36 Geological Reports on the State of New York. 



the anthracite that the former do to the bituminous coal of Pennsylvania, 

 I assert this from having carefully observed all the rocks, from the car- 

 boniferous or mountain limestone of the Helderbergh, {not hituminous,) 

 to the anthracite coal mines of Carbondale, Wilkesbarre, Plymouth, &c. 

 Pa. ; and from the same limestone of Black Rock, (highly bituminous,) 

 tracing its connection with the coal of the northern counties of Pennsyl- 

 vania. The fossil vegetables of the two coals are, many of them, identi- 

 cal, and if they were not it would be no argument in favor of different 

 ages, for in the different or successive beds of anthracite, in the same 

 neighborhood, we almost always find different species of ferns and other 

 fossil plants. 



" In genera], each bed of coal is characterized by some species of fern, 

 which prevails in that one more abundantly than in any other. I feel 

 confident that further examinations will prove the identity of the bitumin- 

 ous and anthracite coals, which, by some geologists, have been considered 

 as distinct formations."* 



Mr. Hall regards these rocks as passing below the proper coal 

 formation of Pennsylvania ; fine sections are presented along the 

 Genesee and other rivers, so as to expose the stratification in ver- 

 tical walls, from two hmidred to three hundred and fifty feet high. 

 These rocks are regarded as being above the Silurian system of 

 Mr. Murchison, (transition,) and as belonging to the old red sand- 

 stone and carboniferous groups, and therefore below the coal, four 

 thousand feet, according to the section which has been delineated. 



While we cannot but admit the soundness of the general con- 

 clusions of the New York geologists, we have had occasion to ob- 

 serve during several visits to Alleghany county, on the borders of 

 Pennsylvania, the still unimpaired conviction on the minds of the 

 most intelligent inhabitants, that coal exists along that line, both 

 in the state of New York and in that of Pennsylvania ; but we 

 have never had opportunity to visit the places where on the most 

 credible testimony it is said to exist. 



The falls of the Genesee river at Carthage, below Rochester, 

 are excavated in sandstone, limestone, and shales, the latter 

 abounding in beautiful fossils. The most remarkable falls are at 

 Portage, forty miles above, where in three leaps of sixty six, one 

 hundred and ten, and ninety six feet, the river descends two 



* Prof Eaton, in his geological text book, published in 1832, suggested that the 

 anthracite and bituminous coals were of the same age, but this appears to have 

 been overlooked by those who have examined this formation. 



