Cherty Lime-rock, or Corniferous Lime-rock. 67 



rock seen on the Rondout, and the Carbondale coal beds, settles 

 the point. The Pennsylvanian geologists have a very great ad- 

 vantage in being able to say to all travelling geologists, " take 

 passage up the Hudson and Delaware canal, and the Carbondale 

 rail-road, and you see, at every step, the naked gray slate rock, 

 without an interposed layer, and you will see vegetable fossils 

 in the ledges all the way, bearing more or less resemblance to 

 those adjoining the Carbondale beds of anasphaltic coal." 



When I commenced my geological surveys, the application of 

 organized remains for demonstrating strata, was not studied in 

 America. I had become acquainted with no method for deter- 

 mining the character of such strata, but that of tracing them sep- 

 arately through a vast extent of country, and then comparing 

 their general characters. For this purpose I travelled some thou- 

 sand miles at my own expense and with the liberal aid of stu- 

 dents of WilHams College, with Professor Dewey at their head, 

 where I was employed more than a score of years since, by the 

 authorities of the College, to introduce the natural sciences. Af- 

 terwards I travelled more than seventeen thousand miles on ge- 

 ologizing tours, at the expense of the Hon. Stephen Yan Rensse- 

 laer. And I was always aided by several assistants and compe- 

 tent students. Had the application of palaeontology been then 

 as well understood as it now is, I could have settled the charac- 

 ters of most rocks as well in my closet, by the aid of specimens. 

 But it is a true remark in your last Journal, that strata must have 

 been first settled according to the method to which I was com- 

 pelled by ignorance to submit, before the service of organized 

 remains could be successfully employed. In this country, no 

 material progress had then been made in the study of organized 

 relics ; and even now, we have very few good palaeontologists. 



Directions for tracing rocks below the corniferous lime-rock, he- 

 gitming at the Bethlehem^ Caverns in Albany county. 



4th Point. — It appears to me, that European geologists are mis- 

 led in regard to their cherty lime-rock, mountain lime-rock, carbo- 

 niferous lime-rock, &c. By request, I gave a hasty extempora- 

 neous lecture on this subject before the New York Lyceum of 

 Natural History in May, 1831, to a very full house. I will here 

 take an opposite method for illustrating my views. I will simply 

 state facts, and beg my geological friends to follow my walks. 

 Most particularly do I beg this favor of the State geologists, Con 



