USA > New York > The natural, statistical, and civil history of the state of New-York, v. 1 > Part 31
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Iron Pyrites. sulphuret of iron-This mineral occurs in all the rocks from the oldest to the youngest. It is in masses, par- alelopipeds, cubes, balls, &c. Its colours are bright yellow, pale yellow, brown, steel grey, tin white, &c. The bright yellow has often been mistaken, by the common people, for gold. Miners, and those in whose hands mineral rods have self-motion, would do well before they spend much time and money in digging, to subject it to a chemical test. Pulverization and ignition will be sufficient, as this glittering mineral, when triturated, burns nearly as quick as powder.
In some cases the forms of pyrites are durable, while in others, they decompose and fall to pieces. Pyrites sometimes penetrates wood which has been buried for a long time. "Min- eralized wood has often been dug up on Long Island and Sta- ten Island .- Dr. Mitchell. Pyrites occasionally contains both sulphur and arsenic.
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Pyrites is largely employed in the fabrication of green vit- riol, &c.
Sulphur-This mineral occurs at Phelps, in the county of Ontario, and various other'places. Hitherto it has not been manufactured to any extent. Sulphur, it is said, abounds iu the mineral, vegetable and animal realms.
Soils, &c. -
In this article, we shall endeavour. to give a synopsis of the soils. Beyond this little can be expected, in a work of this kind, however desirable it may be. We intend to arrange them under seven heads :- First, clay,-second, loam-third, sand -- fourth, gravel-fifth, alluvion-sixth, marl-seventh, peat, or vegetable earth. These are divided into kinds and varieties.
1. CLAY kinds. Yellow Grey
· Blue Red. 1 · White
These exhibit varieties. The yellow, grey and red are the most common.
2. LOAM kinds.
Argillaceous Calcareous
Silicious, or quartzose Gravelly.
The argillaceous and sandy are the most widely distributed. Upland and lowland loams, together with friable, come under the foregoing denominations.
3. SAND kinds.
Grey Yellow
Reddish Brown
Black White.
These never occur in a perfectly pure state on the surface, being always mixed with some of the other earths. Iron often. gives colour to sand. The black, the brown and ferruginous, derive their colour from-this mineral. Iron is a very abundant mineral-it gives colours, not only to several soils, but also to rocks.
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4. GRAVEL
kinds. Fine Coarse
Loamy
Sandy
Calcareous Argillaceous.
Gravelly soils, although of common occurrence, are less abundant than the preceding. In some instances, they are pro- ductive.
5. ALLUVION kinds. River Lake.
.Vegetable
The varieties are argillaceous, sandy, calcareous, gravelly, &c. These denominations seem applicable, according to the preva- lence of the argillaccous, quartzose, calcareous, gravelly and vegetable matter.
6. MARL kinds. Argillaceous Bituminous
Slaty Calcareous Sandy, or quartzose.
Marl may be ranked among the newer earths-it is a valua- ble manure-it differs in constituents, colour, and other circum- stances. The names used denote the kinds. In the argilla- ceous, the clay predominates. The bituminous and slaty may be denominated argillaceous. In the calcareous, lime is the main ingredient, as sand is in the quartzose. Clay or lime, however, is the fertilizer in the latter. The colours are whitish, pale yel- low, yellow, grey, blue, green and blackish. Marls may be divided into two classes, ancient and recent. The former was formed while the primeval ocean was abandoning the surface of the earth-the latter, after the abandonment, and while exten- sive tracts were still covered by the derelictions of the primitive ocean, or the lakes left by those derelictions. The Oneida and Seneca vale, at this day, affords many examples. The marls of the Montezuma marshes, and the cedar swamps, have been formed since, and while the vale was the bottom of a lake, or the derelictions of a lake. Around Onondaga, and some other, collections of water marl is still forming.
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7. PEAT, or vegetable earth-kinds. Swampy - Marshy.
· Boggy
Peat, or vegetable earth, varies considerably in age, colour, constituents, and other circumstances. The bituminous, or such as is charged with bitumen, is used for fuel. There is not, however, much of this kind in the State. The others, . when dried, will burn, but the combustion is slow and irregular. Some of the peaty soils are fertile. This is the case generally wherever the lands can be drained.
