THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE 13 
Frankfort shale and sand- | Central New York and 
stone \ western side of the Adi- 
| Utica shale ~* rondacks 
Ordovicic J Ltenton limestone and  ] Around the Adirondacks 
> “shale -. | and more or less in Hud- 
| Black river limestone son valley. Chazy ab- 
| Chazy limestone sent from Mohawk val- 
| Beekmantown limestone a mley, 
Bie Paley delemiee Around the Adirondacks 
| limestone : 
and some in southeastern 
Potsdam sandstone and 
. ; New York 
Cambric limestone 
Acadian limestone >) East of Hudson river from 
Georgian slate and ‘Washington county south- 
. quartzite ward 
Igneous series — Anortho- ) 
( site, granite, syenite, | Adirondacks and Hud- 
Precambric gabbro and diabase son Highlands 
Grenville metamorphosed 
sediments 
Throughout this book the purpose is not merely to describe the 
physical features of the State, but rather constantly to emphasize 
the history or evolution of those features. The idea which I would 
now convey to the reader has been admirably expressed by Pro- 
fessor Davis in his “The Physical Geography of Southern New 
England”: “ Geography still retains too much of its old-fashioned, 
irrational methods: it has not kept pace with the advance made by 
geology. In spite of what the geologist has learned about the 
evolution of geographical forms, the geographer still too generally 
treats them empirically, and thus loses acquaintance with one of 
the most interesting phases of his subject... . It is often main- 
tained that a devoted study of the facts themselves, without regard 
to their meaning or development, will suffice to place them clearly 
enough before the mind; but this view is contradicted both by 
general experience in many subjects where rational explanation 
has replaced empirical generalization, and by the special experience 
of geography as well. Left to itself as an empirical study, in which 
the development of land forms was hardly allowed to enter, it has 
languished for many years, until it became a subject for continual 
complaint. . . . Today it is only by those who fail to see the direc- 
