An essay on salt : containing notices of its origin, formation, geological position and principal localities, embracing a particular description of the American salines : with a view of its uses in the arts, manufactures and agriculture : delivered as a lecture before the New-York Lyceum of Natural History / by Jer. Van Rensselaer.

  • Van Rensselaer, Jeremiah, 1793-1871.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on salt : containing notices of its origin, formation, geological position and principal localities, embracing a particular description of the American salines : with a view of its uses in the arts, manufactures and agriculture : delivered as a lecture before the New-York Lyceum of Natural History / by Jer. Van Rensselaer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    inclined strata, reposes immediately on the granite, without the intervention of any transition rock. And yet in this country geological outlines-are more dis- tinct than in any other that geologists have examin- ed. Where the sandstone of the coal formation re- dines on mountain limestone, which lays on schistose rocks covering granitic mountains, the desire to abo- lish the transition gains fresh support. Where transition rocks exist, they should be con- sidered as belonging to the secondary region, since, strictly speaking, they are universally of that forma-' tion. In our own country, the secondary, whether used in the usual acceptation, or in the extended sense I now propose, forms the greatest and fairest portion of our soil. The primary range, extending like a spine through our Atlantic slates forms a support to the vast coun- try stretching to the north and west; while on the south and east, it offers resistance, to the force of the Atlantic, which has rolled to the tertiary, reposing at its base, the alluvial which forms so conspicuous and valuable a portioji of our southern states. It seems, indeed, a giant arm, \^hich, issuing from the north pole, has elevated our immense continent trom the bed of ocTan, and upholds it against the war of ele- ments.