42 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



A well drilled in the northwest corner of the quadrangle might 

 therefore pass through 400 or 500 feet of Paleozoic strata before 

 reaching the Precambrian crystallines. The supposed underground 

 relations of these rocks are shown, with great exaggeration of thick- 

 nesses and dips, in the diagrammatic colored cross-sections. 



Ogdensburg dolomite 



Trenton limestone? 



Precambrian rocks 

 (gneiss, schist, 

 marble, quartzite, 

 gabbro etc.) 



Hewittville calcilutites 

 Bucks Bridge mixed beds 



Heuvelton sandstone 

 Theresa mixed beds 



(Sequence concealed) 

 "White Potsdam " sandstone 



Typical red 



Potsdam sandstone 



Precambrian 



Fig. 5 Columnar diagram of strata, showing the relations to one another, and 

 to the Precambrian, of the Paleozoic formations described on the Canton 

 quadrangle 



THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY 

 Interpretation of the Paleozoic Record 

 To reclothe the bones of the dead past is the primary purpose 

 of geology. So closely are fact and interpretation interwoven that 

 the latter has inevitably obtruded here and there into the discussion 

 of the rocks and their distribution. For an orderly presentation of 

 the strangely varied past of our region yet other items must now 

 be elicited, and the narrative must involve some repetition of what 

 has alreadv been said. 



