STKATIGRAPHIC GEOLOGY 341 



portion of the United States was written b}' Dr. Samuel L. Mitch ill 

 of ISTew York concerning the rocks of that state and ind^lished in 

 the Medical Bepository "in 1798 and 1T99.^ At tlie close of the 

 eighteenth century scarcely half a dozen men in this country- under- 

 stood the elements of geology. One of these was Professor Ben- 

 jamin Silliman, who graduated at Yale College in 1796, and in 

 1818 founded the American Jcru-nal of Science, which was the first 

 distinctly scientifi.c periodical published on this continent that has 

 continued to the j^resent time. An idea of the equipment for the 

 study of this science in the leading scientific educational institu- 

 tions of this country at the beginning of the nineteenth century may 

 be gained from tlie statement that Professor Silliman carried the 

 whole mineral collection "at Yale for examination and study to 

 Philadelphia, in a candle box."- 



Prominent among these early students of geology were William 

 Maclure, who published the first geological map of the United 

 States in 1809, and Amos Eaton, a graduate of Williams College, 

 who later attended lectures in Yale College and in 1817 became 

 a lecturer on chemistry, botany, mineralogy and geology in his 

 alma inciter. Eiaton and Theoclore E. Beck were selected by the 

 wealthy Patroon the" Hon. Stephen Van Eensselaer, in 18'30, to 

 conduct the first geological survey of an}^ district in this country, 

 viz : Albany county, New York. Two years later he was appointed 

 to survey that portion of New York state adjacent to the Erie 

 Canal, which was then in process of construction. The exiiense 

 of this pioneer work was borne by Van Eensselaer, this country's 

 first patron of the science. Eaton classified the rocks to a certain 

 extent and to one of the divisions lie gave the name of Corniferous 

 limestone, a name that for many years has been well known in 

 this state. Later Yan Eensselaer made Eaton senior ]3rof(.s-or in 

 Eensselaer school in the city of Troy, now known as the Eensselaer 

 Polytechnic Institute, which became under his instruction for a 

 time the most noted school in geology in this country. 



To the west of Albany county lies the rugged one of Sc'^oharie, 

 crossed by the northern escarpment of the Helderberg plateau, or 

 mountains, and deeply trenched by the Schoharie creek, a southern 

 tributary of the Mohawk river. In the Schoharie valley near the 

 village of that name lived the Gebhards, a prominent and well-to-do 

 family of gentlemen farmers, father and son, who ])etween 1820 

 and i835 worked out the succession of Silurian and Devonian 



1 The statement of Professor Chester Dewey is that "The S_ociety for 

 Promoting Agriculture, Arts and Mauutactures." incorporated in 1793. after- 

 wards merged iu the Albany Institute, appointed Dr. Mitehill Commissioner 

 to examine and report on the "Minerals of the State;" but his report, treated 

 chiefly of the rocks. (Tenth An. Kept. Regents of the University of the 

 State of New York, 1857. p. 1-1, f n.) 



2 Ibid., p. 14 



