CONTINUATION OF THE VALLEY RANGE.
We have only a few words more to say in connection with this subject. We have, in the early pages of this work, given the range and extent of the Auroral and Matins.' limestones as coextensive with the Primal rocks, or the Palozoic formations of the continent, and closely following the gneissic belt before described. It would be tedious to follow this formation in its vast range to the north and west as we have traced it from the south, nor would our time and space admit of such a course. We do not think this great limestone belt is as productive of ore to the north as to the south; but that the hematites exist throughout the range in large and available quantities, the many developments which have been made abundantly testify.
But the hematitic regions are not confined entirely to the limestones of the Auroral and Matinal periods. The brown hematites are also found to a limited extent among the limestones of a later period, and in the mountain or Carboniferous limestones of the coal-fields. These formations, however, do not produce these ores in equal abundance with the older limestones; in fact, their occurrence is rare, except where they constitute the outcrops of other ores, or ferriferous strata. But the evidence we
have given of the abundance of the brown hematites within the great basin sufficiently demonstrates its unlimited and inexhaustible supply.
The locations of these ores are such that they are brought in close connection with the coals of the anthracite fields on the Susquehanna, Schuylkill, Lehigh, Delaware, and Hudson Rivers. On the lakes and Western rivers the ores descend to the coal, and proceed in procession to the markets. In the South the same thing happens; on the Kanawha, the Tennessee, and the Coosa, the ores descend to the coal, and both proceed together to their markets. The ores of Lake Champlain and the Hudson, and the coals of Pennsylvania, advance to meet each other, and then both take the same route to the place of consumption. On the Lehigh, the Schuylkill, and the Susquehanna, the coal descends to the ores, and both join the procession to the markets of the East. Thus, the distribution of both ores and coal is eminently available and in practical proximity.