202 Geology of the Lakes and the Valley of the Mississippi. 



the north-western flank of the Alleghany mountains, from the Sus- 

 quehannah m Pennsylvania to the Kenhawa in Virginia, a distance 

 of three hundred miles. We are induced to remark as a curious 

 anomaly in the geology of this mountain, one which is however un- 

 connected with the subject of the present notice, that an anthracite 

 formation, apparently the complement of the preceding, but disloca- 

 ted by a gigantic shift, begins at the Delaware on the opposite flank 

 of the chain, and, graduating into bituminous coal, terminates at the 

 Susquehannah about seventy miles below tlie point on the same 

 river at which it seems to be resumed ; and that the stony anthracite 

 of Rhode Island in the same range, seems to be an outlier of it still 

 further to the north-east. This apparent continuity of formation 

 through primitive, transition and secondary regions, seems to indi- 

 cate a community of origin from substances whether of the min- 

 eral or the vegetable kingdom. The shale vi'hich wraps it, is mark- 

 ed with the same impressions throughout. But to return. This 

 new red sandstone is attended by magnesian limestone, gypsum, and 

 perhaps all its usual concomitants : certainly with rock salt, for the 

 wells of the Canandaiga works are in it. Standing on Queensiown 

 heights and looking to Lake Ontario along the shores of the Niag- 

 ara, a Pennsylvanian is struck Vv^ith its resemblance, in all but 

 its flatness and want of greenstone trap, to the old red sandstone of 

 the Conewaga hills. It is the predominant rock in many counties 

 of New York, and subtends indefinitely to the west. It is by no 

 means extravagant to suppose that it extends entirely across the 

 valley of the Mississippi. It is the more reasonable to think so, as 

 the floetz rocks throughout this vast expanse lie undisturbed, as they 

 were deposited ; and we perceive the outcrop of tlie same new red 

 sandstone at each margin of them. It is described by Mr. James in 

 the second volume (new series) of the Transactions of the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society, as constituting the valley of the Platte, 

 of the Canadian and other tributaries of the Arkansaw, and as rest- 

 ing in highly inclined positions against the steep of the Rocky moun- 

 tains, the stratum being broken off and upturned as if the granite 

 had been pushed up through it. It evidently extends beneath the 

 lakes a considerable distance to the north-west, as it forms the Sault 

 de St. Marie between Huron and Superior. 



Resting on this new red sandstone, and proceeding westward an 

 indefinite distance, we find that calcareous formation whic-h makes 

 the cataract of the Niagara, of the Onondaga, and of the Genesee, 



