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other alluvial and diluvial deposits, varying in height from 100 to 150 feet, and extending along the whole southern coast of Lake Ontario, at a distance of six or eight miles from it, forming a natural highway. It is said that a somewhat similar ridge exists along the northern shore of the Lake.

That this ridge once, and at no very distant period, formed the southern shore of the lake, is proved, by the existence of small sand hillocks, evidently heaped up by the action of the waves; by the entire absence of Indian mounds and fortifications, on the north side of the ridge, and their frequent appearance, immediately south of it; and above all, by the structure and composition of the ridge itself.

The deep channels, cut in the rocks, by many of the rivers of the state, are also a subject of geological interest. The Hudson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, and some of the northern streams, either have banks regularly sloping to the water's edge, or, if they occasionally pass through narrow and precipitous defiles, have not won for themselves a passage, by the action of their waters upon the rocky barrier which opposed them, but have availed themselves of a route opened by some convulsion of nature.

Such is not the case with the Mohawk, the Chenango, the Genesee, and the Niagara. Descending from elevated table lands, they have, by their ceaseless flow, hewn out a channel through the shales, slates and marly sand and limestones, in some instances 400 or 500 feet below the level of the surrounding country. The constant action of the waters upon these decomposing rocks has also caused the falls of Niagara to recede, as some geologists conjecture, a distance of five or six miles, and this recession is still in progress.

MINERALOGY. We have already adverted to the minerals, pecu. liar to the different formations, but a somewhat more particular description of the mineral wealth of the state seems requisite, in a work like ours.

Among the useful metals, Iron is most abundant in New York. It is found in five forms.

1st. The Magnetic Oxide, most abundant in Essex, Clinton, Franklin, Warren, Orange and Putnam counties, but occurring also in considerable quantities in Lewis, St. Lawrence and Jefferson. This variety is adapted to the production of malleable iron and steel, and for this purpose is superior to any in the United States, and equal to most of the foreign ores. The quantity is immense, a single vein (the Sandford vein in Newcomb, Essex county,) being estimated by Prof. Emmons to contain ore sufficient to yield at least three millions of tons, of malleable iron; several other veins, in the same neighborhood, contain nearly as much more, and the mines of Orange county, though worked for nearly a century, are still very productive. This ore is confined to primary rocks.

2d. The Specular Oxide, found in St. Lawrence, Jefferson and Franklin counties, imbedded in sandstone. This variety is well adapted to castings. Though less abundant than the preceding, it is found in large quantities.

3d. The Argillaceous ore, called also bog iron ore, found in various parts of the state, evidently deposited by alluvial and diluvial action, in the clay or gravel. It is principally used for castings.

4th. The Hematitic ore, frequently occurring in crystals of fantas tic and beautiful forms. This ore occurs extensively in Richmond, Orange, Ulster, Putnam, Dutchess, Columbia, Warren and Wayne counties. It is also found in smaller quantities in Rockland and Westchester. It usually makes its appearance in the lower limestones of the transition system. When combined with the magnetic oxide, it improves its quality.

5th. The Carburet of Iron, called also Black lead, Plumbago and graphite, occurs abundantly in Dutchess county, and in considerable quantities in Essex and Clinton counties.

Lead is found, in immense quantities, at Rossie and its vicinity, in St. Lawrence county, and less abundantly in the Shawangunk mountains, in Sullivan and Ulster, and in Dutchess, Columbia, Lewis and Monroe counties. It does not seem to be confined to any particular geological era, occurring in nearly all the formations.

Zinc and Copper occur in various parts of the state, but not in sufficient quantities to be of much practical value.

Arsenic has been discovered in Putnam county.

Manganese, in the form of manganese wad, occurs in Columbia, Lewis and Dutchess counties, and is used to some extent for bleaching. Manganesian garnet is found in New York county.

Barytes and Strontian are abundant in Schoharie and Jefferson, and probably exist in some of the other counties.

Alum, principally in the form of efflorescence, is found in several parts of the state.

The existence and value of the deposits of gypsum, and water lime, has already been noticed, in speaking of the Onondaga salt group.

Serpentine and its allied minerals, soapstone, talc, carbonate, hydrate and sulphate of magnesia, (Epsom salts,) together with asbestus and amianthus, occur abundantly in Putnam, Orange, Westchester, Jefferson and St. Lawrence, and in considerable quantities in Monroe, Orleans, Genesee, Albany, Cayuga, Essex, Rensselaer and Niagara counties.

Those minerals, which are only of interest to the mineralogist, are enumerated under the counties in which they occur.

MINERAL SPRINGS. These are of various kinds.

