312 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

To this general character of the soil there are but few exceptions: these are the bogs, or swamps, which consist either of a soft spongy turf, or a deep layer of wet black mould, resting on White clay, or sand.

In its natural state, the quality of the soil may be readily ascertained by the. descriptionof wood grow- ing on it ; it being richest where the maple, beech, black birch, and a mixture of other trees, grow, and less fertile where the pine, spruce, larch, and other varieties of the fir tribe, are most numerous.

The soil 1s fertile , and there IS sca1 cely a stone on the surface of the island Wthat will impede the pro- giess of the plough. There is no limestone n01 gypsum, nor has coal yet been discovered, although indications of its existence are produced. Iron ore is by many thought to abound, but no specimens have as yet been discovered, although the soil is in dif- ferent places impregnated with oxide of iron; and a sediment is lodged in the rivulets running from vari- ous springs, consisting of metallic oxides.

Red clay, of superior quality for bricks, abounds in all parts of the island; and a strong white clay, fit for potters’ use, is met with, but not in great quanti- ‘ ties. A solitary block of granite presents itself occa- sionallyto the traveller; but two stones ofvth1sdescr1p- tion are seldom found Within abmi‘le of each other.

I Volney and some other w1iters have 1emarked, that the granite base of the Alleghany mountains extends so far as to form the rocky stratum of all the countries of America lying to the eastward of them

To this, as a general rule, there is more than one 2