96 Geological Survey of the State of New York. 



fore be so minutely examined — and as that for 1840 is soon to be. 

 published, we hope that the whole survey will now be digested 

 by the several geologists into one comprehensive work, with 

 drawings, sections, and figures, fully illustrating the geological 

 structure and fossil geology of this extensive territory. 



Prof. Beck has given a Tabular View of the Minerals of the 

 State, comprising 132 species, many of which are among the 

 most beautiful crystallized specimens with which our cabinets are 

 furnished. Many are among the highly useful minerals ; but of 

 anthracite, the existence of which in large deposits has seemed a 

 desideratum, only very small quantities are found, and the exam- 

 inations have shown there is no longer reason to hope for its oc- 

 currence, as in the adjacent state of Pennsylvania, the rocks of New 

 York all lying beneath the regular coal series of Pennsylvania. 

 On the other hand, gypsum, in all its varieties, is found in such 

 extensive deposits, and so accessible by the Erie canal, that as an 

 article of home consumption, and of export, it bids fair to give a 

 permanent prosperity to the agricultural interest. So important 

 has a union between the interests of the two states, based upon 

 the coal and gypsum, been viewed, that a committee of the legis- 

 lature of Pennsylvania was sent to the legislature of New York, 

 proposing, by the construction of a canal connecting the interior 

 of both states, an interchange of these commodities for their mu- 

 tual benefit. 



Sulphur has been found in a pure form, in granite and quartz, 

 near West Point, and occasionally in the gypsum beds of Onon- 

 daga County, and as a deposit from the sulphur waters. These 

 springs, impregnated with the sulphuretted hydrogen, are de- 

 scribed as very numerous, not less than a hundred. 



The white and gray primitive marbles, and the black and gray 

 of the transition, beautified by the various organic remains, afford 

 varieties suiRcient to meet the public taste in ornamental archi- 

 tecture. 



The hydraulic limestones of this state are of great value and 

 abundant. Those who recollect under how great a pressure of 

 public opinion, favorable and adverse, the construction of the Erie 

 Canal was decided upon, to commence with the middle section, 

 from a little east of Utica to Syracuse as the cheapest part, will 

 regard the early discovery of water lime on this section as hav- 

 ing been of very great moment to the completion of the whole 



