Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. 239 



India islands. As speculative geologists, we might, indeed, be 

 excused for coveting a few volcanoes within our own territories, 

 where we might occasionally observe the intensity of igneous 

 action ; but however delightful they might be to the lovers of 

 geological science and to the devotees of the sublime and beau- 

 tiful, our sober practical population would not willingly barter 

 their quiet and security for the terrific sublimity of earthquakes 

 and volcanic eruptions. 



In the earlier records of fire our country abounds, and in no part 

 of the world can the phenomena of igneous rocks be studied 

 with more advantage than in New England, in parts of New 

 York, and of many other states, especially those through whose 

 territories run certain longitudinal divisions of the great Appala- 

 chian chain. 



With respect to aqueous or stratified rocks, we are deficient 

 only in those strata that lie below the chalk and above the new 

 or saliferous red sandstone. The equivalent of the chalk we 

 have indeed in a vast extent, with the appropriate fossils lying in 

 beds of clay, ferruginous sand, marl, &c. ; but we have not yet 

 discovered the proper mineral chalk itself. Beneath the chalk, 

 we miss the oolite, the Wealden, and the lias, with their aston- 

 ishing leptilian remains. Oolite has indeed been announced, on 

 high authority, as existing in the State of New York, and in due 

 time we shall be made acquainted with the proofs from included 

 fossils and from relative position ; for, without these, we can 

 hardly be sure that strata, although they may have the oolitic 

 structure, do really belong to the true oolite which makes so 

 great a figure in England, and in certain parts of the European 

 continent. In some cases, as in that of the Jura limestone, for- 

 mations are admitted by geologists into the oolitic group because 

 the strata contain the fossils that are characteristic of oolite, 

 although the rock is destitute of the oolitic structure, and as re- 

 gards its merely mineral characters, would never be referred by 

 the eye to that family. This statement, as we suppose, contains 

 the entire list of our deficiencies, and it is by no means improba- 

 ble, that it will yet be filled up, in the wide range of our territo- 

 ries and in those of our neighbors, in which many regions still 

 remain to be thoroughly explored. As an example of the inter- 

 calation of deficient rocks or minerals, we may mention, that du- 

 ring the last year, mineral salt in regular and very thick strata 



