NEW YORK. 



67 



New York. 1 



BY JAMES MACFARLANE. S 



GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, 



FORMATIONS AND SUB-DIVISIONS. 



20. Quaternary. 



i16. Triassic. 



1 2. Catskiil. 



I 1 b. Chemung. 



3. Portage s. s. 



I 1 a. Portage, -! 2. Gardeau shales. 



1. Chasaqua shales. 

 10 c. Genesee. 



3. Tully limestone. 



1 b. Hamilton, -j 2. Moscow shales. 

 1. Hamilt'n shales. 



1 a. Marcel I us. 

 9 c. U. Helderberg, 

 9 a. Cauda Galli. 



f 4. Seneca I. s. 

 ^Corni^,., 



1. Schoharie. 



FORMATIONS AND SUB-DIVISIONS. 



8. Oriskany. 



7. Lower Helderberg.* 

 ^6. Waterlime. 

 .16. Salina or Onondaga Salt group. 

 5 !5 c. Niagara. 

 5 b. Clinton. 



2< Med ' na sandstonei 



5a Medina 

 5 a. Medina, 



* Consisting in the ascending order of : 1, the 

 Tentaculitc limestone ; 2, Pentamerus limestone; 

 3, Delthyris shaly limestone; 4, Encrinal lime- 

 stone; and 5, Upper Pentamems limestone. 



,. Oneida C onglom. 



4c. 



4 a. 



3c. 



3 b. 

 3 a. 

 2 b. 



T3, Lor.sha. 

 Hudson River, %| 



[4 b. Utica. 



( 3. Trenton I. s. 

 Trenton,-] 2. Blk. River Us. 



( 1. Birdseye I. s. 

 Chazy. ) 



Quebec. > Middle Cambrian. 

 Calciferous.) 

 Potsdam. Lower Cambrian. 



t^il d. Montalban. 



rgjl c. Norian. 



;1 a. Laurentian. 



t^g^The right hand marginal figures in the column of formations denote the elevations of the 

 railroad stations in feet above tide water. 



1. The State of New York is to the geologist what the Holy Land is to the Christian, and the 

 works of her Palaeontologist are the Old Testament Scriptures of the science. It is a Laurentian, 

 Cambrian, Silurian and Devonian State, containing all the groups and all the formations of these 

 long ages, beautifully developed in belts running nearly across the State in an east and west direc- 

 tion, lying undisturbed as originally laid down. Railroads running north and south pass over a num- 

 ber of the formations in short distances, while those running east and west run for long distances on 

 the same formation, as for example the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. on the 6. Saliua, and the Erie Railway 

 on the 11 b. Chemung. In the eastern part of the State the formations are more irregularly 

 disposed. New York localities are those to which we must always go back as the standard by 

 which any disputed formation of these ages is to be tested. 



2. The author has bestowed more of his own labor and research on the local geology of this 

 State, than on any other, having besides diligent study of all the official reports, made personal 

 observations of the exposures of the formations in traveling for many years on all the railroads. It 

 was from making geological notes on the margin of railroad time tables that he conceived the idea 

 of this geological railway guide book for the State, and by calling in the aid of scientific gentlemen 

 of other States, he has been enabled to extend it over the whole United States and Canada. To 

 Prof. James Hall, of Albany, the State Geologist, he is indebted for much information and im- 

 portant corrections in the table of formations and as to some of the localities in this State. 



3. N. Y.C. &. H.R. R. R. GRADES CAUSED KY GEOLOGICAL STRUCTUKE. This railroad xindoubt- 

 edly occupies the finest locality for an east and west railroad in the United States. From New 

 York to Albany the road is level, tide waier extending to Troy, the Hudson River being in fact 

 an estuary. From Albany to Schenectady there is an ascent of 200 feet, Little Falls is 368, 

 Rome 439 feet, and Batavia (the highest station) 887 feet above tide. It has no heavy grades on its 

 main line except at Albany and in the trough of the Genesee at Rochester. It owes its advantages 

 to geological structure, the outcrop of the formations running east and west, and the Salina or 

 Onondaga, Utica and Hudson River soft shales are cut into low valleys through which the railroad 

 and Erie Canal are built. If the formations had run north and south, as they do in Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland, &c., and been turned up edgewise, the hard sandstones would have been high ridges and 