We shall conclude this chapter with some remarks.
It has been alleged by some writers, that soils partake of the nature of the rocks which support them. This, in a qualified sense, is true ; but when applied to the soils of all countries, it is not. The plains of the Hudson, and some other districts iu this State, are exceptions. These are alluvial. They have, however, not been formed by rivers and creeks, or the disintegration of rocks in place, but by some great inunda- tion which removed the soils from one region to another. We intend to confine our remarks mostly to the Saratoga and - Albany plains. The inundation, or deluge, which transport- ed the soils of these plains from situ, to where they now · are, we are of opinion was not universal or of long duration, but limited and transient. It did not cover the highest hills and mountains in this State. Its direction seems to have been from the north to the south. " The Saratoga and Albany plains have a direction from north to south, and are between sixty and seventy miles in length, with a breadth of from two to twelve . or fourteen miles. The rocks underlaying these plains are mostly clay slate and grey wacke slate. There are two slopes, one southerly and the other towards the Hudson. The former is very easy ; the latter is usually so. The ancient soils, or such as were formed from the disintegration of rocks in place, were mostly left, although invaded and covered by those deported. The deported soils consist of gravel, sand and sandy loams, and now and then of some clays which are always distinguish-
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able. The gravel'is the most abundant in the north ; the sand in the middle, and the sandy loams in.the south and on the mar- gins. The gravel, sand and loams vary in thickness from four to sixty feet, exclusive of some hillocks and ridges.' The sur- face of the three contains more or less clay. " Beneath sand and gravel are found in greater purity. The former is often nearly pure, indicating a subsidance, and levelling in accordance with its specific weight or gravity. The sand and gravel, and even the loams of these plains agree in their component parts with the sand, gravel and loam, found in the northern primitive tract. No rocks in situ, that is such as underlay the plains, could by disintegration have formed such soils. Hence, we are led to conclude that the soils enumerated, or such as constitute the plains, were deported by a transient inundation, and spread over the original soils, or such as belonged to them as were left by that inundation. The gravel, sand and loam rest upon the clay, marl and rocks in situ. The line of the Hudson was the centre, or nearly so, of the inundation. Along its line the waters of the deluge moved with most force. Here the strong- est and most durable traces have been left. The sandy and gravelly swells and ridges lessen as we recede from the vicinity of the stream. Fewer traces are to be seen on the east side than on the west side of the river. But this was occasioned by the county being more elevated on the east side. The con- formation of the Kinderhook plains, however, in some respects, demonstrates that the invasion would have left sameness of aspect, and other circumstances, had the county been equally level on both sides of the river when it was invaded.
Before this inundation, we think that this part of our hemis- phere produced, nourished and supported the mastodon. The bones of this enormous animal have been found in the low grounds of the counties of Ulster and Orange, buried beneath the recent alluvions. Here then we have evidence that this animal once existed. Here then it was enveloped by the last, or one of the last catastrophies which befel our globe : We mean an inundation or deluge, which did not rise to the height of the highest hills and mountains, because the lesser animals,
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whose bones are found enveloped in similar alluvions, still exist. The inundation, or deluge, did not cover the whole earth, but only the lower parts. It only destroyed the animals that dwelt in the lower parts, or such as it found. The mastodon, or American elephant, as it is called by some, dwelt, it is probable, in low situations The deluge, then moving over these places, overwhelmed and obliterated the race. To such, or a like ca- tastrophe, we must attribute the destruction of this race of ani- mals. Our globe has been the theatre of great revolutions. Whole races of animals have been swept away. Rocks and alluvions, in which their remains are entombed, it would seen, proclaim these truths.
