School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time

by John W. Moore

CHAPTER III.

GEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

A knowledge of the geology of a State affords the key to its soils; since the soils are formed by the disintegration of the underlying rocks, more or less mixed with animal or vegetable matter. The peculiar geological structure of the State furnishes the material for every possible variety of soil. In fact, there is no description or combination unrepresented. There are, first, the black and deep peaty soils of Hyde county and the great swamp tracts along the eastern border of the Tidewater section; then come the alluvious marls and light sandy soils of the more elevated portions of the same section; then the clayey, sandy and gravelly soils of the Piedmont and Mountain section, the result of the decomposition of every variety of rock.

2. From its western boundary to the last falls of its rivers, the rocks generally belong to that formation known as "primitive". Primitive rocks are easily distinguished; they are crystalline in structure, and have no animal or vegetable remains (called fossils) imbedded or preserved in them. The soils of this formation are not very fertile, nor yet are they sterile; they are of medium quality, and susceptible, under skilful culture, of the highest improvement. The primitive rocks are chiefly represented by granite and gneiss.

3. The rocks of the secondary formation appear in certain counties of the Piedmont section, and here the coal-fields occur, embracing many hundred square miles. This formation consists of the primitive rocks, broken down by natural agents, and subsequently deposited in beds of a thickness from a few feet to many hundred, and abounds in organic remains. The soils of this formation vary more than the former, as the one or the other of the materials of which they are made up happens to predominate.

4. The eastern section belongs to that which is known as the "quaternary" formation. Here no rocks like those mentioned above are found; indeed, rocks, in the ordinary sense of that term, are unknown. This formation will be best understood by regarding it as an ocean bed laid bare by upheaval through some convulsion of nature, and thus made dry land. Sandy soils predominate somewhat in this section, though there are tracts in which clay is in great excess, and other tracts in which vegetable matter is in great excess. Between these extremes there exist, also, the usual mixtures in various proportions.

5. Geology also affords a key to the mineral resources of a State. Those of the Tidewater section are summed up in its marls. That whole section is underlaid with marl at a depth of a few feet, and in quantity sufficient to raise and keep it, when regularly applied to the surface, for all time to come at the highest point of productiveness. Of all resources for wealth this is the most durable; and, on account of the industry to which it is subservient—the agricultural—is best calculated to promote the happiness of man.

6. It is in the primitive rocks, however, that minerals abound. Those of North Carolina surpass any in the Union. In the last Report on the Geology of the State one hundred and seventy-eight are numbered and described. Among these are gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, mica, corundum, graphite, manganese, kaolin, mill-stone grits, marble, barytes, oil shale, buhrstones, roofing slate, etc. The most of these are the subjects of great mining industries, which are daily developing to greater proportions.

7. Of some of these minerals, as corundum and mica, North Carolina has already become the chief source of supply. Among the principal sources of the future mineral wealth of the State, copper, gold and iron are clearly indicated. The ores of these metals are found in abundance over extensive tracts of country. Lastly, in North Carolina many beautiful specimens of the precious stones have been found, and a large capital has been raised to carry on mining as a regular business for one of these— the hiddenite gem.

8. North Carolina will thus be seen to be a State of vast resources, whether we regard the variety and value of her natural or cultivated productions, the immense range of her minerals or her facilities for manufacturing industries. It would, perhaps, be safe to say that no equal portion of the earth's surface will, in half a century, be the scene of industries so various and of such value.