formations are marked with different colors. The primordial series, of which we have a small range along the State line between Tennessee and North Carolina, is colored blue. The grauwacke series, composed of grauwacke, slaty grauwacke, sandstone and limestone, which extend from the primordial series, to where they are lost under the Cumberland mountains, is colored yellow. The upper transition, or mountain limestone is colored red, and is composed of various strata of limestone covered on the highlands by a siliceous stratum which contains the iron ore of Middle Tennessee, and which commences at the western base of the Cumberland mountains, being visible also in Sequatchee Valley, forming the whole of what is called Middle Tennessee, and extending in some places to four and five miles west of Tennessee river, while that river forms its limits in Hardin county. The coal formation, which forms the mountainous part known by the name of Cumberland mountains, is colored brown; while the cretaceous strata, composed of marl, green sand and clay, and which compose the level country in West Tennessee, and extend to the Mississippi river, are colored green.

I have also given a section of all the different groups which I have observed in Tennessee. I have followed, in this section, the line mentioned in this report, except that I have taken two points on the line between this State and North Carolina, viz: from Roane mountain, in Carter county, which is primordial, and from Smoky mountain, on French Broad river, Cocke county, which is transition. The colors on this section coincide with those on the geological map, only two colors have been added, viz. on the carboniferous or mountain limestone, where in the section the aluminous slate and the siliceous stratum are marked by colors, which could not have been done on the map.

Having given in the preceding pages a general geological outline of the whole State of Tennessee, I will proceed with a detailed account of counties which I have more particularly examined. In my first and second reports, having already described Davidson, Williamson, Maury and part of Rutherford counties, I will now continue with

COCKE COUNTY.

As the mountainous part of East Tennessee offers a very interesting field for the geologist, I spent most of my time, in my last excursion, in Cocke county, where the French Broad river, having taken its origin in the southern extremity of Buncombe county, North Carolina, enters this State, traversing the whole of that part of the Appalachian chain which separates the two States, and offering a very interesting display of the different strata which compose that system.

As I have already observed in the general geological view of our State, the primordial rocks terminate about eight miles east of the Warm Springs in Buncombe county, North Carolina, they are there composed of gneiss, intermixed with granite, and are covered by nearly vertical strata of siliceous grauwacke till near the Warm Springs, where we have a stratum of granular limestone, upon which follows again the grauwacke, which forms the highest part of the chain here, and also at the Painted Rock, where the line passes which separates

our State from North Carolina. The Smoky mountain here, is, according to the measurement of M. Nicollet, 5000 feet above the level of the ocean, and forms a kind of table land. The ridges towards the west, which run somewhat parallel to the principal one, diminish gradually in height as they recede from the principal ridge, till they dwindle away to a gently rolling country. Descending along the French Broad river, the rocks continue in the same manner, except that the slaty grauwacke strata becoine more and more frequent, till about ten or twelve miles above Newport, we have a stratum of several rods in thickness of quartsite, having at some places the appearance of hornstone, or chert, sometimes of common quartz. There soon follows (about five miles above Newport, another stratumn of limestone, the strata of which rock become now pretty frequent, and prevail generally towards the northwest of the county.

In my examination on the French Broad, I made several excursions to the right and left of that river, and found that the above mentioned disposition of strata is pretty general through the whole county. The strata are interspersed with numerous veins of iren, manganese, and some zine ores, of which I will speak hereafter. Valuable mineral springs, mostly chalybeate, flow at several places out of the ground.

The limit of this grauwacke series is not always the same in regard to its distance from the State line, es observed above, the primordial recks extend no farther westward, on the French Proud river, than about sixteen miles east of the Painted Rock; whereas near the head of Big creek the primordial rocks enter for two or three miles into the State of Tennessee. Truvching from French Broad, between Mrs. Allen's and Holland's, in a scutein direction, I remained on the grauwacke for about ten inter south of the French Broad; at that point a cabin has been built, which is inhabited by a family, and other cabins are erecting. Near these habitations is the junction of the primordial with the transition series. The primordial, occupying the southern, or most elevated level of the chain, are generally a granite, which is composed of quartz, reddish felpar, a low small spangles of black mica, and chlorite tale, and which belongs to the priogene of the French geologists.

