PHYSICAL lA'Z) CLIMATIC SETTING 17 



present commerce and industry would be seen to con- 

 form to those geological changes. Of course it must 

 be remembered that much has happened to the struc- 

 ture of the State since the rocks were formed and 

 carved into the present general features. The 

 changes due to the glacial epoch must be kept in 

 mind as the immediate occasion of many features, 

 but they have as their baso and background the under- 

 lying rock structures. The soils will be seen to relate 

 closely to all these formations and processes, so that 

 in the study of the geological changes of a region one 

 is laying the foundation for the understanding of 

 tlie natural and human features of the states, — land 

 forms, industries, commerce and sociology, and with- 

 out this relationship one's conceptions of them must 

 at best be very superficial. 



The complex succession of formations and proc- 

 esses found in New York, together with the fact that 

 it was one of the earliest fields of careful geological 

 study in America, make it a landmark in progress. 

 Since many of the American rock formations were 

 first studied here, they have often become types and 

 given local names that have been carried with those 

 formations wherever they are found in America. 

 Adding to this the monumental study of the " Nat- 

 ural History of New York," complete and published 

 in five large volumes, and profusely illustrated, by 

 special act of the legislature in 1841, one has some 

 conception of the place New York occupies in the 

 natural history annals of the country, and the basis 

 it has for further development. 



