Of the non-descripts you have several specimens. One variety strikes fire with steel, is a milk-white colour, adheres slightly to the tongue, and has no degree of translucency on its edges. As Mr. Kain has furnished you with an interesting detail of particular minerals found in East Tennessee and Western Virginia, I need not recapitulate what he has so well said.
(To be [continued].)
Art. III. Notice of the Scenery, Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, &c. of Belmont County, Ohio.
Art. III. Notice of the Scenery, Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, &c. of Belmont County, Ohio, by Caleb Atwater, Esq. of Circleville.
Belmont county is bounded on the north by Jefferson and Harrison, on the west by Guernsey, and south by Monroe county, and on the east by the Ohio river. It is 27 miles in length, and 21 in breadth, containing 535 square miles. Its name, Belmont, or beautiful mountain, indicates its situation, for it contains within its boundaries a fine body of land, rising gradually as you are travelling from the Ohio to the west, until you arrive at about the middle of it, where, from the elevation on which you stand, the eye in an eastern direction, beholds one of the most charming prospects in the state. Looking towards the east, in a pleasant morning, you behold a beautiful country of hill and dale spread out before you, divided into convenient and well-cultivated farms, intersected by glittering streams, meandering through them towards the Ohio. You hear the lowing of numerous herds around you, the shrill matin of the songsters of the forest, and the busy hum of the industrious husbandman; you see here and there a clump of trees interspersed among the cultivated parts of the country; you see the comfortable dwelling-house, the substantial barn, and hear the rumbling noise of the mill; and when you reflect that those who dwell here are industrious and enterprising, virtuous, free, and happy, you behold with pleasure, and listen with delight, while reflecting on the objects around you.
Geology and Mineralogy.
On the surface is seen a rich vegetable mould, made by the decay and putrefaction of vegetable substances. Along the Ohio, a wide intervale of the richest alluvion is found, which produces as luxuriant a growth of vegetation as any in the world. On the banks of the creeks which pass through this country the alluvial soil is not so wide as that on the river, but equally rich and productive. On the hills (and there are many of them) there are two kinds of soil, the silicious and the argillaceous, the first is formed from the decomposition of the rocks which once covered the surface, the latter from the slate which lay under them. Where these rocks are decomposed, and the country is hilly, it will readily be believed that the two kinds of soil are frequently blended together. In some places we see the best of clay for bricks; whilst in other places, and those in the vicinity of the former, we find the best of sand to mould them in when manufactured. Hard limestone of the very best quality is found in detached fragments in the sides of hills, and in strata, in abundance, along the beds of streams.