carried beyond the limits of the State, for sale to our neighbors.

In some places, it is finer, and others are coarse. They are very fine grained, near Waverly, but they are a pudding stone in Jackson county. Where this rock is hard, and where it once stood in a perpendicular mass, with a rivulet running off it, caverns have been formed, in which the aborigines once lived, and, before them, wild animals there, found a home, especially in winter. Such caves exist in Jackson, Lawrence, and Gallia counties. Many such caverns were often used, as cemeteries, in times long past. The small eagle, finds a place of security, for itself and young ones, in the cavities, existing in the perpendicular walls of this rock, fronting the Ohio river and along it; and hence, the name of the river, among the Indians-Kiskepeela Seepee-Little-Eagle river. In some places, the mass of sand, originally deposited, in this region, by the ocean, for want of any cement in the mass, never became a rock, but is sand still, in which, trees are imbedded, but not petrified. Such a tree, was found on the high land, near Marietta, in digging a well, (many years since) forty feet below the surface.

We suspect that it will eventually be ascertained, that the whole sandstone formation northwest of the Ohio river, from the Portage summit, south of it, dips towards the southeast, about thirty feet to the mile: that inclination ends on that summit, which is the cause of that summit's location where it is, nearer the lake than it is to the Ohio River. Should that be ascertained to be the fact, it answers to a general law, noticed in every thing, east of the Mississippi, which lies parallel with the shore of the Atlantic ocean, and is inclined towards it. Even the Alleghanies as a whole, obey the same law, and the Atlantic rivers, originate in the most westwardly ridge of that chain of mountains. The western edges of the Allega

nies, are more acute than the eastern ones, just as our lake rivers have more descent in them, in a given distance, than those have falling into the Ohio river. We say it is so, without knowing or caring, why it is so.

MILLSTONE.

The burghstone, of which millstones are made, in considerable numbers, in the counties of Muskingum, Hocking, Jackson and Gallia, occurs in amorphous masses, partly compact, but this rock always contains in it, more or less irregular cavities. These holes are occasioned sometimes, by the seashells which originally filled them having fallen out of their places in the rock. The aspect of this millstone is somewhat peculiar, resembling paste, which had been in a state of fermentation, when moist, and warm; but when the the heat had ceased to act, the mass became dry, hard and compact, with all the marks of fermentation remaining in it. The cavities are sometimes, filled with crystals of quartz. The fracture of this burghstone is commonly dull, and its colour is whitish or redish brown. Its hardness and cavities, when not too numerous, render it very useful for making mill stones, many of which are manufactured, and sent all over this state, and to the western ones generally.

FLINT FAMILY.

We have, perhaps, every species of the flint family, in our sandstone region. In the counties of Licking, Muskingum, Perry, Hocking and Athens, the several species of this family exist in considerable quantities. The nodules of flint, occur in thin layers, between compact limestone, and sandstone. They are so connected with the rocks above and below them, that the flint partakes of the color of the nearest rocks with which it comes in contact. These flint rocks, are some times made up of Zoophitae, or, of the most ancient sea shells. which have now become silicious. They generally lie in hori zontal lines, though sometimes, gently declining, towards the southeast. They are of every colour from a deep red or black

to a pure white.

Some of them are beautifully striped with reddish and whitish streaks.

MARBLE,

Resembling that found near New Haven, Connecticut, exists on Monday creek in Hocking county, in amorphous masses. The texture of this beautiful marble, is fine, but granular. Its colors are grey, or blue, richly variegated with clouds of white, black and green. Green pervades the whole mass, it takes a fine polish and endures the action of heat very well.· It contains chromate of iron, magnetic oxide of iron, and serpentine. It is a most beautiful marble, and will, one day, become as celebrated as that of Milford hills, Connecticut, which had been used one hundred years, at least, for common stone fences, before its value was discovered and made known by Professor Silliman, many years since.

LIAS.

There is a deposite of this rock near Kingston, in Ross county, near the line, which separates the sandstone from the limestone formation, and east of that line, it underlies the surface of about fifty acres of land, belonging to a Mr. Richie. On being exposed to the atmosphere, it shows reddish stripes. When burned in a hot fire, until it assumes a whitish appearance, and then the heat ought to be taken from it. Pound it until it is as fine as common slacked lime, it soon afterwards assumes a dark appearance, and becomes, finally, a deep brown. By mixing it with common slacked lime, in the proportions of twenty eight parts of lime, to one hundred parts of the lias, it hardens in water, almost instantly, and continues to harden, until it is as hard as any limestone in this region. In the burnt and granulated state, as before mentioned, by mixing a certain proportion of salt brine with it, it colors every object with which it comes in contact, a deep brown. Hence it is

ascertained to be a most valuable ore of manganese, useful to the dyer and clothier.

In the same pulverised state, before described, it is invaluable as a manure, or stimulant for vegetation, altogether superior to sulphate of lime.

It is composed of silex, lime, sulphur and manganese, and is a new mineral, which we call the

CLINTONITE.

This mineral was subjected to one hundred experiments, by myself, in May and June 1828.

There is a lias, near the Portage summit, which makes an excellent water cement. I know of no salt water in the interior of the United States, which does not issue from beneath a lias limestone, and from a great many experiments, tried on specimens of this rock, found in many parts of the secondary region, of the Western states, we are disposed to the belief that our salt water, in the interior, is produced by this rock, from below which, salt brine rises to the surface, wherever the earth has been bored deep enough, to pass below this rock.

Throughout nearly our whole hilly region, equal to ten thousand square miles of territory, this lias, is deposited, declining gently towards the southeast. There are about 100 salt works, in the state, employed in the manufacture of salt, about seventy of which, are located along the Muskingum river and its branches, in the counties of Muskingum, Morgan and Guernsey. The other salt works are in Athens, Hocking, Meigs and Gallia counties. The declination of this salt rock is ascertained to be at least, thirty feet in a mile, towards the southeast. Many of the salt wells in Morgan county are six hundred feet deep; some of them are two hundred feet deeper. The same declination, is observed along the Ohio river, from the mouth of the Scioto river, to that of the Muskingum, in all the rocks lying in place. It is true, of all the strata in all that region, of iron ore, limestone, sandstone, and clay. So it may be said, of the coal formation. This information is of importance, to the miner and the salt

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