GEOLOGICAJ. AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEYS. 351 



views before entertained regarding the relations of the eastern and 

 western parts of the State; they had traced the boundaries of the 

 successive geological formations, had shown the extent and limits of 

 the iron-bearing strata, and had rectified the erroneous views which 

 had been held until sometime after the commencement of the survey, 

 regarding the boundaries and distribution of the salt-ben ring forma- 

 tions of the State. They had also shown the extent of the granitic 

 formations and their associated mineral products, the thickness and 

 extent of all the limestone, sandstone, and shale formations of the 

 State, and had definitely settled the relations of the rocks of New 

 York to the coal measures of Pennsylvania and the geological for- 

 m-ations of the Western States. 



Their labors had in a great degree quieted the feverish anxiety 

 regarding the discovery of coal within the limits of New York, for 

 which frequent explorations had been made in the black slates of 

 Hudson Eiver valley and elsewhere, involving the expenditure of 

 much money * and loss of time. During these years the New York 

 geologists had accumulated a vast amount of material and of facts 

 regarding the geological formations within the State, proving con- 

 clusively that they could not be paralleled with any of the de- 

 scribed and well-determined formations of Europe. The Silurian 

 system of Murchison, although covering a portion of similar ground, 

 was not broad enough to meet the requirements of the geology of 

 New York. Thus failing to find the means of comparison and 

 identification, the term " Ncav York system " was proposed, to em- 

 brace the sedimentary formations from the Potsdam sandstone to 

 the base of the Carboniferous system: or, as the formations were 

 developed in New York and southerly into Pennsylvania, the up- 

 ward extension of this system reached the base of the coal measures. 

 The term, then, was made to include the formations ordinarily em- 

 braced in the names of Cambrian. Sihirian, and Devonian of Eng- 

 land and the continent of Europe. The geological series of New 

 York was found to be so complete that the succession left no lines or 

 breaks for the establishment of systems, the whole being but a single 

 system, and. it is added, had tlie older rocks of the globe been first 

 studied in New York no such terms or subdivisions would ever have 

 found their way into geological nomenclature. There being no 

 possibility of identifying the individual rocks and groups of strata 

 with those of Europe as they had been described, the New York 

 geologists felt compelled to give names to the different members of 

 the series, and since the sandstones, limestones, slates, and shales 



» DnHnsr the RO yoars proerding 1R40 more than a quarter of a milHon dollars had 

 been thus expended in the Hudson Valley alone. 



136075—20 ^24 



