Dr, Van Rensellaer on Salt. 361 



considered the peculiar repository of salt, and then alludes 

 to the lofty and detached columns of dark red sandstone, 

 found by Col. Long's party at the foot ofthe Rocky Moun- 

 tainsi as a member ofthe salt-formation. 



He appears evidently to have confounded here, the old 

 Fed sandstone below the coal strata with the new red sand- 

 stone or red marl, which by the united testimony of Euro- 

 pean Geologists is the peculiar repository of salt and gyp- 

 sum. The order of super-position is very clearly laid 

 down by Dr. James in his narrative. — First, the old red 

 sandstone in highly inclined strata and steep ridges at the 

 foot of the rocky mountains — then an overlying mass of 

 grey sandstone or slaty clay connected with large bodies of 

 trapp, extending over a large district characterized by its 

 peculiar verdure — lastly, above this, the red friable sand- 

 stone, easily crumbling into sand and forming, when disin- 

 tegrated, the sandy covering ofthe deserts ; in which were 

 found large beds of gypsum and the numerous salines on 

 the Canadian and Arkansa. This new red sandstone ex- 

 tended across the deserts till it was overlaid by the hori- 

 zontal limestone. In the last number of the Geological 

 Transactions is an account of a journey from Delhi to 

 Bombay, This narrative discloses a similar arrangement 

 of rocks. The province of Agimere is occupied by a nu- 

 cleus of granite, gneiss, .he. On the Eastern border of the 

 same, is an extensive tract of inclined quartzy sandstone 

 reaching from Delhi southward beyond Agra. West ofthe 

 nucleus is the extensive saline desert of Western India, con- 

 sisting ofthe new red sandstone or alternating horizontal 

 beds of rubbly sandstone, marl and clay. Southof the nu- 

 cleus is one ofthe most extensive trapp formations in the 

 world. It extends over the greater part of Central India 

 from Malwa to Poonah and even Goa. It has this pecul- 

 iarity, that the trapp is not arranged in narrow ridges with 

 naked intervals of the subjacent sandstone, but is spread 

 like an uniform covering over the whole country. The 

 same peculiarity was observed, though in a less perfect de- 

 gree, in the trapp rocks at the foot of the rocky moun- 

 tains. 



Havi'^g visited the Western part of New York, and ob- 

 served the arrangement of the rocks in that interesting re- 

 gion, we have been led to conclude that they might be re* 



VoL.VIl.— No. 2. 46 



