22 Coal Formations in the State of New York. 



The argillite that contains the antliracite coal is made up of tables 

 or larainae very highly inclined, whose edges may always be seen at 

 the upper surface of the stratum ; and the stratum may be inspected 

 from Canada to Orange county in the state of New York. The beds 

 of anthracite are always interposed between these inclined tables ; 

 consequently when anthracite is present in this rock it may be seen 

 at its upper surface. Such is the situation of the beds of anthracite 

 in Worcester and Newport. As all the beds of this mineral in the 

 argillite of the state of New York are exceedingly thin (none of those 

 hitherto discovered exceeding one inch in thickness) we have no good 

 reason to hope for the discovery of extensive beds in that formation. 



The prospect of discovering bituminous coal of the third coal for- 

 mation within the state of New York is equally doubtful, for the fol- 

 lowing reasons. Mr. C. Van Rensselaer and myself have traced the 

 slate rock which embraces the bituminous coal of Tioga to Seneca 

 and Cayuga lakes, also down those lakes to their outlets. I have tra- 

 ced the same to Lake Erie and continued my examinations more 

 than twenty miles along its southern shore. The same bituminous 

 shale embracing the various bituminous coal which is found in vast 

 beds in Tioga and Lycoming are found in the same continuous rock 

 along the shores of the aforesaid lakes. The thickest of these beds 

 hitherto discovered in the state of New York do not exceed two inch- 

 es. This carboniferous rock may be inspected to its very base, and is 

 there seen reposing upon a stratum of limestone, which the English call 

 upper carboniferous limestone, for the distance of at least two hundred 

 miles ; reckoning both banks of Cayuga and Seneca and the south bank 

 of Erie. The layers of this rock are always horizontal or nearly so, 

 and the great beds of Pennsylvania as well as the thin beds of the state 

 of New York are interposed between these horizontal layers.* Con- 

 sequently if any thick beds of coal were present along the shores of 

 these lakes they would present themselves to the eye of the most 

 careless observer. As the banks of the Seneca lake together with 

 the walls of the continued ravine from the head of the lake towards 

 Pennsylvania present a profile section of this rock almost across the 

 state, we can desire no better evidence of its character in regard to 

 coal. And the two hundred miles of profile view presented by the 

 almost perpendicular banks of these three lakes, aiFord evidence of 



* Reference to the papers in the present Volume on the anthracite of the Susque- 

 hanna and Lehigh, will show that the strata are more or less inclined and sometimes 

 at a high angle; although occasionally they are nearly horizontal. — Editor. 



