The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-10-31
tta For the VALLEY V1RGiNIAN.
a NORTHERN MAN IN VIRGINIA.

The GREAT VALLEY OF F1RGlNlA--IH
RoANOKE-BLUE RIDGE sPRINGs-Co1
NsACK'S-FARAIING AND FRUl
RAIsIN Observation-Disclosures AN
MONTGOMERY WHITE SULPHUR SPRING
SIS it not somewhat remarkable" % asks
the New Yorker,as we crossed the Blue Ridf
at Buford's Gap, thirteen hundred fe
above the sea, and descended into I'll
Great Valley, .'that we should step almo
at once into region of country differin
SO greatly in many particulars from the a,
joining one we have just traversedp Wit
changed conditions of geological structure
we will find, am told, different soil, eli
mate and population from those of'Easter
/ Virginia. Yet L think 1 can understan
why these things should be.'' ~
"Yes," responded, "nature is severed
logical ard the more we study her, the NOR
we become imprea sed with this fact. He
most wonderful &C nplicities of action ofte
surprise us. wnen analysed by the equal
wonderful simplicity of their parts Ind til
kineyitable &c .tafnty with which effect follow
causation. The formation of this region 9
country is always to me subject of fires
interest and wonder. 1t is difficult to real
ize that all these mountains and valleys be
|
ages, formed of the sediment of the grea
shallow interior sea that stretched far up t.
the Northwest
''The pages of ssThe Stone Book of Ma
tire" have been we'll read" rejoined m,
companion, land they tell the story OF thei
birth and being in titanic characters whicl
her lovers, the biologists, have made plain t.
us. And in spite OF the seemingly chaotic
masses that make up the Appalachian sys
tenn, Lyell, Guyot, Lesley and Rogers hav'
told US how for millions upon millions o
years after the formation of the granite
rocks, the sediment OF sand, clay ant
mud continued to accumulate upon thu
sea bottom, which was steadily depressed
and then slowly raised to the surface
and hardened into rock--the Potts
dam sandstone, the Trenton limestone
and shales, and the Hudson river for.
nations, of the lower Silurian period
| thousands of feet in thickness. Then came
the marine deposits of the upper Silurian
period, thousands Of feet more OF the lime
stones, sandstores, conglomerates, shales
and states of the Niagara, Salina, Holder
burg and OIiskany formations. And upon
these were imposed the old red sandstones
and its states and shales, interesting series
of the Devonian period. These successive
than forty thousand feet in thickness, a
portion at least of which was further COW
cred by from two to three thousand feet of
Of the Lower Carboniferous formation"
II OBSERVE" said 1, shat in speaking OF
The successive formations you use the widely
known New York names, preferable, l
think, to the Pennsylva nia and Virginia
nomenclature of the brothers Rogers. Pri-
NAL, auroral, levant and surgent, scalent,
meridian, aud meridian, though more
scientific, are less adapted to popular use.
In Virginia we have come to calling the for
nation of the two Silurian periods simply
Rogers Nos. 1 to VIII and those of the
Devonian, Rogers VIII and TX But par
don my depression and continue" For had
noticed that fellow-trayeler, seated by us,
had become deeply interested in this geolog-
ical disqulsition.
Eyes, said the latter, s'pray tell us how
we came to find things as they now are, for
Of course great changes must have taken
place."
''Certainly." responded the New Yorker,
''for otherwise these more than forty thous-
and feet OF successfully stratified rock would
be found in horizontal strata, making up
of limestone valley. Other forces were at
work, and at period far anterior to the ell
ovation of the Rocky Mountains, the grad
ual cooling and contraction of the earth's in
terror wrinkled the less plastic crust, like
the skin on a shrunken apple, and produced
the great folds OF mountains and valleys
which make up the famous Appalachian sys-
TEN, more than fifteen hundred miles in
beyond the St. Lawrence in
Canada to Sand Mountain in Alabama-and
less than hundred miles In width. But
nature is never idle her forces are unceas-
ingly at work, and through the splitting
open of the sandstone along the backs of
the sharper ridges and the decomposition of
the limestones, states and softer sandstones,
the tops of these folds were worn away by
aqueous action and great valley formed
next to the Blue Ridge. This range marked
the eastern boundary Of the great upheaval
and was preserved by the enduring strength
of the primary and metaphoric rocks which
it. A notable example of this
valley formation by denudation is the long,
narrow Sequatchie Valley of Tennessee and
followed out along the back of an
fold of which Grab Orchard Noun
tain still remains. That the great Appa-
achian coal field, reaching from Northern |
Pennsylvania to Central Alabama, was not |
also denuded, was because the protecting |
covering of hard conglomorate was rarely |
20 acutely plicated as to break open and ex-
pose the softer strata below to destruction |
~ the elements. ..-..
'sAs we descend the western slope Of the |
Blue Bidge, therefore, anywhere along its
great extent, we soon come to the upturned
md broken edges of the Potsdam or Chill
nowee sandstone, with its rich stores of her
Matte, limonite and specular iron ores, and
strike the Cambrian or Trenton limestone as
We enter the valley itself, and whether we
inter the Champlain Valley OF Vermont, the
hudson Valley of New York, the Lebanon
md Cumberland Valleys of Pennsylvania,
n the great Valleys of Virginia and East
Tennessee, we find prevailing the same
more elevated and broken
urface, a lower and more equable tempera-
ure, greater rainfall, richer and strong
r soil, and more luxuriant vegetation
han is usual on the Atlantic slope below
he mountains. We find limestone to be
he prevailing rock, generally upturned with
considerable dip, often vertical, affording
he most perfect natural drainage, and de-
omposing into strong calcareous soil es-
ecially suited for the production of grass
nd cereals. Towards the extremities and
ess elevated portions, the valley is more
pen and less broken, but in Virginia and
'ennessee, where. according to Professors
sogers and Stafford, the characteristics
the Appalachian system are most strk-
ugly developed, we find the Great VAL
~ to be divided longitudinally into many
niEor valleys, divided by long paral-
81, sharply marked ridges, giving it pecu-
ar Jtuted appearance, to use the language
+ Prof. Stafford. Is not this correct p he
inquired of me.
''Strictly so,'' r. piled. 'These lesser
idges which frequently restrict cur view,
ink down into the plain or are but slightly
marked when viewed from a great eleva-
ion, as White Top, Roam, or the Cumber-
and Mountains, and the traveller from Ala.
anna to the st. Lawrence may traverse one
ong, gently undulating valley, without
assing over any heavy grades or great ele-
atoms, but crossing the valley, he meets
idge after ridge in quick succession like a
winner breasting the waves"
ssWbat can you tell US of its local charac-
eristics?' inquired my companion.
''Our Great Valley Of Virginia." I re-
pended, Occupies about the center of the
appalachian system and find it quite fully
ascribed in Bramhall's Southern Guide, to
hich you have referred, pages 24-32.
hough one continuous valley, clearly de-
ned by its bounding mountains, it is SUBJ
ivided by it's five river systems, the Shen-
ndoah, James, Roanoke, New and Holston.
Ie are now entering the middle and small
It of the five, the Roanoke Valley, about
miles in length from its water