I ascended also the Big Pigeon river, which takes its origin south of Waynesville, Haywood coulity, North Carolina, and traverses the same ridge of Smoky or fron mountains, fifteen or twenty miles southcast of the place where the French broad crosses it. There is much similarity between these two rivers, owing to the likeness of the rocks over which they run. Í there also ascended it to near the State line, and found the transition terminated with the Stone mountains, about three or four miles from the line, and the same granite with chlorite made its appearance.

I observed above that the grauwacke rocks of this county were traversed in several directions by veins of iron and other ores. I have 'examined these iron ores with great care, and ascertained their positions as correctly as possible; lut as none of there veins have as yet been penetrated, I could only investigate them.ry crficially, and there

fore can offer only conjectures as to their position, which, nevertheless, are founded on appearances that have seldom misled me.

The first locality of iron ore that I examined was near Long creek, on the property of Mr. E. Birdseye. On his premises are found several deposits, which are remote the one from the other, but not so far but that the ore from them may with convenience be employed at one furnace. These ores are not of the same quality. The quantity of iron which each contains will be mentioned in another part of this report. I will here only state there seems to be no doubt but that there is a great abundance of iron ore. It is situated in a gently rolling country, which is mostly all under cultivation, possessing an excellent soil, which is not always the case in mining countries. Indeed there is found here every thing requisite for the establishment of iron works, plenty of ore, abundance of timber of the best kind for coal, ample quarries of good limestone, and I believe, Long creek will afford a copious supply of water to drive any machinery needed for such an establishment; at least it afforded a suflicient quantity when I was there in September of this year, a year remarkable for the long continued drought, which has drained most of our streams; but even if this creek should fail, these deposits are only about two miles from the French Broad, which never gives out.

One only of the above mentioned deposits has been penetrated, and has furnished the ore to Legion Furnace, belonging to a company, which, as it was composed of a legion of partners, is long since blown up; the iron made there of this ore I was informed was of excellent quality. On these premises are two chalybeate springs which are much resorted to by valetudinarians.

Crossing the French Broad above Long creek I visited several deposites of iron ore along Grass Fork creek, and which seem to be a continuation of that, which is on the right side of the river. Judging from the abundance of fragments of ore on the surface, the ore is also abundant there. Four extensive deposites exist on this creek.

Another deposite of iron ore is near the place of Mr. Holland near Stone's creek. It is very abundant, and its quality will be made known in another part of this report. Not far from this deposit is a vein of excellent black oxide of manganese, (1) which also seems to be abundant.

The next deposite of iron ore that I examined was near the Dry

(1) For those who are not acquainted with mineral productions, I beg leave to state that, Manganese is a metal that in its metallic state is of no use; but that it is employed for several purposes in'the state of ore, as it is produced by nature, viz: as black oxide of manganese, a sub⚫stance which is of a black color, sometimes dull, and having sometimes a metallic lustre. It is merely pulverized to make it fit for sale. It is used extensively for the preparation of chlorine, employed in the modern mode of bleaching linen and cotton goods, by chemists for the preparation of oxygen gas, and other purposes--and also by the glass

manufacturers.

Fork of Wolf creek. It is about two or two and a half miles from the French Broad-the ore seems to be in great abundance; it may be traced for several miles part y on this and partly on the other side of the State line. It differs much in its external appearance from the ores which are found in the other parts of the county. (See its proper description and constituents in the part of this report where the iron ores are described.)

Travelling along the banks of the Big Pigeon river, I found several pieces of good iron ore; and there is no doubt but that some other deposites, such as those mentioned above, exist in this country; but the mountainous part being as yet difficult to be penetrated in every direction, the proper sites and extent of these deposites cannot be ascertained with certainty. But though this country at first seems to offer many insurmountable obstacles to the traveller, the difliculty in penetrating in every direction may nevertheless be easily surmounted when conducted by experienced pilots. In this way I penetrated it, even on horseback, and reached at several places the summit of the great Smo-1 ky mountain, or the dividing ridge between North Carolina and Tennessee; and at trifling expense roads may be made, by which this whole mountainous region, not only in Cocke and Sevier counties, but in all the counties here bordering on the State line, would be traversed in every direction by wagons--and no doubt this will soon be the case.— When I first visited these mountains, I expected to find rugged rocks covered here and there with some sandy soil, terminating in peaks and crags, divided by impassable gorges and ravines. Instead of this, I was not a little surprised to find most of the declivities covered with an excellent soil, and adorned with a more luxuriant growth of trees than I have seen in any part of the United States.

