99 
The following paper was read : 
Progress of an Investigation of the Structitre and Lithology of 
the Hudson River Palisades. 
By Henry WURTz. 
This is but a partial report of progress in a work which is 
to be continued, if permitted to the author indefinitely, as 
the subject can scarce admit of exhaustion. 
1. SrrRucTURE AND GEOGONY. 
The following notes are chiefly collated very concisely from 
a paper which was mailed for presentation at the Chicago 
meeting of the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION, in August, 1868, 
but which failed to reach its destination. 
The two regions of the Connecticut Valley beds and that 
of New Jersey, (called by Dana the “Palisade Range’) 
appear correlative to each other, the structure of one being 
repeated in the other inversely; for example, the duplicate 
ranges of trap through the middle of each, and the convexi- 
ties of the crescent-shaped trap outcrops facing each other. 
As yet, there is no reason for supposing that the epoch of 
commencement of formation of these beds, was later than the 
close of the Carboniferous. The lithological characters of 
the Sub-Palisade beds, differ much from those of the over- 
lying beds, arguing different chemical conditions during their 
deposition. In these the Iron minerals, for example, are 
usually Hematite or Turgite, instead of Limonite as in the 
beds over the Palisades. It is held, therefore, that if the lat- 
ter are Triassic, the former may possibly be earlier, say 
Permian. Dr. Davip DALE OWEN argued, (Am. Jour. Science, 
iil, 865,) strongly in favor of placing the Permian at the base 
of the Mesozoic. The author is even inclined to believe that 
the great movements that are known to have closed the Car- 
boniferous, were simultaneous with the deposition of part 
of these beds. The author rejects the views held by some, 
- that the beds were originally deposited with their present N. 
W. dip, or, as this hypothesis is well set forth by Prof Gxo. 
H. Cook, Geology of New Jersey, 1868, p. 174; “the strata 