· The bolders, or blocks of primitive rocks so plentifully scat- tered over some districts, lying in the transition and secondary tracts, were, it is likely, brought by the same inundation or del- uge, or one or others which preceded it. These bolders attest the force of the inundation, or the rapidity and volume of the overwhelming waters. The waters must have moved in vast torrents, and with great velocity, otherwise they could not have removed and transported these masses, many of which are of enorinous size, from situ to the places where they are now found. The counties of Saratoga, Montgomery, Herkimer, Oneida, Lewis, &c. afford immense numbers of these bolders. They are not wanting in the counties of Schenectady, Schoharie and Otsego, but in the two latter they are not abundant. The numbers and sizes lessen as we leave the primitive region which furnished them. These bolders are now in lines, and then strewed ; occasionally they are heaped. The plains, slopes and acclivities where they now lie, are sometimes gradu- al, and at others steep. In ascents, we now and then find that the bolders were arrested. The hills on the south side of the Mohawk, and of Lake Ontario, seem from their acclivity, to ' have stayed most of them. This is particularly the case in the Mohawk country, Hassencleaver, and some parts of the High- lands of Black river. We find them on the north side of the Mohawk, along the valley, and on the first series of hills ou the south side of that river : on the north side of Hassencleaver
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and on the Highlands, but very few southerly of these limits. They cover the ground, in a few places, on the declivities and acclivities, and even in the valleys. They are all out of place, and based on the newer rocks or alluvia. The largest bolders we remember ever to have seen, are on the north side of the Mohawk river, and on the Highlands of Black river, and its declivities. Some which lie on the summit of the Highlands, which, in certain places, is a kind of plain, are of enormous magnitudes, containing from 2,000 to 5,000 cubic feet. On descending the Highlands, in the direction of Utica, the num- bers and magnitudes diminish. The northern acclivity of Has- sencleaver seems to have lessened the strength of the torrents, and caused a detention of the bolders. Very few are now found on that mountain. Between its foot and the hills of Otsego and Chenango, only solitary ones of small dimensions occur. Blocks of primitive rocks are to be seen along the West Canada creek, almost to its mouth. Those found near the river are smaller than those at a distance.
The bolders, whether primitive, transition or secondary, are smaller now than they were when removed from their original positions. On the Highlands of Black river, and some other places, where they rest on the limestone, the rocks supporting them, in certain instances, form bases all around them; the . rocks beyond the bolders having passed away by disintegration since the deportation.
In the county of Oneida, northwesterly of the village of Rome, there is a sandy plain which appears to have been form- ed in the same way that the Albany and Saratoga plains were ; that is, by the deportation of sand, gravel and loam, from the primitive region, lying to the northeast. Its extent is four or five miles in one direction, and two or three in the other. The aspect of these plains is similar to that of the Saratoga and Al- bany. The depth of the sand and gravel composing them, is inconsiderable. Bog iron ore occurs in the swampy and marshy places. The gravelly plain on which the village of Rome stands, it is probable, is foreign, having been brought by the same or a similar agent. The deported stratum has a thick- VOL. I. 46
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ness in some places of thirty feet. Trunks of trees have been found buried at the depth of twenty feet.
On the north side of the Mohawk, in the counties of Herki- mer and Montgomery, patches of loam, sand and gravel, of foreign origin, often occur. Along West Canada creek, they may be found as far as the Mohawk. The village of Herkimer stands on one of these patches. The river alluvions encircle it. Traces may be seen on the south side of the flats, to Fall Hill. East of the village of Herkimer, immediately after crossing West Canada creek, there is a plain containing some thousand acres, the soil of which is evidently deported. Here gravels and sandy loams form the cover.
On the southeasterly side of Mayfield mountain, or Clip hill, in the county of Montgomery, there are patches and small fields. Those in Johnstown and Broadalbin are the most considerable. In the towns of Cicero and Lysander, in the county of Onon- daga, there are two small plains.
Between Camillus, in the county of Onondaga, and Cayuga lake, and southerly of the Erie canal, there are many small ridges and hills composed of gravel and loam. They are based on a plain, and occupy a line from two to four or five miles in breadth. They are insulated, and are formed of materials dif- fering from those of the plain on which they stand.
The plain between Waterloo, in the county of Seneca, and Geneva, in the county of Ontario, is mostly a sandy loam. Its aspect differs from that of the lands around.
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CHAPTER XII.
CLIMATE.
THE climate of a country is modified by various causes and circumstances, such, for example, as its latitude, its surface, its aspect, its waters, its winds, its cultivation, and its soils.
