366 Mr. Weaver on the Carboniferous Series 



carboniferous limestone thus appears to support not only 

 tlie bituminous coal measure series of the Alleghany and 

 Catskill mountains on the N. and the E., but also to inclose 

 and support on the E. the anthracitous deposits of Carbondale, 

 Lackawanna, and Wyoming ; in fact, serving as a base to the 

 alternating series No. 3, which supports the more productive 

 coal-bearing measures No. 4<*. The further continuity of the 

 anthracitous range from Wyoming to the southward, through 

 the regions bordering on the Lehigh and Schuylkill rivers, 

 and their probable juxtaposition in that direction with trans- 

 ition rocks on the east, I have already adverted to in my no- 

 tice of August, 1 836. 



In the State of New York, the southern border of the main 

 body of the carboniferous limestone intersects upon its range 

 the Lakes Seneca and Cayuga, and near the heads of those 

 lakes, on the south, the coal measures No. 3 contain thin layers 

 of bituminous coalf. The same occurrence has been remarked 

 inOtsego county in the shale lying above the limestone J. In 

 the same manner narrow seams of bituminous coal have been 

 found in the Catskill range bordering on the river Schoharrie, 

 and again in the southern part of the same range in Ulster 

 county, varying from 8 to 22 inches thick, the beds being in 

 some places horizontal, but in general slightly inclined to the 

 west§. To what extent other seams of coal may occur in the 

 higher accumulation of these coal measures No. 3, subjacent to 

 the great anthracitous and bituminous deposits of Pennsylv^ 

 nia in series No. 4, remains yet to be proved. 



If to these circumstances of relative position we add the 

 further consideration that fossil plants are found both in the 

 anthracitous and bituminous coal-fields of Pennsylvania, which 

 are identical with those occurring in the bituminous coal-fields 

 of Ohio and in the great coal-fields of Europe ||; that both 

 the anthracitous and bituminous coal regions of Pennsylvania 

 are alike productive of large quantities of clay ironstone ; and 

 moreover that, so far as it has been shown, the alternating se- 

 ries No. 3, and the subjacent carboniferous limestone No. 2, 

 exhibit such other organic exuviae as are common in the car- 

 boniferous epoch; combining these several data, I do not see 

 how we can avoid coming to the conclusion that the whole se- 

 ries, from No. 1 to No. 4? inclusive, belong to the great car- 

 boniferous order, and that no part of that series belongs to the 

 transition system. 



* Geological Text-Book, pp. 90, 121, 124. f lb., pp. 79, 110. 



t lb., p. 121. 



§ J. Pierce in American Journal of Science, vol. vi. pp. 94 to 96. 

 jl Geological Text-book, pp. 91, 125 j and American Journal of Science, 

 vol. xxui. pp. 399, 400. 



