AMERICAN GEOLOGY MACLUREAN ERA, 1785-1819. 249 



in the animal and vegetable, and which afforded on analogical grounds the best rea- 

 son to predict that the geological association of this marble would be found to be 

 what it actually is. 



In the district are nearly all the important primitive rocks of Verneuil, while New 

 Hampshire includes a considerable portion of his secondary formations. 



Iii the same Journal, Denison Olmsted, then at Chapelhill, in North 

 Carolina, announced the discovery of a red sandstone formation in 

 North Carolina, which he had traced through the counties of Orange 

 and Chatham, with a breadth, in one instance at least, of about 7 miles. 



Caleb Atwater, in the same volume, noted the occurrence of ancient 

 human bones, together with those of a mastodon or mammoth in Ohio, 

 which indicated to his mind that the whole country had at one time 

 been covered with water, which had made it "one vast cemetery of 

 the beings of former ages." 



In August, 1819, Dr. Samuel Akerly, who is first mentioned on page 

 223, read before the New York Lyceum an essay on the geology of 

 the Hudson River and vicinity. This was published the year follow- 

 ing in the form of a small duodecimo volume of 69 



Akcrlv on the 



Geology of the pages, and was accompanied by a colored section of 



Hudson River, 1819. x to i • i , 'i i ,. o -, tt i 



the country from the neighborhood or bandy Hook, 

 New Jersey, northward through the Highlands in New York toward 

 the Catskills. This section is mainly interesting as being the second 

 attempt of its kind, being preceded by Eaton's transverse section from 

 the Catskills to the Atlantic by only two years. The work consisted 

 mainly of descriptive details relating to the lithological character of 

 the various formations, and contained little else of value. Akerly was 

 a disciple of Mitchill, whom he followed implicitly. He, however, 

 questioned the Old Red Sandstone age of the Connecticut River sand- 

 stones, on account of bones of land animals having been found beneath 

 them at Nyack. Since, however, credence is given to the reported 

 finding of pine knots, earthen vessels, iron instruments, corn cobs, etc., 

 under these same sandstones, and an iron instrument resembling a 

 pipe in the anthracite coal of Rhode Island, little weight can be given 

 even to his doubts. 



