23C) REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



from the Secondary class (where Werner placed it) to the Transition. 

 He .says this stratum terminates the series of transition rocks con- 

 taining metallic veins and the more ancient organic relics. Had 

 Bakewell ever visited Catskill Mountain he would undoubtedly have 

 left the red sandstone where Werner placed it; for here the true old 

 red sandstone of Werner contains the organized remains of at least 

 one well-known phenogamous woody plant. " tt He also stated that 

 this sandstone contained the petrified remains of the roots of the 

 Kalinin latzfoUa, or common laurel! The gypsum and rocksalt beds 

 of New York and Pennsylvania, now regarded as of Salina age, he 

 included in this Secondary class, and also the common compact lime- 

 stone occurring in the western part of New York State, but not found 

 east of the Hudson River. 



In the Superincumbent class were included, as already stated, green- 

 stone trap, amygdaloid, and basalt, which he regarded as varieties of 

 one and the same rock. This assumption on his part is interesting in 

 connection with the discussion of the last twenty years (since the 

 introduction of the microscope into geology) regarding the now well- 

 established relationship existing between basalt, melaphyr, and' dia- 

 base. While these rocks were considered by him as volcanic, their 

 exact source seemed problematic. " On the Deertield River the green- 

 stone sinks down in a fissure in the red sandstone. * * * Bakewell 

 would say here were volcanoes and here the melted greenstone was 

 thrown up through the sandstone." 



In discussing his Alluvial class, he wrote: 



It is agreed by all geologists that all soils, excepting what proceeds from decom- 

 posed animal and vegetable matter, are composed of the broken fragments of disin- 

 tegrated rocks. From this fact it is natural to infer that the soil of any district 

 might be known by the rocks out of which it is formed; consequently, that rocks 

 abounding in quartz would produce a sandy soil and those abounding in argillaceous 

 slate a clay soil, etc. * * * This inference is certainly correct, but there is great 

 difficulty in determining what rocks may have extended over any particular district 

 and been entirely dissolved in former ages. Is there not good reason to believe that 

 most of the strata now constituting Cal skill Mountain * * * once extended over 

 Massachusetts to the Atlantic Ocean? 



That these strata once extended as far as Massachusetts and united 

 to the same strata at Pittsfield and Stockbridge he regarded as beyond 

 question, and he concluded that a mass of rock from 1,000 to 3,000 

 feet in thickness, from 20 to 30 miles in breadth, and perhaps 80 miles 

 in length, had been dissolved and mostly washed down the Hudson 

 River. Fragments of every stratum lie thought were still to be found 

 in small masses throughout the towns in the vicinity. The possibility 



" Concerning this Hall remarks ( Geology of Fourth District, p. 6): "It is a 

 remarkable fact that at this early period Mr. Eaton should have recognized the sand- 

 stone of the Catskill Mountains as the Old Red of Europe, which, now that we have 

 identified its characteristic fossils, is proved to be true." 



