200 07i the Position of Salijerous Rocks 



But this must rest upon assertion ; the identity is not so sus- 

 ceptible of proof as that of coal. Coal makes no mistakes. 



But where are the mineral or fossil characters of the lias of 

 Europe to be found in the lias of this Synopsis? It would be 

 a vain attempt to look for them : nothing can be more dis- 

 similar. Instead of the calcareo-argillaceous beds with their 

 marly partings, we find imperfect beds of limestone, and 

 isolated beds of gypsum, laid in a slaty shale ; and instead 

 of the Ichthyosaurus, the Gryphasa incurva, the Ammonites 

 Bucklandi, &c. &c. we have the Trilobite, and never-ending 

 congeries of Producta and Spirifers. What is the reason that 

 the Saurians and other characteristic fossils have not been 

 found in the State of New York ? We have the true answer 

 to the question. In supposing the formation not to exist there. 



But this saliferous rock whence the brine is derived, and 

 which is acknowledged to be subjacent to the pseudo lias; this 

 must, it would appear, be new red sandstone, because it con- 

 tains brine, and cavities of former crystals. There is nothing 

 very extraordinary in crystals of salt being found in muriati- 

 ferous earths ; any desiccated salt lake might be expected to 

 contain them, and such lakes do not affect particular forma- 

 tions. But is it because gypsum and rock-salt are found in 

 new red sandstone in England, that the rock which contains 

 brine in America must be its equivalent? For the gypsum of 

 the State of New York is found in the lower beds of the car- 

 boniferous limestone or in the lias, according to the Synopsis, 

 and not in the saliferous rock. The saliferous rock then, to 

 vindicate its claims to promotion in the series, has to place its 

 reliance on the brine. Now suppose that brine wei-e drawn 

 from a red sandstone on this continent, the equivalent of Mac- 

 CuUoch's primary red sandstone (and there is such a rock in 

 North America), which even alternates with the gneiss, and at 

 Suil Veinn is horizontally laid upon the highly elevated gneiss. 

 Would that constitute the rock a new red sandstone ? How 

 could we account for the brine? And how do we account for 

 the brine drawn from the transition slates on this continent ? 

 At the city of Albany borings have been made more than four 

 hundred feet into those slates, and a perennial source of mineral 

 water has been disengaged, which upon analysis gives 64 parts 

 of muriate of soda. The celebrated mineral waters too of Ball- 

 ton rise through the transition slates. It must also be remem- 

 bered that the analogy entirely fails with the new red sand- 

 stone in Cheshire, since rock-salt has not yet been found in 

 this part of North America. 



To illustrate still further the true position of this saliferous 

 rock as it is called in the Synopsis, E. W. B. is referred to 



the 



