Madure on the Arrangement and Origin of Rocks. 26 i 



proper gray wacke in which class all the anthracite of the 

 United States is found, and I believe in all other countries. 

 If the immense confusion from the derangement of the stra- 

 ta would permit an accurate examination, it would, I be- 

 lieve, be found that the dip of the anthracite on one side of 

 the river is to the north and on the other side to the south, 

 which is a new occurrence in regard to the transition, 

 and seems to assimilate the anthracite to the bituminous 

 coal basinsj a fact which deserves to be ascertained. 



Art. VIII. — Miscellaneous remarks' on the systematic ar- 

 rangement of rocks, and on their probable origin, espe^ 

 daily of the secondary, by William Maclure, President 

 of the Am. Geol. Soc'y. in a letter dated Alicante in Spain, 

 April 29, 1823, addressed to the Editor. 



Dear Sir, 



So much having lately occurred, in all (he geological 

 works concerning the universality of the secondary forma- 

 tion (called by some diluvian ;) the science having scarce- 

 ly got rid of the innumerable hypothetical suppositions of 

 the origin and formation of the earth, is 1 fear likely to 

 stumble into another hypothesis, though not so far back 

 into the dark annals of nature, yet sufficient to warp and 

 confuse the collection of facts, on which alone must rest 

 all rational theories. To elucidate by opposition, in hopes 

 that the truth may be struck out by the shock of opinions, 

 as the fire is produced by the flint and steel, not having 

 observed in the different European countries I have exam- 

 ed, nor in North-America, where all the stratification is 

 so regular and undisturbed, any general or universal for- 

 mation of the secondary, I shall here enregister my opinions 

 as being the result of what I know. I have been induced 

 to consider the two great aqueous depositions of alluvial 

 and secondary, as having a common origin in the aggrega- 

 tion of the detritus or particles of more ancient rocks, re- 

 duced to various forms by the elements ; differing only in the 

 length of time, each formation has been deposited, and com- 

 pesed of the materials drawn from the disintegration or de- 

 composition of older rocks, in the vicinity or not far distant. 

 That the depositions of gravel, sand, or clay, formed by the 

 sea, lakes, or rivers, or precipitations of lime from water 

 by its evaporation or cooling, should be similar, one would 

 as reasonably expect as that the same cause would pro- 



