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



rad, Rogers, Vanuxem, Emmons, and Hall. I believe that Em- 

 mons and Hall informed themselves practically on this subject 

 while they were my pupils. But the influence of a teacher on 

 the minds of affectionate pupils, is scarcely to be trusted. As the 

 expenses of all State geologists are (or ought to be) defrayed by 

 the State, I hope they will test my accuracy by personal exam- 

 ination. If Europeans are in an error, our geologists will do a 

 favor to science by correcting such errors, in a country where 

 (according to DeLuc) "nature operates on a vast scale." 



By travelling about a mile from Bethlehem Caverns on the Al- 

 bany road, we descend a steep ledge of graywacke slate, of about 

 sixty or seventy feet in thickness. This is a continuation of the 

 second graywacke of Big Salmon River, on Lake Ontario, Utica, 

 &c. At the bottom of this slate ledge, we come to the upper 

 transition lime-rock. To demonstrate this assertion, we follow 

 that diverging lime-rock, by way of Amsterdam, around the prim- 

 itive spurs of Root's Nose and Little F^Us, and thence to Sack- 

 ett's Harbor, on Lake Ontario. Its branches penetrate northerly, 

 far into the primitive district, between the high ridges. If we 

 proceed southerly from Bethlehem Caverns, we soon perceive 

 that it converges towards the corniferous lime-rock, and actually 

 comes in contact with it in the White Rock of Coeymans. The 

 two rocks then proceed southerly in contact, or nearly so, to Eso- 

 pus strand, and up the Rondout. But each retains its own dis- 

 tinctive characteristics ; the lower containing no hornstone and 

 no Cyathophyllum, but containing the fungia and transverse en- 

 crinites, &c. In England, these rocks probably run parallel, and 

 in contact, in most or all localities. Hence the confusion among 

 English geologists in the case of Conybeare's carboniferous lime- 

 rock, in which they blend the uppermost rock of the transition 

 and secondary classes. These two rocks by their diverging di- 

 rection on their northerly course, open so as to leave a wide dis- 

 trict between them. This district is occupied by the second 

 graywacke slate and rubble millstone grit of Utica, Big Salmon 

 River, Westmoreland, &c. 



Suho7'dinate rocks ; or Red sandstone group of De La Beche. 

 — ^In the years 18-22 and 1823, when taking a geological survey 

 for Mr. Van Rensselaer, of a belt of 50 miles in breadth, from the 

 Atlantic to Lake Erie, I was much annoyed by our non-conform- 

 able salt-bearing rocks and their associates. Finding no equiva- 