A considerable portion of the country affords fine grass and arable. lands; taking the growth of timber as the criterion for judging of the soil, the traveller would immediately form a favorable opinion. Over the whole country, whether valleys or mountain declivities, the growth is not only abundant but very large; the trees generally tall. Northwest of Bulle's mountain range the growth-white oak (quercus alba,) black oak (quercus tinctoria,) Spanish oak (quercus falcata,) rock chesnut oak (quercus prinus monticola,) is very abundant. We also find chesnut (castanea vesca,) wild cherry (cerasus virginiana,) black walnut (juglans nigra,) mountain black birch (befula lenta,) yellow pine (pinus mitis,) white pine (pinus strobus.) On most of the small streams, in addition to the above, white beech (fagus sylvestris,) buckeye (pavia lutea,) several species of magnolia, poplar (liriodendron tulipifera,) sugar maple (acer saccharinum)-are all magnificent.

South-east of that range the land is more fertile, the sugar maple and other trees that commonly grow in river bottoms, and shrubs of great variety cover the ground. No country affords a more favorable growth for the tanning business than this country, the hemlock spruce (abies canadensis) is common, and of a prodigious size, particularly on the creeks. The black oak is another valuable tree, from which as yet, to my knowledge, no advantage has been derived in this State. Its bark

is very rich in the tanning principle, the only inconvenience which attends it is that it imparts a yellow color to the leather, which is erroneously believed to augment its value.

From the cellular integument of this oak is obtained the quercitron, of which great use is made in dying wool, silk, and paper hangings.According to several authors who have written on this subject, and among others, Dr. Bancroft, to whom we are indebted for this discovery, one part of quercitron yields as much coloring matter as eight or ten parts of woad. From a German price current of Hamburg, June 21st, 1839, the quercitron is rated at 12 and 13 banco-$4 00 pr hundred, and is I believe chiefly exported from Philadelphia to Europe.

The wild cherry is another valuable tree in these mountains, and grows to a prodigious size. I have measured trees which were from twelve to fourteen feet in circumference, and perhaps ninety or one hundred feet high, with a trunk of a uniform diameter, from twentyfive to thirty feet in height.

Most of the mountain slopes afford excellent range for stock, and the summits, which are mostly a kind of table land, are covered with the richest soil. I have examined in several places tfie high ridge in Cocke county from about two or three miles from the French Broad to near Big Pigeon river; this ridge is called, and very properly too, Rich mountain. I found a man and his family established near the summit, who had some land under cultivation. He had raised excellent potatoes of a large size; his cabbages were very large and solid; his corn was rather small, this may perhaps be owing to his late planting, or, as his little farm was pretty elevated, perhaps the climate is not warm enough for the raising of corn. There is no doubt that small grain, as wheat, oats, rye, and buck-wheat will be better adapted to the climate. The soil seems to be naturally fit for grass and pasture-the native or wild grass covers the ground in several places, and is intermixed with rich weed, as pea-vine and white clover.

No country can be better calculated for the raising of sheep-they can find an abundance of excellent food during the winter in the temperate valleys, where they are sheltered againtt the cold winds, while they can enjoy a more congenial temperature during the summer on the more elevated table lands; and some of the inhabitants, already aware of this, are increasing their flocks, and improving it by the Saxon breed, which gives a find kine of wool, and which perhaps would not thrive well during our hot summears in the low parts of Tennessee.

Some blue grass seed was sown here and there on the highest table land of Rich mountain, and when I visted that mountain during the month of September of this year, it grew well and seemed to subdue the other weeds, and no doubt would grow better if the sun was not prevented by the dense foliage of the trees from warming it with its

rays.

But these are not all the advantages which the mountainous part of East Tennessee offers. Nature has stamped it as a country for manufactures, as well as for the raising of stock, and nothing is therefore wanted but to furnish it with good roads, and it will soon be covered