144 Review of the Neio York Geological Reports. 



three feet, colored so as to give a general view of the range, extent 

 and bearings of all the principal formations of the state. 



The readers of this Journal are doubtless aware that the geo- 

 logical survey of New York was conducted by four principal 

 geologists. To each of these a certain district was assigned, and 

 each made his own report in a separate volume. W. W. Mather 

 surveyed and reported on the first district ; E. Emmons on the 

 second ; L. Vanuxem on the third ; J. Hall on the fourth. This 

 division of labor undoubtedly brought the work more speedily to 

 a close, and has probably given to the public a more minute, local 

 geological knowledge, than could have been otherwise obtained ; 

 but as the districts were laid off before the number and extent of 

 the geological formations were known, their boundaries are com- 

 prised within geographical rather than geological lines, and the 

 final reports, in consequence, are not a little prolix, are voluminous 

 and expensive, and do not give as clear and connected a view of 

 the geological features of the State as could be wished. The 

 same remark applies to descriptive county geology, which has 

 been adopted in part, in the reports of the New York geologists. 

 It is a good plan for the inhabitants of the State generally, inas- 

 much as they can refer easily to the remarks which apply to their 

 own immediate vicinity ; but it necessarily involves repetition, 

 and gives but a disjointed and piecemeal view of the country to 

 be described. We are of opinion that before this work can be- 

 come generally useful and extensively circulated, it must be con- 

 densed and arranged into one compendious volume. 



In proceeding with the review of the work before us, we shall 

 divide it into two parts. In the first, we shall endeavor, by cull- 

 ing from the descriptions of all the four districts, to give a gene- 

 ral outline of the geology of the State ; in the second, which 

 will appear in a future number of this Journal, we shall collect 

 together some of the most important and interesting details. More 

 than this would be beyond the objects we have in view. 



If we except the superficial, unconsolidated, recent deposites, 

 which occupy but a very limited area, all the rocks of the State 

 of New York are older than the coal formation. They belong, 

 either to the unstratified crystalline, — the primary of older wri- 

 ters, — the stratified non-fossiliferous, or to the older palaeozoic 

 strata, which latter terminate upwards with an outlier of a con- 

 glomerate, the lowest member of the coal formation, found on 



