8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
metamorphic minerals and the limestone at Franklin and at Sparta, 
N. J., were described by Thomas Nutall,* also in 1822. 
The first substantial contribution to the geology of the Highlands 
is a report by Mather ° on the geology of the first district, including 
an appendix by Dr William Horton on the Geology of Orange 
County, New York. 
Mather recognized the sarngllex character of the rocks he had to 
deal with, recording his impressions as follows: “although I have 
spent twelve years of my life in the midst of the region explored 
the past season, and although in the habit of spending most of my 
leisure during that time in unravelling its complicated geological 
phenomena, I feel that I have but begun to develop these facts that 
are of high importance, not only in scientific, but in economical 
geology.” (p. 71) 
_He discussed the occurrence, uses and local details of granite, 
gneiss, mica slate, quartz rock, talcose slate, limestone, “ sienite,” 
serpentine, steatite, augite rock and greenstone at some length, and 
in his description of the various magnetite bodies and the mines then 
in operation announced what is probably the earliest recorded 
opinion as to the origin of the magnetite. 
Thus, in referring to the “ Phillips vein,’ in Putnam county, he 
says: “ The phenomena of the mines in many places induce the 
idea of igneous injection, connected with a powerful upheaving 
force. The feldspar is often pearly, wrinkled, and with bent laminz. 
The appearance of hyalite, a mineral usually associated with vol- 
canic and trap rocks; the apparent injection in their veins among 
the seams and crevices of the rocks; the appearance of the softening 
of the gneiss and bending its layers like a flowing slag, seem to 
point to an igneous origin of this vein.’ (p. 114, footnote) 
In the appendix to this report Doctor Horton discussed the char- 
acter and distribution of the “ primitive’ and other rocks in Orange 
county; a list of the various iron mines in operation is given, and 
also a very complete statement of all the different minerals observed 
during his geological studies, and their localities. 
While Mather’s report contains much of interest and importance, 
it is somewhat incoherent and disconnected in the treatment of the 
geology of the Highlands as a whole. The first consecutive and 
4 Nutall, Thomas. Observations and Geological Remarks on the Minerals 
of Paterson and the Valley of Sparta, New Jersey. Am. Jour. Sci., 5: 230. 
1822. 
5 Mather, W. W. Third Annual Report on the Geology of the First 
Geological District of the State of New York, 1830. 
