New York State Museum Bulletin 



Entered as second-class matter November 27, 1915, at the Post Office at Albany, N. Y., under 

 the act of August 24, 1912 



Published monthly by The University of th3 State of New York 

 Nos. 217, 218 ALBANY, N. Y. January-February 1919 



The University of the State of New York 



New York State Museum 



John M. Clarke, Director 



THE PALEOZOIC ROCKS OF THE CANTON 

 QUADRANGLE 



BY G. H. CHADWICK 



INTRODUCTION^ 



The Canton quadrangle lies in the St Lawrence valley,^ between 

 the parallels of 44° 30' and 44° 45' north and the meridians of 

 75° and 75° 15' west. In its southeast corner begin to rise the 

 hills that mark the declining north edge of the Adirondack upland.^ 

 Of the two physiographic areas mentioned, the valley is a drift- 

 mantled peneplain cut in the softer, Paleozoic sedimentary rocks ; 

 the upland is a dissected Cretaceous peneplain of the hard, Pre- 

 cambrian gneisses. A third, vastly older (pre-Potsdam) and sub- 

 sequently deformed, peneplain is represented here at the contact 

 of the Paleozoic rocks with the underlying crystalline Precambrians, 

 and is now reexposed over a part of the quadrangle by removal of 

 the Paleozoic cover. The village of Canton is situated at the 

 approximate merging point of all three of these plains, the signifi- 

 cance and history of which are discussed on a later page. (See 

 figure 2.) 



^ To Doctor Martin, interpreter of the crystalline rocks of the same 

 area, to Doctor Ruedemann and Doctor Ulrich, paleontologists respec- 

 tively of the state and national surveys, to Professor Gushing, his prede- 

 cessor, and to Doctor Clarke, his chief, the writer gladly acknowledges his 

 indebtedness. Valuable aid has been received also from the residents of 

 the territory studied, particularly the following: Prof, and Mrs C. S. 

 Phelps, Rev. C. H. Fenton, G. A. Manley and Alexander Veitch of Can- 

 ton, O. A. Babcock of Madrid, and two of my students who served with- 

 out pay in the field, Erie M. Billings and John A. Shea. To these and 

 all others who assisted I would record my gratitude. 



G. H. C. 



" N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 168, p. 22, fig. 2, opp. p. 15. 



