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General View of the County

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As we should expect, in an undulating, hilly and mountainous district of country, the County abounds with a great number of ponds, lakes and large streams, including several rivers, which, in the aggregate, offer and furnish an immense hydraulic power, a large part of which is in useful and profitable employment. The beauty and beneficial nature of this water power is, that it is not located in any one particular region, but every where in general. It is as universally and widely disseminated over the broad surface of the County as the rain showers which fall upon it, or the winds which blow over it. We believe there is not one town in the County but has water power to some extent, Goshen the least. In the extreme western portion flow the Delaware, Mongaup and Neversink, which just touch and leave the County, and seek the ocean by a southern course. In the eastern, the majestic Hudson, with gentle and unruffled bosom, white with the canvass of a rich and varied commerce, rolls her silent flood to the south, washing the whole eastern boundary. Through the central portion, the Walkill, rising in New Jersey, breaking from the slough of the Drowned Lands, pursues her uneven and winding way to the north, with smaller tributaries, and rich in hydraulic power, enters the County of Ulster, and unites with the Hudson at Kingston. The Otter Kill, Murderer’s, Chambers’, Gray Court, Ramapo, and a hundred other creeks, which run in every direction through and fertilize the County, will be particularly mentioned in their proper towns.

In many localities the hills abound with limestone of superior quality, while the mountain district yield inexhaustible masses of granite for all building purposes. This latter stone is compact and durable in structure, and free from the presence of the minerals which discolor and mar its beauty, after exposure for a length of tune to the action of the atmosphere. In some localities near Butter Hill, and at other points in the Highlands; quarries have been opened and worked, answering in all respects, as to quality, the most sanguine expectations formed of their excellence. Most of the buildings at West Point are constructed of this stone.— The late geological survey of the State has contributed to recommend these quarries to public favor, and bring them into more immediate notice.

The limestone is found in extensive masses in almost every town, and its ranges can be traced as definitely and continuously, as they pervade the County, as the granite formation. Too much cannot be said in favor of this stone, in an agricultural point of view, nor our farmers too deeply impressed with its value as a manure, in preparing composts—considering the exhausted and run-down condition of their lands. The time has come when the great staples of the County, grain and butter, are brought into competition in their own market, with those of the West, and fail to yield a living profit to the producer; and Orange must devote her lands largely to horticultural purposes, and supply the daily wants of the city, and leave breeding stock and growing long crops to others.

In connection with this reference to limestone we further remark, that there is one location worthy special notice in this review, which is now interesting the geologists and naturalists of the Union, on account of its curious and important minerals. The whole subject will be best and most concisely explained by the following extracts Dr. Samuel Fowler, of New Jersey, a scientific gentleman, in some published remarks, speaking on this subject, observes,

“Perhaps there is in no quarter of the globe is found so much to interest the mineralogist as in the White Crystalline Valley, commencing at Mount Adam and Eve, in Orange Co., N. York, about three miles from the line of New Jersey, and continuing thence through Vernon, Hamburgh, Franklin, Sterling, Sparta and Byram, about twenty-five miles in Sussex, N. Jersey. This limestone is highly crystalline, containing no organic remains, and a the great imbedding matrix of all the curious and interesting minerals found in this valley. When burned, it produces Lime of a superior quality. Some burned near Hamburgh is preferred in all kinds of masonry to Rhode Island lime. Some varieties, particularly the granular, furnishes a beautiful marble. It is often white, with a slight tinge of yellow, resembling the Parian marble from the island of Paros; at other times clouded black, sometimes veined black, and at other times arborescent.”