124 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



that crystalline limestone of the Grenville series would be found 

 near at hand. However, no rock outcrops of any sort could be 

 found in the immediate vicinity, though occasional loose blocks 

 of Calciferous limestone were noticed lying about. Inquiry in 

 the neighborhood elicited the information that it was such that 

 had been burned in the kiln, that they were formerly there in great 

 abundance, and that no rock ledge had ever been worked to sup- 

 ply the kiln. 



Now except just here locally, Calciferous boulders are very 

 infrequent in the vicinity. The nearest outcrops of any paleozoic 

 Toek are of the Hardscrabble Potsdam in Clinton county, nearly 

 15 miles away. The nearest Calciferous ledges are over 20 miles 

 distant in the same direction, that is to the northeast. The writer 

 can account for the occurrence at the kiln only by supposing the 

 former existence there of a small outlier of Calciferous rocks, of 

 which the loose blocks represented the final trace. Many of the 

 limestones of the region weather out into a multitude of loose 

 blocks by more rapid solution of the rock along the joint planes 

 and by the subsequent disrupting action of frost, which raises and 

 tilts the blocks so that they lie loosely about, slanting in all 

 directions. ,This effect is shown beautifully in many places in 

 Clinton county where limestones are exposed, and where the 

 blocks are assuredly nearly in place, and yet wholly conceal the 

 ledges underneath. 



If this be the true explanation, here the occurrence recalls the 

 Calciferous outlier at Schroon lake, Essex county, described first 

 by C. E. Hall and more recently by Kemp, as well as similar and 

 larger areas in the southern Adirondack region. 1 The limestone 

 may have been deposited directly on the Precambrian floor, that 

 is, it is beyond the limits of Potsdam deposition. If this be true, 

 important conclusions will follow as to the conditions of the dry 

 land area which would permit a limestone being deposited directly 

 on the old surface. But, as the occurrence is somewhat problem- 

 atic and may represent simply a small block along a fault plane, 



lHall, C. E. 32d aim. rep't N. Y. state mus. nat. hist. 1879. p.39. 

 Kemp, J. F. Bui. geol. soc. Amer. 1897. 8:411. 



