Mr. Weaver on the Geological Relations of the South of Ireland. 59 



These views may prove useful, whenever the exploring of this hitherto untrodden region shall 

 be undertaken in a systematic and economical manner ; a period, however, wiiich might perhaps 

 appear far distant, if we looked merely to a supply of fuel for local consumption, since the vast 

 tract of peat-bog covering the greater part of the coal-field, and extending from Mount Callan to 

 Loop Head, is provided with a store of that useful combustible which seems almost inexhaustible. 



the general result of the observations which I had an opportunity of making during my travels 

 through those States, compared with the great body of valuable information which has been con- 

 tributed on this subject by other observers; especially in Professor Silliman's American Journal 

 of Science, the works of Professor Eaton, the distinct publications of our countrymen Messrs. G. 

 W. Featherstonhaugh and R. C, Taylor, and the Transactions of the Geological Society of Penn- 

 sylvania". 



In the State of New York, the carboniferous limestone reposes partly on old red sandstone, partly 

 on transition rocks. At the northern extremity, the old red sandstone which lines the south coas t 

 of Lake Ontario, from the west of the Niagara to the east of the Oswego river, distinctly underlies 

 the limestone-shale, and limestone from Queenstown, by the gorge of the river Niagara upward to 

 within two hundred yards of the ferry below the Falls of Niagara, having a gentle dip throughout 

 to the southward. The same relative position is observable west of Lockporl, in proceeding east 

 from Lewistown by the line of road leading to Rochester; also in the Genesee river north of the 

 latter town, and in the course of the Oswego river. To the east of the Oswego, the old red sand- 

 stone reposes on transition rocks, and, being deflected to the south-east, on approaching the 

 Helderberg mountains, it appears to be overlapped and concealed by the carboniferous limestone, 

 the latter then coming in contact witli the transition rocks on the east, which range from Canada 

 to the southward : while still more south, in Pennsylvania, the coal measures appear to overlap the 

 carboniferous limestone on the east, and to come also in direct contact with the transition rocks. 

 In tracing, from north to south, the order of succession, from the carboniferous limestone to the 

 superincumbent coal measures, tlie same low angle of inclination to the south is observable from 

 Niagara in the direction of Buffalo, and thence along part of the south-east coast of Lake Erie. 

 The same disposition is likewise to be remarked, in passing south by the lakes of Cayuga, Seneca, 

 &c., whose waters find a common outlet on the north by the river Oswego. South of those lakes, 

 the land rises rapidly by an accumulation of coal measures, forming the northern aspect of the 

 Alleghany mountains, and the southerly dip is still observable. These beds form an alternating 

 series, distinguished by the prevalence of red shales and red sandstones with beds of sandstone 

 conglomerate and limestone interposed, but in which coal has hitherto been rarely met with; 

 while in the higher regions this series supports and includes the abundant deposits of coal which 

 occur on the northern confines of Pennsylvania, in the anthracitous coal-field of Carbondale and 



' See in particular — 



In the American Journal of Science : Z. Cist, in vol. iv. J. Pierce, in vols. vi. and xii. Pro- 

 fessor Silliman and D, Thomas, in vols, xviii. and xix. A Naturalist in Ohio, in vol. xxv. Dr. 

 Hildreth in vol. xxix. (from 1822 to 1835.) 



Professor Eaton, Geological Text-book, 2nd edition (1832), and in the American Journal of 

 Science, vol. xix. (1831), and vol. xxiii. (1833). 



Mr. G. W. Featherstonhaugh, Geological Report made to both Houses of Congress, (1835.) 



Mr. R. C. Taylor, in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, (Oct. 1 835). 



In the first volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society of Pennsylvania (1835^^: 

 Mr. R. C. Taylor, three papers, pp. 177, 204, 275 ; Professor Troost, four papers, pp. 224, 232, 

 244, 248 ; Dr. Harlan, two papers, pp. 2bQ, 260; Mr. E. Miller, p. 251; and Mr. T. Conrad, 

 p. 267. 



