

Williams.] AMOS EATON. 27 



our geologists, but to confusion in their identification of them with the 

 red sandstones described in the English books. The English geologists 

 themselves were not yet united in distinguishing the red sandstones in 

 their own country, and here, too, the trouble was more due to an attempt 

 at correlating them with the red sandstones of the European Triassic 

 than a failure to understand their difference in England. It was not 

 until considerably later that our geologists clearly distinguished and 

 placed in their proper geological horizon the Triassic sandstones of the 

 Connecticut Valley and southward along the Atlantic border, and the 

 several Paleozoic red sandstones now known as Potsdam, Medina, and 

 Catskill red sandstones. 



The year 1824 is noticeable in the progress of American Geology by 

 the publication of Amos Eaton's work on the Erie Canal rocks. * 



Part 1 contains a description of the rock formations, together with 

 a geological profile extending from the Atlantic to Lake Erie. The 

 classification is substantially that adopted in his text-book, though some- 

 what modified. In the place of the sixteen strata he has twenty-five, 

 distributed in the four classes, Primitive, Transition, Secondary, and 

 Superincumbent. His favorite system in naming rocks is recognized 

 in the new names which he proposes in his classification. These are 

 after the pattern of " the metalliferous lime rock," that is, the Latin 

 termination meaning " to bear," added to the name of the mineral, and 

 applied to the rock. Such terms are " saliferous rock," u ferriferous 

 slate," " geodiferous slate," u lime rock," etc. A few of these terms are 

 still preserved in our nomenclature, but where they are used they are 

 confusing, and the objection to them is the objection to all of the names 

 of the Werneriau school, that they are attempts to define rock strata 

 by their mineral and physical characters, under the supposition that 

 these characters were traceable in other than the locality where the 

 original stratum was described. Stratigraphic geology was impeded 

 by the attempts to perpetuate this method of classification, and we are 

 scarcely yet entirely free from the influence of this Wernerian school. 



A review of this book is given in the eighth volume of the American 

 Journal of Science. 2 



Objection is there taken to the " unnecessary innovations in geolog- 

 ical nomenclature," or to " any deviation from the present highly im- 

 proved state of the science on the eastern continent, unless it is where 

 new facts and discoveries imperiously demand such a course." This is 

 evidently a, rap at Prof. Eaton's criticism of Phillips and Conybeare's 

 Geology, published in the same volume of the American Journal of Sci- 

 ence 3 a few months before. 



'A Geological and Agricultural Survey of tho District adjoining the Erie Canal, by Amos Eaton, 

 163 pages and a plate, Albany, New York, taken under the direction of the Hon. Stephen Van Rens- 

 selaer. 



2 Pp. 358-362. 



s Pp. 261-263. 