1. Chalybeate Springs. The most celebrated of these, are those of Saratoga county, which are fully described in another part of the work. There are a few, but of no great strength or notoriety, in other parts of the state.

2. Sulphur Springs. These are widely disseminated. Those at Avon, in Livingston county, have attained the greatest celebrity. Those in the vicinity of Rochester, Monroe county, and Chittenango, Madison county, are perhaps next in importance. The State Geologists report sulphur springs in twenty-eight counties of the state.

3. Brine Springs occur in every part of the Onondaga salt formation, and are also found, though of less strength, in other parts of the state. They are supposed to be impregnated by deposits of rock salt, at some distance below the surface. Those in the towns of Salina and Montezuma are the most important and valuable.

4. Acid Springs, or those in which the water is strongly impregnated with sulphuric acid, are found in Genesee, Erie and Orleans counties.

5. Petrifying Springs, so highly charged with carbonate of lime as to deposit it upon whatever the water falls, and thus give it a coating of limestone, are found in Madison and Saratoga counties.

6. Oil Springs, the waters of which are covered with a thick pellicle of Petroleum, or mineral oil, are found in Cattaraugus and Allegany counties.

7. Springs evolving Nitrogen Gas. The most celebrated of these are those of New Lebanon, in Columbia county, and of Hoosick, in Rensselaer county. There is also one, of some note, near Canoga, in Seneca county.

8. Springs evolving Carburetted Hydrogen, or inflammable gas. These abound in the neighborhood of Lake Erie, and the Niagara river. The village of Fredonia, and the light house at Barcelona, in Chautauque county, are illuminated by them. Springs of the same character are also found in Dutchess, Oneida and Monroe counties.

Marl, a valuable fertilizing agent, exists in vast beds in Madison, Monroe, Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Onondaga, Ontario, Orange and Wayne counties, and in considerable abundance in Rensselaer, Wash ington, Saratoga, Albany, Schoharie, Herkimer, Cortland, Oneida, St. Lawrence, Niagara and Erie counties.

Peat is less widely distributed. It occurs, however, on Long Island, and in Richmond, Rockland, Orange, Sullivan, Putnam, Westchester, Columbia, Clinton, Oneida and Cattaraugus counties. The attention of farmers should be directed to this, on account of its value, both for fuel, and as a manure.

The gneiss and granite of the primary region, as we have already remarked, form elegant and durable building materials. The Potsdam sandstone, from its power of resisting atmospheric influence, and the facility with which it may be cut in any desired shape, is highly valued for building. The Chemung gray sandstone and the red sandstone of Rockland county are also prized by builders. The Medina sandstone is more liable to decomposition, but is used to some extent.

The limestone formations furnish a great number of varieties of marble, suitable not only for architectural purposes, but for the arts. The most celebrated ornamental varieties are the black marble of Glen's falls, which equals any of the foreign varieties; the Chazy black marble, considered as fully equal to the best Irish; the variegated marbles of St. Lawrence and Rockland counties; the slate and dove colored of Otsego, Oneida and Onondaga; the birdseye of the Champlain group; and the white marble of Westchester, Dutchess, Columbia, Washington and St. Lawrence counties. The Singsing marble is largely employed, as a building stone, in New York city. The serpentine rocks, in several parts of the state, afford slabs, of sufficient size, to be used for the manufacture of furniture. The Utica slate, and some of the slate formations in the northern part of the state, furnish slates of excellent quality, both for roofing and writing. The gray sandstones and conglomerate of the Champlain and Erie groups, furnish grindstones of superior quality, and from the Shawangunk grits, millstones have been manufactured, which compared well with the French buhrstone.

It will be seen, by the brief sketch we have given of the Geology and Mineralogy of the state of New York, that her mineral resources

are equal to her agricultural, commercial and manufacturing facilities. True, she does not possess coal, or so far as has yet been ascertained, the precious metals; but the former is abundantly supplied by the neighboring states of Pennsylvania and Ohio; and the latter, paradoxical as it may seem, have never conduced to the wealth, or prosperity of any state, which has possessed them.

Her mines of iron, lead and plumbago; her salt-springs and beds of water lime and gypsum; and her quarries of granite, sandstone and marble are, to her citizens, a more valuable inheritance than the gold and silver mines of Mexico, and will confer upon them a greater and more lasting prosperity.

I'. BOTANY.

It would be entering into a far more elaborate view of the subject than the limits of this work permit, to trace out even an abstract of the vegetable wealth of New York. From its geographical position, diversity of soil, surface, and climate; its holding a middle place between the north and south, nearly all the great features of the United States flora are here produced. Immense forests still occupy the uncultivated regions north and west, consisting mainly of pine, oak and beech, while the chestnut, hickory and maple, with a host of other less numerous, but not less valuable trees, are scattered over its territory.

