Remarks on the Taconic System. 277 



Barraiide places tlie Paradoxides in his primordial zone, as 

 typical of it, and Salter, agreeing with him as to geological 

 position, though not nomenclature, places it in his sub-silurian. 

 Whatever tiie argument may be from Palagozoa^ it is in able 

 hands, and is daily increasing in favor of Dr. Emmons' views. 



We propose in this paper to maintain the Taconic system, 

 by the following arguments: 1st, its orography ; 2nd, its struc- 

 tural geology ; 3rd, the thickness of its strata ; 4th, its uncon- 

 formability with the Silurian. 



1st. The orography of this system is quite peculiar to itself. 

 Long valleys, lying between high mountains, having a north 

 and south trend, — the mountains having an easy slope upon 

 their eastern sides, but steep and abrupt upon their western, — 

 their summits rounded, smoothed, or scarred by drift agencies 

 or the ravages of time, every few miles broken off at either 

 end, and lapping by the succeeding mountain, in an echelon 

 arrangement ; sometimes gently rising up from the south, and 

 terminating abruptly at the north. The eastern valleys, are 

 floored with Hmestones and marbles, and through them up rise 

 isolated mountains, flanked with the calcareous formations of 

 the valleys. 



The intelligent traveller, passing over this system from the 

 east, from New Marlboro, Mass., to the City of Hudson, would 

 be impressed with the following characteristic features. As he 

 stands on the western edge of the primitive, and looks north- 

 wards, southwards, and eastwards, he sees, spread before him, 

 an elevAted country, gently rolling and swelling into ridges 

 and subordinate hills. The rocks are all gneiss and granite, 

 and vertical in their dip ; the valleys are narrow and deep ; 

 the soil thin, and poorly rewarding the labor of the husband- 

 ;man. 



On the west he suddenly descends into the valley of the 

 Konkeput, and finds a change has come over the whole sce- 

 nery. The rocks are new to him; they are stratified, calcare- 

 ous, arenaceous, or slaty ; they have an eastward tilt; they abut 



