ART. IX.-Report on the Geology of North-Carolina, conducted under the direction of the Board of Agriculture. By Denison Olmsted, Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in the University of North-Carolina. Part I. Nov. 1624.-Part II. Nov. 1825. Raleigh. Gales & Son.

THE inhabitants of the Southern states have been, from the first settlement of their country, devoted to the pursuits of agriculture. The earth was the bounteous parent which furnished them with subsistence and enjoyment, with the realities of to-day and the hopes of to-morrow; but it was from her surface and her soil that they derived these blessings. In some districts, a little remote from the ocean, and locally known as the "middle country," covered with almost interminable forests of pine, the early settlers intermingled the habits and avocations of pastoral life; but the increasing population soon encroached upon the space required for the profitable management of wild stock, and the inhabitants became exclusively agricultural. No arts were cultivated but those which were connected with their habitual occupations. No sciences studied but those which were allied to their favourite pursuits. The fertility of a great portion of their soil, and the comparative value of the articles which their climate enabled them to produce, encouraged this exclusive adherence to one object; and the wealth of the waters, and the hidden treasures of the earth were abandoned to waste and to neglect, or reserved for the benefit of future generations.

Years are producing some changes. The still increasing population of the country has brought into cultivation all the more fertile soils, and the declining value of the most important of our staples has diminished the facility with which competence, if not wealth, was formerly acquired. The attention of many has latterly been directed to the discovery of new resources, of new means of subsistence, and, if possible, of profitable employment. Science, also, has been extending her influence over a people long engrossed by the simplest and most fascinating of all occupations. Literary curiosity and enterprise have been awakened, and numbers have become solicitous to explore, or to have explored, the rocky or earthy substratum of our Southern soil, some, to indulge in scientific researches, but many more, to ascertain what resources the mineral kingdom, in our country, could furnish for the uses of domestic life, or the facilities of commercial intercourse.

Views of this nature produced the Reports which we have placed at the head of this article. The Board of Agriculture of the State of North-Carolina, in the application of some small appropriation made by the Legislature of that State, appointed Mr. Olmsted, Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in the University of North-Carolina, to make a geological survey of the State, expressing, at the same time, a wish that he should "direct his attention chiefly to such objects as were of practical utility, that he should search out and describe whatever substances the mineral kingdom affords within our State, which either are or may be rendered subservient to the arts and purposes of life, and that he should not only point out where these substances may be found, but also give such an account of them as may diffuse more generally the knowledge of their uses and their value in relation either to domestic convenience and economy or to commercial enterprise." Under these instructions, with very limited means and time restricted and curtailed by paramount duties, Professor Olmsted collected the information contained in his valuable Reports.

As the researches of this gentleman were of necessity directed to particular objects rather than to general views; as his excursions were made at different times and in different directions, when the vacations in the University permitted him to be absent; and as his observations were reported in detail at the close of each journey, it may not be useless to make some preliminary remarks, which may serve to connect the detached portions of his Reports.

North-Carolina, when geologically considered, is composed of three distinct belts of very unequal breadth, traversing the State from north-east to south-west, in a direction almost exactly parallel to the shores of the ocean.

From the sea-coast to the falls of the rivers, the country is composed of a continued series of tertiary formations, differing from each other in composition, and probably in their relative antiquity, but containing many of the mineral productions which are usually found in soils or rocks of this age, and characterised by most of the fossils which distinguish the more modern strata. This belt is bordered along the ocean and the margins of the rivers by a more recent alluvium, too inconsiderable, however, to claim, at present, much notice, or to detain us in the brief outline we are endeavouring to sketch.

The breadth of this tertiary district is probably about ninety miles, and its western limit, extending from Halifax near the borders of Virginia to the neighbourhood of Cheraw, in SouthCarolina, forms, to the eye or on the surface, a sinuous line,

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which departs, however, very little from a direct course. primitive rocks, as you ascend the rivers, first appear at their falls, and if a line were drawn from river to river, traversing at its lowest rapid or fall each stream, this line would probably mark the real boundary between the tertiary and granitic regions, and in its direction, be, perhaps, exactly parallel to the Atlantic coast. On the ridges between the rivers, the primitive rocks are covered, for a few miles, with some portions of the tertiary formations, whence arises that sinuous or irregular outline to which we have just alluded.

From the falls of the rivers, the second geological division of North-Carolina, extends to the summit of the Alleghany mountains. This great division, exceeding in breadth two hundred miles, and extending across the State from Virginia to SouthCarolina, may be considered as strictly granitic. For boulders or veins, or beds of granite or gneiss, or sienite, every where occur, even where they do not become the sole apparent rocks. But on, and in this primitive foundation, have been deposited beds and veins of other substances, independent or distinct formations, if it were now permitted to use the language of the old Wernerians, scattered over the surface in detached though sometimes in immense masses-and imbedded in, or intermingled with these rocks, are found many of those minerals which are collected to adorn and enrich the cabinets of science, as well as to aid the improvements, and promote the welfare of civilized

man.

The third geological division of this State extends from the summit line of the Alleghany mountains to the summit of the Bald and Iron mountains, which form the western boundary of the State, and comprehends a wide and fertile though broken valley inclosed within these limits.