The mountain sides and woods are clothed with an undergrowth of shrubs; as the whortleberry, rhododendron and mountain laurel; under whose shade, and in the open fields, flourish hundreds of more humble herbaceous plants, among which will be found many that are rare and curious, as well as of great beauty and utility.

Anemone, Ranunculus, and Violets, often before the snow has entirely disappeared, put forth their blossoms in every sheltered nook of wood and meadow. These, with the cowslip (Caltha palustris), the woodbine (Aquilegia), bloodroot (Sanguinaria), and many of that wide spread tribe, the Cruciferae, or crosslike plants, serve to mark the opening spring. As the season advances, nature assumes much gayer colors. The beautiful blue Lupine (Lupinus perennis), Desmodiums, and the wild Sensitive plant (Cassia nictitans), whose leaves close together, when touched by the hand, are frequent on sandy soils.

Common in our swamps and boggy ground, is the Side Saddle flower, or Hunter's cup (Sarracenia), bearing a single, nodding, dark red flower, a wonder by itself, but more so, when viewed in connection with the singular structure of its leaves. These are not flat, as in other plants, but hollow, and somewhat pitcher shaped, arranged in a circle around the base of the stem, their open mouths turned upwards to catch the falling rains. At the orifice of each leaf is a broad lip, furnished with short stiff hairs pointing downwards, and forming a trap, for numerous insects, that seek the water, always contained in them. A luckless fly once entered, it is impossible for him to return; and he is forced to go onwards, until dropping, he perishes in the water beneath. Of what use, in the economy of the plant, these dead insects are (the cup being often half filled with

them) is not, as yet, well known; but possibly they serve in some degree as nutriment.

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Another plant well worthy of notice for its elegance and exquisite fragrance, is the white Pond Lily (Nymphæa odorata). The roots, which are rough and knotty, creep along the muddy bottoms of ponds and slow-flowing streams; while the large round leaves, of a bright and glossy green, cover the water above, in many instances for acres, contrasting well with the pure white flowers. Like the primrose and wonderful four o'clock, which almost serve to mark the hour, Nymphæa expands its buds early in the morning, and whether the day be clear or cloudy, before noon, regularly closes, and sinks beneath the surface. The leaf stalks are long and flexile, varying with the depth of water, and forming, as every wandering school boy knows, a secure retreat for fish.

Spatter Dock, or Yellow Pond Lily (Nuphar advena), is common in every ditch, but an allied genus (Nelumbium), or Sacred Bean, is rare; Big Sodus Bay, Lake Ontario, is the only known locality in

the state.

In shallow water, along the Hudson, above the Highlands, and through the western counties, is the Vallisneria or Tape Grass, remarkable for the peculiar spiral form of its stems, which always permit the flower to float upon the surface whatever may be the rise of tide.

Besides those just mentioned, the more frequent plants of low grounds and margins of streams are the Iris, Sweet Flag, or Calamus root (Acorus calamus), Yellow Lily, (Lilium Canadense), Forgetme-not (Myosotis), whose bright blue flowers continue from early spring till frost, Arrow leaf (Sagittaria), Cat-tail flag (Typha palustris), with numerous varieties of Rush (Juncus), and Sedges (Carex), the last sometimes eaten by cattle, for want of more nutritious food. Virgin's bower (Clematis Virginiana), a handsome indigenous vine creeping over bushes and fences is often cultivated for its quick growth and abundant blossoms.

In the Lobelia tribe, we have the Cardinal Flower (L. Cardinalis), noted for the splendor of its scarlet blossoms; Indian Tobacco (L. Inflata), the grand panacea of the Thompsonians; the L. Syphilitica, also used by them; Water Gladiole (L. Dortmanni), much less common than either of the preceding, and L. Nuttallii, confined to the sandy swamps of Long Island.

In the deep recesses of woods and swamps, the Arum and the Orchis tribes are met with. Of the former, Indian Turnip (Arum triphyllum), well known for its acrid root, and Water Arum (Calla palustris), are good examples.

The Orchids, from the strange forms and brilliant colors of their contorted flowers, are well worth the trouble it takes to cultivate them. Platanthera grandiflora, or tall purple Orchis, is one of the most beautiful, although Arethusa, Pogonia, our three species of Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium), and the graceful White Lady's Tress, are not less deserving a place in the garden.

Plants of the great group Composite, to which the Asters and Goldenrods belong, forming one ninth of our entire flora, are characteristic of the autumnal vegetation. Some Asters are fine garden plants, but, like the whole class, chiefly interesting for their gorgeous appear

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