That portion of the American continent, lying in the paral- Jels of Europe, has been found several degrees colder in winter. In this State, which corresponds with the north of Spain, the south of France, and the centre of Italy, there is usually enough of snow every winter for sleighing, from four to twelve weeks, some small tracts excepted.
The thermometer varies from the freezing point, which is thirty-two degrees to zero, and from thence to fourteen degrees below. In some instances it has been known to descend to twenty-six degrees below zero. The comparative tables of Dr. Beck, kept at Albany, from the first of January 1820, to the first of January 1827, comprising seven years, show the lowest ranges below zero, to have been twelve and fourteen degrees. These instances are, however, at present rare, and are therefore considered extraordinary. Sixty or seventy years ago they occurred almost every year, differing only some degrees in se- verity.
Sometimes on the coast of the Atlantic ocean, and along the basins of the Hudson and St. Lawrence, there are thaws in winter, which raise the mercury to sixty, and even to seventy degrees, which is summer heat. These thaws accompany and follow the southwest wind, which occasionally blows on the sea coast, and in these basins. The same wind is not unfrequent in the basin of the Susquehannah. The southwest wind some- times becomes southerly, adapting its course to the valleys which it traverses-but more of this hereafter.
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.
The snow does not continue so long along the river St. Law - rence, and its vicinity, as it does in the forests, by a month or five weeks. The winter (that is permanent snow) does not come on so soon by a month or five weeks. The winters along this river are more broken and less severe, since improvements have been made, than they were before.
The winters along the shores of lakes Ontario and Erie, and on the river Niagara, which connects those lakes, are usually from two to three weeks shorter in their duration than they are along the St. Lawrence.
In the counties of Steuben, Alleghany and Cattaraugus, and the upper parts of Chatanque county, the winters usually com- mence a month earlier than they do on the coasts of Lake Erie, and in the champaign and flat countries around it ; and this, notwithstanding these counties are on the same parallel with a part of this lake. We speak only of snows which remain after they fall, although the same remarks will, in a measure, apply, when the winters are mild or even severe.
The difference between the climate along the St. Lawrence, around lakes Ontario and Erie, and along the Niagara, and that of the forests in the interior, and even in the cleared parts, is very marked, independent of elevation, as every observer must have noticed.
The intense heats begin about the first of June, and continue to the middle or last of August. During this period the ther- mometer generally fluctuates between seventy and eighty-five degrees of Farenheite. Sometimes the mercury ascends to ninety-five, and even as high as one hundred degrees, while at others, it descends to sixty or sixty-five, and even as low as forty-five, which is within thirteen degrees of the freezing point.
The greatest heats are in July ; almost every year, there are several days in succession, in which the mercury rises from seventy-five or eighty degrees, to ninety or ninety-five degrees. The maximum is between one and three in the afternoon, and the minimum, between one and four in the morning. The severe cold begins about the winter solstice, and continues with more or less severity, to the middle or latter end of February,
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the period usually being about two months. Sometimes, how- ever, these colds hold over till in March. Formerly, they lasted to the middle, and even to April. This is still the case in the forest between the Mohawk and St. Lawrence rivers, out of the clearings.
The heats, in April and May, are sometimes intense, the thermometer being between ten in the forenoon and four in the afternoon, seventy or seventy five, and in certain instances, eighty degrees. A similar intensity of heat often prevails be- tween the first of September, and the autumnal equinox ; and even as late as the first of October, it is not uncommon to see the thermometer at seventy or seventy-five degrees, between the hours of ten in the morning and four in the afternoon.
Severe cold is sometimes witnessed as early as the middle or latter part of November, and the forepart of December, and as late as the latter part of March, and the forepart of April.
The cold, between the winter solstice and the latter part- of February, is ordinarily so very great as to freeze the Hudson, and our other rivers over in twenty-four or thirty hours, strong enough to bear footmen and horsemen. These occurrences are, however, becoming rarer than formerly, particularly along the Hudson, and some other rivers, where large clearings have been made.
The variations in the weather during the winter, are often very sudden and extremely great, amounting, in some instances, to forty or fifty degrees in twelve or twenty-four hours. In spring, summer aud autumn the changes are no less sudden and great. Frequently there will be a decrement in the thermome- ter from eighty or seventy, down to sixty or fifty degrees; and there are not instances wanting of its descending forty degrees in less than twenty-four hours. These cases commonly occur when the wind shifts to the northwest or northeast and blows from those quarters.