This district is altogether composed of the transition rocks of Werner. The limestone, the grey wackè, the schist, the red sandstone, all belong to that ancient series. And, although occasionally some fragments, or boulders, or summits of primitive rocks appear amidst the superincumbent strata, yet the predominant mass belongs always to the transition order. Frequently, the line of demarcation is so accurately distinguished, that while the rocks on one slope of the mountains, are all primitive, on the other, we find ourselves surrounded by masses, filled with the impressions and reliquiæ of organised bodies.

The researches of Professor Olmsted were principally directed to the second-the largest, perhaps the most important, and certainly the most interesting of these geological districts. We shall not, however, follow him in his separate excursions, but

attempt to methodize his observations in the order in which we have arranged these divisions, beginning with the tertiary formations along the sea-coast. We are aware, that there are many blanks in this survey which we have not the means to fill, many omissions, perhaps inaccuracies, even in those portions which have been most sedulously examined, that must be left for future observers to supply or to correct. We can only hope to furnish such an outline as may induce others to complete this picture, or to excite so much interest as may urge some of the citizens of North-Carolina, or tempt foreigners to examine, thoroughly and accurately, one of the richest mineral districts in the United States.

The examinations which were made of the tertiary rocks were principally on a line across the centre of this maritime districta line which appears to offer a very correct view of the nature and general arrangement of the strata. Commencing at Cape Lookout and passing from Beaufort to Newbern, then ascending the Neuse to the neighbourhood of Raleigh, exploring the banks of the river, and where practicable, the adjacent ridges, the following general distribution of soils and rocks were observed:

The drift sands at Cape Lookout, and on the adjacent coast, near Beaufort, are evidently, in their present condition, of recent formation, assuming their aspect from the united influence of the winds, and the waves of the ocean. They form long low ridges, separated by narrow wet vallies, and until they are sheltered by a covering of shrubs and trees, changing, in some degree, their figure, with every heavy gale that sweeps along the coast. They are intermingled with the fragments of marine animals, and with shells, resembling altogether the present inhabitants of the contiguous ocean. But they cover, at a very small depth, an older soil, and the remains of a more ancient

race.

"The opening of the new canal between Clubfoot and Harlow creeks, forming a water communication between Newbern and the ocean, by way of Beaufort, affords an opportunity to examine the upper strata of this district, and discloses to view a specimen of the curious fossil remains of animals with which this region is stored. These excavations expose a depth of sixteen feet for a distance of three miles, through a tract that is nearly a dead level, and they penetrate through the following horizontal strata.

1st. A black mould, such as is usually found in the eastern swamps, capable of producing corn and wheat in the greatest luxuriance. 2nd. Potter's clay, of a yellowish-brown colour.

3d. A thin layer of sand, full of sea-shells and the remains of land animals, particularly of the mammoth or fossil elephant. Along with a profusion of shells, in perfect preservation, there are not unfrequently

thrown out, huge teeth, vertebræ and skeletons, more or less entire, of a gigantic race of animals, which, no doubt, were buried here by that great catastrophe which also shut out the ocean far eastward of its original borders. Conch shells, scallops and clams are the most common varieties of shells, and they correspond both in kind and appearance with the marine aggregates accumulated on the sandy beach near Cape Lookout. The clam shells, however, are frequently of a larger size than those met with at present.

4th. A soft, deep blue clay, which is sometimes in contact with the potter's clay (number 2) though it is frequently separated from it by the layer of sand (number 3). The inhabitants assert, that this blue mud corresponds in its character precisely with that which is now found in the bed of the adjacent ocean."-Rep. No. 2. p. 88.

We have frequently made attempts to discover the real connection between the alluvial and tertiary formations on our coast; to ascertain if there had been a gradual transition from the older to the more recent soils, if some races or species of animals had insensibly disappeared, while new forms arose to occupy their places, whether any strata could be discovered in which the different races were promiscuously intermingled, or vestiges which would mark the approaching extinction of one series, and the gradual appearance of another; whether, in fact, there had been a continued succession of varied forms of organised beings, or distinct creations, separated by strong and abrupt lines of demarcation, exhibiting on either side different species, if not different tribes of beings.

The fossil teeth, the vertebræ, the skeletons of land animals found in excavating the Beaufort Canal, on the very verge of the ocean, all belong to extinct species, and indicate an antiquity beyond that of the races which now inhabit the adjacent shores. It will remain for accurate observation to determine whether any of the species of shells are really similar to those of the now living tribes. Specimens of the shell rock, which we have seen, from the shores of Cape Hatteras, appeared to us to belong distinctly to the tertiary formations. If we reason from analogy, from the examinations which have been made in an adjoining state, we shall conclude that the Beaufort canal must have passed through some portion at least of tertiary rocks. In excavating the Santee canal in South-Carolina, similar vestiges of quadrupeds were discovered, but then all of the zoological remains belonged to extinct species. On the contrary, on examining the Winyaw and Santee canal, which, in one place, at the depth of sixteen or eighteen feet, traversed a bed which contained many shells, all of them appeared to be exactly similar to those of the adjacent ocean. In excavating a well