Handbook of Paleontology 431 



revolution the area of the State of New York was raised 

 well above sea level and the only representation of rocks 

 of this period in the State is a remarkable series of non- 

 marine strata, the Newark series, in Rockland county and 

 Staten Island. These deposits of Upper Triassic age 

 were laid down in a series of troughlike depressions run- 

 ning roughly parallel with the main axis of the Appala- 

 chian range from Nova Scotia to North Carolina and 

 lying between it and old Appalachia. One of these 

 troughs occupied the area of the Connecticut valley; an- 

 other extended from Rockland coimty into northern New 

 Jersey, thence through northeastern Pennsylvania and 

 Maryland into Virginia; smaller ones occupied the Vir- 

 ginia-North Carolina area. 



There is a complete absence, so far as known, of ma- 

 rine Triassic sediments in the eastern half of North 

 America. The coast line was farther to the east and the 

 lands were undergoing erosion. The climate was arid or 

 semi-arid. The continental deposits in the troughlike de- 

 pressions accumulated to great thickness ; and in them 

 are occasionally found fish and plant remains and abund- 

 ant fossil footprints, though fossils are rare. During the 

 deposition of these sediments igneous activity took place, 

 great thicknesses of lava were poured out, dikes and sills 

 were intruded, and in places there was volcanic action. 

 Such a sheet of lava, 300 to 850 feet thick, now forms 

 the Palisades of the Hudson. Such lavas in the Triassic 

 sediments, through faulting and subsequent erosion, have 

 been responsible for the hills and mountains of the Con- 

 necticut valley, New Jersey etc. 



In the western interior there are red beds of this age 

 which were deposited in fresh water or salt water lakes 

 or were of eolian origin. Along the Pacific coast a nar- 



