16 RURAL NEW YORK 



the Devonian ages, np to the beginning of the Car- 

 boniferous or Coal age. Of this latter age the only 

 representatives in the I'ormatiuns in the State are a 

 few immense conglomerate bowlders in southwestern 

 New York, of which the Panama rocks in Chautau- 

 qua County and at Eock City in southern Cattarau- 

 gus County, that were formed at the very beginning 

 of that age, are the last remnants. 



All through the long Coal age and to the present 

 time, New York has been dry land with the exception 

 of a small part above New York City which was sub- 

 merged in the Triassic age folloAving the Coal age. 



For the most part, the land of the State has been 

 well elevated and has been subjected to extreme ero- 

 sion, although it is possible that later formations have 

 been entirely swept away, as is suggested by the 

 remnants of the lower coal measure rocks. In the vast 

 ages during which the rock formations have been 

 exposed to all the various destructive agencies, they 

 have been eaten away and eroded by streams, the 

 wind, and the waves, and carved into the main land 

 forms, as they exist at the present day. The hard 

 rocks resisted destruction more than the soft ones 

 and form the eminences and rough slopes. The frail 

 rocks were eaten into valleys and mild slopes. Thus 

 the features of the State represent the scarred and 

 weather-beaten products of ages of denudation act- 

 ing on the succession of rocks of different degrees of 

 resistence. Each gorge and waterfall and hill, if it 

 could repeat its story, would give the succession of 

 changes to which that region has submitted, and the 