These examples, or instances, are, however, yearly lessening, as the forests are falling beneath the axe. The northwest and northeast winds are less frequent, less violent, and of less dura- tion than heretofore.
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- There are very marked differences between the climate be- low the Highlands, or Matteawan mountains, and that above them, and between the latter and that in the north, the east, the interior, and the west. The climate along the basin of the Hudson proper, and along Lake Champlain, varies very con- siderably from that of the south, the interior, and the west. There is also a variance between the first and the last. We shall, in due season, introduce some facts independant of ther- mometrical observations, and even the presence and absence of snow, to show the differences.
From some of the preceding data, it will be seen that the scale of variation, in summer, is from thirty-five to sixty de- grees ; in autumn, from sixty to seventy-three ; in winter, from seventy to ninety-six ; and in spring, from three to seventy-five. These are the extremes. In summer, instances happen of the mercury descending from seventy, which is summer heat, to forty, and of its ascending from seventy to ninety or one hundred. In autumn it will now and then rise from forty to forty-five above the freezing point, which is thirty-two, and it will fall from twenty to twenty-eight below. In winter, it will run down to three, six, fourteen, and even twenty-six degrees below zero, and rise seventy above; in spring, it will be as low as three above zero, and as high as seventy-five or eighty above.
. The variations are greater on the Atlantic coast, and along the St. Lawrence, and around lakes Ontario and Erie, than they are in the interior, independant of elevation and improve- ments, because the northeast, east, southeast and southwest winds are more prevalent on the coast, and the southwest and northeast on those lakes, and along the St. Lawrence. The northeast is cold and tempestuous, bearing on its wings snow or rain ; the east is wet and cold, sometimes snowy. At New-York, the northeast and east frequently bring snow ; the southeast is sometimes attended with snow. The south and southwest winds are hot and often stormy. On the coast, and in the basin of the Hudson proper, the southeast, south and southwest winds, especially the latter, sweeps away most or all of the snow. The south wind of the Hudson is usu-
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ally, in its inception, a southwest wind, but then on its en- tering the basin of that river it changes its direction, adapt- ing its course to the basin's configuration. 'Winds often conform themselves to the course of river valleys, &c. The southwest, in like manner, dissipates the snow in the St. Lawrence basin, and the basins of the great lakes, lying in its range. But these winds, after all, do not commonly have great effect out of those basins, being generally confined to them. The south- west wind, after it has entered the basin of the Hudson, becomes a south wind. It advances northerly as far as Lower Canada. Its strength diminishes as it marches onward.
The transitions from cold to heat take place with the changes of the wind from northwest or northeast; sometimes from the east to the southeast, south or southwest; and on the contrary, from heat to cold occur with changes of the wind from southwest, southeast to northwest, northeast and east. The physiognomy of a country has great influence in form- ing winds and currents. This is particularly the case with the State of New-York. 'The coast and the basins of the Hudson and the St. Lawrence, from their very configurations, are adapted to certain winds.
The three habitual winds are the northwest, the northeast and southwest. The first and second are general-the third is nearly so. The first and third are the most common. The south, southeast and west are local. The east wind is general, but it seldom blows. The south and southeast are confined, in a great measure, to the Atlantic coast, and inland to the Mat- teawan mountains.
Besides these winds, there are local winds that blow in par- ticular districts. The north wind is local. It is confined most- ly to the Champlain and Hudson valleys, and the basin of Lake Ontario In the Mohawk valley, between the mouth of Scho- harie creek and the town of Utica, the south wind of the Hud- son becomes easterly and looses most of its heat.
The air in the forests which are situated in the north and west, is drier in winter and weter in summer than it is in the im- proved country. It is also drier in the hilly than in the flat
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country, whether the lands are cleared or not. The continu. ance of the snow in winter is one principle cause. The cold dense air of the forests repels the warmer, rarer, and moister air of the open country. . Hence there is not much mixing. The cold frozen air of the forests, however, descends in greater or less quantities into the clearings, which renders the air of those parts colder than it would otherwise be.
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