Albertite, a bright, coal-like substance, exceedingly rich in volatile hydrocarbon, occupies fissures in Carboniferous rocks in Nova Scotia, and a similar but less lustrous mineral, termed grahamite, occurs in fissures in rock of the same age, near a rich oil-pool in West Virginia. Other similar deposits, but usually wax-like and dull, are found in Utah and neighbouring States. Asphaltum occurs in vast quantities in southern California, and also in Cuba; these deposits resemble the celebrated asphaltum of Trinidad and give promise of being fully as extensive and valuable.
In brief, gaseous, fluid, semifluid, and solid hydrocarbons in great variety are widely distributed throughout the portions of North America where the surface is composed of sedimentary beds, and in a few instances occur in cavities in igneous rocks as well.
The influence of life in leading to the concentration of substances of commercial value is still further illustrated by the beds of diatomaceous earth which are found in various portions of North America and elsewhere, particularly in Cenozoic and more recent terranes. Beds of diatomaceous earth reported to be 40 feet thick and of wide extent have been found near Richmond, Virginia, and similar deposits occur at several localities in Oregon, California, etc. The uses of this fine, white, flour-like powder, each
minute grain of which is a beautiful siliceous organism, are for polishing powder, as an ingredient in friction soap, as an absorbent for nitroglycerine in the manufacture of high explosives, etc.
A class of substances of economic importance which owe their accumulation to chemical agencies acting at the surface of the earth is well illustrated by deposits of rock salt and gypsum.
In the Silurian system in New York, Ontario, Michigan, etc., several beds of rock salt and gypsum occur, indicating that there were formerly a number of separate evaporating basins in that region. The beds of salt vary in thickness from a few inches to over 300 feet, as at Tulley, New York. At Goodrich, Ontario, 6 beds of salt from 6 to 35 feet thick have been penetrated in a single well. With the salt in this the Salina formation there are many beds of gypsum. In rocks of Carboniferous age in Michigan, other extensive beds of salt and gypsum have been discovered. In Louisiana, Texas, Utah, and other States, salt and gypsum occur in Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks. One of the most remarkable of these deposits is beneath small islands in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast. On Jefferson Island, for example, rock salt was reached recently at a depth of 260 feet beneath Cenozoic rock, and was penetrated for over 1,800 feet without reaching the base of the deposit. The supply of salt stored in the rocks, and the natural brines of the arid region, such as the waters of Great Salt Lake, afford an inexhaustible supply upon which comparatively small demands have thus far been made.
In addition to salt and gypsum there are other substances that have been accumulated in a similar manner, such, for example, as sodium sulphate, of which large beds occur in the desiccated lake basins of the arid region, sodium bromide, which is obtained from some of the ancient brines pumped from deep wells in Michigan.
Next to the fossil fuels, the most important products of the rocks in North America are the iron ores. Although certain igneous rocks are rich in iron, and in some
instances contain it even in a pure or metallic state, none of the rocks that have cooled from fusion carry iron in any form in sufficient quantities to be of commercial importance. Most of the iron in igneous rocks is contained in mineral, usually silicates, and would be difficult to separate. When exposed to the air and to percolating water, the iron-bearing minerals of the igneous or other rocks decay and the iron enters into various new combinations. When organic acids are present, and especially carbon dioxide, ferrous carbonate is formed, which is quite soluble, and is taken into solution by percolating water, some of which emerges as springs, and joins the surface run-off, which may also take up ferrous carbonate in solution. One of the most common methods by which iron ore is accumulated is when water carrying ferrous carbonate in solution forms swamps and lakes, and in many instances as the water is exposed to the air and aided by evaporation it parts with a portion of its carbon dioxide, and the hydrated sesquioxide of iron or limonite results. When, under similar conditions, an excess of organic matter is present, beds of ferrous carbonate are formed. In other instances iron oxide is precipitated in swamps and lakes through the action of low forms of plant life. The ores of iron concentrated in these ways are in many instances in well-defined layers, or lenticular bodies, which are thickest in the central portion and thin out in all directions. Their forms are determined mainly by the shapes of the depressions they occupy. Both ferrous carbonate and limonite, however, occur in irregular surface deposits.
In North America, bog-iron ores occur at the surface in many regions, in existing swamps and about springs, but are seldom of economic importance, owing in part to the great abundance of better ores. Limonite occurs at the surface also, having been deposited in cavities and as a cement for loose fragments, particularly on the weathered outcrops of formations rich in iron. When rocks contain but a fraction of 1 per cent of iron, the soil on their weathered outcrops, owing to the removal of the more soluble ingredients and the leaving of the less soluble