of the United Slates of North America. 127 



while still more south in Pennsylvania, the coal measures 

 appear to overlap the carboniferous limestone on the east, and 

 to come also in direct contact with the transition rocks. In 

 tracing the order of succession from the carboniferous limestone 

 to the superincumbent coal measures from north to south, the 

 same low angle of inclination to the south is observable from 

 Niagara in the direction of Buffalo, and thence along part of 

 the south coast of lake Erie. The same disposition is like- 

 wise to be remarked in passing south by the lakes of Cayuga, 

 Seneca, &c., whose waters find a common vent on the north 

 by the river Oswego. South of those lakes the land rises ra- 

 pidly by an accumulation of coal measures, forming the nor- 

 thern aspect of the Alleghany mountains, and the southerly 

 dip being still observable. This series contains also red sand- 

 stone and conglomerate and beds of limestone, and includes 

 in the higher regions the abundant deposits of coal that occur 

 in the northern confines of Pennsylvania, in the anthracitous 

 coal field of Carbondale and Lackawanna and Wyoming on 

 the Susquehanna, and the bituminous coal fields of Bradford, 

 Tioga, Lycoming, and Clearfield. 



In the association of beds of limestone with the coal-bear- 

 ing measures, we perceive an analogy to like phaenomena in 

 parts of the coal tracts of the North of England and of Scotland. 



In the immense extent of the carboniferous rocks of the 

 United States, stretching on the one hand from the State of 

 New York on the north-east to that of Alabama on the south- 

 west, and again from that of New York on the east to that of 

 Missouri on the west, the coal is generally bituminous ; but 

 great deposits of anthracitous coal occur in the north-eastern 

 and eastern parts of Pennsylvania, in the field of Carbondale, 

 Lackawanna and Wyoming, as above stated, and more south 

 in portions of the regions traversed by the Lehigh and Schuyl- 

 kill rivers. These anthracitous deposits have been referred 

 by some geologists to the transition epoch; but from all that I 

 have been able to learn of their general characters, position, fossil 

 plants and other organic remains, I conceive them to belong 

 to the great carboniferous order. Mr. Z. Cist of Wilkesbarre 

 has shown that there is a continuity in the anthracitous coal 

 formation, extending from a district lying north of Harrisburg 

 through the regions bordering on the Schuylkill and Lehigh 

 rivers to the valley of the Wyoming on the Susquehanna, and 

 thence up the valley of Lackawanna in the direction of Car- 

 bondale. From hence to the bituminous coal fields in Bradford 

 and Tioga counties, situated more west, is a distance of only 

 a few iniles, and Professor Eaton conceives these formations 

 to be conuL'ttcdj and to pass into cacii other as portions of the 



