* 
Remarks on the Geology of Western New York. 247 
To me these facts seem conclusive evidence that the gas originates 
above the saliferous sandstone. Otherwise, it should find its exit 
through the sandstone itself, near the shore of Lake Ontario, where 
the least possible resistance would be opposed to its escape. Is it 
not far more philosophical to conclude, that this gas is formed in 
these strata, where we know the elements requisite for its composi- 
tion exist, than to suppose it comes from coal beds deep seated in 
the bowels of the earth, the bare existence of which is altogether 
hypothetical ? 
In passing south, towards the coal beds in Pennsylvania, the igher 
strata are brought into view. ‘They gradually become mor a- 
ceous, and the limestone entirely disappears. In Steuben and the 
other counties in that range, to Lake Erie, the principal surface rock 
is a close, fine grained sandstone, or graywacke, frequently contain- 
ing encrinites, and some other marine fossils. I have not, myself, 
had the pleasure of examining the bituminous coal beds in Pennsyl- 
vania, but we are informed by Dr. Hildreth, in his admirable treatise 
on the coal deposits of the valley of the Ohio, that at their most 
northerly limit, they crop out on the northerly slope of the high 
grounds in which some of the head branches of the Allegany, the 
Susquehanna, and the Genesee rivers take their rise, at which place 
the coal strata dip towards the south, or in the direction of the 
streams that fall into the Ohio River. It would seem, therefore, 
that these coal beds overlay, and rest conformably upon this shale and 
sandstone, which, as 1 before remarked, seems to form an interme- 
diate link between the transition rocks, and those which properly 
belong to the coal formation. 
If, as is taught by Bakewell, all rocks which underlay the regular 
coal formation, are older than the secondary, the transition character 
of this region does not admit of doubt; unless, indeed, it should be 
contended, that the immense deposits i coal in the Ohio valley do 
not belong to the ¢rue coal formation. To doubt this, after reading 
the luminous account of Dr. Hildreth, before adverted to, would be 
to doubt the fundamental principles of the science itself. 
