Geological Reports on the State of NeiD York. 31 



" The rocks, whose appearance commences in the bottom of the valley, 

 and which extend north, are the black shale, (with its overlying green 

 shale and sandstone,) the Trenton limestone, the bird's-eye, the calcifer- 

 ous sand-rock, and the gneiss. The arrangement being in the descend- 

 ing order. Thus the black shale, relatively to the four other rocks, is 

 invariably the upper one, whilst gneiss is as invariably the lowest. 



" The black shale, the Trenton limestone, the bird's-eye, and thecalcif- 

 erous, in their course north from the river, at different points, disappear, 

 finally leaving the gneiss, the oldest rock of the district, to form with its 

 primary associates, the great northern elevations, and to cover the greater 

 part of Montgomery, about three fourths of Herkimer as to length, and 

 that part only of Oneida county which forms the town of Remsen, in- 

 cluding that small triangle in the town of Boonville, which lies to the 

 east and north of Black river." 



There is in this region the most decisive evidence of uplifts, 

 " by an action from E. to W. in accordance with the general 

 character of the great uplifts of the globe, namely, the eastern sides 

 being mural, whilst the western slope off, becoming more or less 

 horizontal. Thus, in the valley of the Mohawk, the uplifts have 

 been invariably protruded through the black shale, at their eastern 

 ends rising like a wall, whilst their western ends gradually slope 

 off, and are lost in the same black shale, which, when the whole 

 series is complete, forms the upper parts of the uplifts, and hes by 

 the side of the gneiss to the east, curving from a horizontal surface 

 towards that rock." Along the Mohawk, there are three great 

 ranges of uplifts ; one of them is well known under the name of 

 the noses, and exhibits the whole series, from the gneiss upwards. 

 These uplifts have disclosed many excellent quarry stones, and 

 among them there is the bird's marble, so called from the fucoi- 

 des or sea weed which it contains, being in a vertical position, 

 while in all the other rocks it is disposed parallel to the layers. 



The calciferous sand-rock, consisting of sand and lime, often 

 contains siliceous concretions, and among them are rock crystals 

 containing anthracite, the latter derived probably from the fucoi- 

 des or sea weeds, the only common fossil of this rock. 



Mr. Fanuxem supposes, that thermal waters have affected the 

 separation of the coal. These waters he believes to have had 

 their origin in the calciferous rock, and he refers to it the ther- 

 mal waters of North Carolina, Yirginia, the Hoosick, and the Ar- 

 kansas. 



