Identifier: travelsinnortham01lyel (find matches)
Title: Travels in North America, in the years 1841-2; with geological observations on the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia
Year: 1852 (1850s)
Authors: Lyell, Charles, Sir, 1797-1875
Subjects: Geology -- North America Slavery -- United States United States -- Description and travel Canada -- Description and travel Canada -- Description and travel Early works to 1800 United States -- Race relations
Publisher: New York, J. Wiley
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ter facility afford-ed for the escape of volatile matter where the fractu-ring of the rocks had produced an infinite number ofcracks and crevices, and also to the heat of the gasesand water penetiating these cracks, when the greatmovements took place, which have rent and folded theAppalachian strata. It is well known that, at the pres-ent period, thermal waters and hot vapours burst outfrom the earth during earthquakes, and these wouldnot fail to promote the disengagement of volatile mat-ter from the carboniferous rocks. Structure and Origin of the AppalachianChain. The subjects discussed in the preceding pages, leadme naturally to say something respecting the structureof the Appalachian chain, and its geological relationsto the less elevated regions east and west of it. Theannexed ideal section (fig. 5.), to which I shall havefrequently occasion to refer in the sequel, will give somenotion of the principal phenomena, omitting a great 7 71 Gi:OLO(;iCAL SKCTION. Chap, it ->Ji, § c^
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II ht ■? * Si 5 J E^i s. 5 it V- M - PI .S.2 is K^l c 2; ». C £ — •,....Iris An i^l! ? ,S c * 5 ~ .= ? -c;--~~ messs S-5--C 3-C-cc -C? Cr-£^ = ^ C B 3 Cs, III II f ^ - £.£ r? 5 i llfti § u iSo t 1 c fe S III 2 S O -^ oi «■ ■* tW >h o Chap. IV. TITE APPALACHIAN tllATN. 75 number of detail?. Startirig ivom the sliores of theAtlantic, on the eastern side of the Continent, we lirstcome to a low region (a, b), which was called the allu-vial plain by the first geographers. It is occupied bytertiary and cretaceous strata nearly horizontal, andcontaining in general no hard and solid rocks, and isusually not more than from 50 to 100 feet high, fromNew Jersey to Virginia. In these states this zoneis not many leagues in breadth, but it acquires abreadth of 100 and 150 miles in the Southern States,and a height of several hundred feet towards its west-ern limits. The next belt, from b to c, consists ofgranitic rocks (hypogene), chiefly gneiss and mica-schist, covered occasional

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