REPORT. 



Office of the State Geologist, 



Room 32, State Hall, 



Albany, N. Y., April 20, 1897. 



To His Excellency Frank S. Black, Governor of the State of New York : 



Sir: — I have the honor to transmit herewith the annual report of the 

 State Geologist for the year 1896, embracing an account of field and office 

 work for the past year. 



The completion of the geologic map has been one of the principal objects 

 to which the field work has been directed, as will be evidenced in portions of 

 the state which have been covered during the past year. 



The report on the geology of the salt, and the salt districts of New Y< >rk 

 by Mr. D. D. Luther, which accompanies this report, completes the work in 

 that direction. This final report, together with that upon the economic 

 resources of Onondaga county, published in my last report, will be a useful 

 and valuable work of reference, especially for persons engaged in the salt 

 industry and for the entire people of the state. In completing the field work 

 on the geology of this part of the state, Mr. Luther has occupied considerable 

 time in the study and collection of materials along the valleys of the 

 Genesee river and the Tonawanda creek, in order to determine the limits of the 

 " Portage group" of the final reports of the geological survey, and the rela- 

 tion of this formation to the rocks above and below. The results of this work 

 will be transmitted with my next report. 



Prof. Charles S. Prosser of Union College has continued his work in the 

 central portion of the state upon the Hamilton, Portage and Chemung groups, 

 the results of which will be a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the 

 limits and distribution of these formations and their contained faunas. 



In the northern part of the state, Prof. H. P. Cushing has been working 

 upon the boundary line between the crystalline rocks of the Adirondacks, and 

 the Potsdam sandstone to the north. This work has been completed across 



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