THE OPINION OF WHITNEY AND WADSWORTH. 359 



been made clear to the candid mind that the geologist would find himself completely 

 battled who should endeavor to obtain any definite knowledge of the real nature and 

 order of succession of the rocks which cover so large a portion of the region in question 

 from the study of that which has been published with regard to them. We believe 

 that we are justified in going still farther and saying that our chances of our having 

 at some future time a clear understanding of the geological structure of Northeastern 

 North America would be decidedly improved if all that has been written about it were 

 at once struck out of existence." * 



We may do our predecessors the simple justice to admit that they have 

 beeu engaged ou difficult problems and have treated them with ability equal 

 to that employed by our contemporaries, and yet feel, with Whitney and 

 Wadsworth, that very much remains to be desired. 



After the foregoing representation of the state of our knowledge of the 

 older rocks, it may appear presumptuous on the part of the present writer to 

 make an attempt where so many have fallen short of the success at which 

 they aimed. There are two circumstances, however, which lead the writer 

 to hope that he may be able to contribute something to a final understanding 

 of the structural relations of our pre-fossiliferous rocks : 1. He has had the 

 good fortune to study them over an area in which they lie apparently 

 in their original relative positions for hundreds of miles in uninterrupted 

 extent, while the older investigations have been conducted in the midst of 

 wearisome and perplexing convolutions, plications, and overturns. 2. He 

 has made his field observations for himself and has not depended on the reports 

 of subordinates ; and, besides earlier studies, he has spent recently the entire 

 working period of two seasons camping on the formations under investiga- 

 tion. It may be added that he has extended his researches into the fields 

 reported on by others and has collated the conclusions reached by them with 

 the facts observed by himself. He thinks, therefore, it will not be regarded 

 presumptuous to offer his contribution to the common stock of knowledge. 



The Northwest compared with New England and Canada. 



In most parts of the northern United States and eastern Canada, where 

 the oldest rocks present themselves at the surface, their condition, as repre- 

 sented, is that of more or less crumpled masses. In the Adirondacks the 

 granites, norites, and gneisses are thus characterized by Emmons,f though, 

 according to the methods of his time, the mineral constituents of the crystal- 

 line rocks were regarded more important than the structural features. In 

 Vermont the gneisses are reported by E. and C. H. Hitchcock as " exceed- 

 ingly contorted,"! insomuch that great difficulty exists in determining aver- 



*" The Azoic System and its proposed Subdivisions," by J. D. Whitneyand M. E. Wadsworth, Bulletin 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, Geological Series, Vol. I [pp. i-xvi and 331-505], pp. 519-520. 

 t Geology of New York, Part [I, 1842, 2d District, especially pp. 23 and 77. 

 t Geology of Vermont, Vol. I, 1861, p. 518. 



