FIFTH REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I908 



117 



pioneers in the United States, had to contend with a woeful lack 

 of facilities. As has been said by his biographer, " He went forth 

 with his hammer in hand and his wallet on his shoulder, pursuing 

 his researches in every direction, often amid pathless tracts and 

 dreary solitudes, until he had crossed and recrossed the Allegheny 

 mountains no less than 50 times. He encountered all the priva- 

 tions of hunger, thirst, fatigue and exposure, month after month 

 and year after year until his indomitable spirit had conquered every 

 difficulty and crowned' his enterprise with success." On the map, 

 the distribution of the formations in New York State is given as 

 follows : the Primitive appears as a strip - in southeastern Xew 

 York ; the Transition as a strip northwest of the Primitive extend- 

 ing from Hudson southwest to the State line : the Secondary or 

 Floetz. as covering all western and central Xew York, bounded on 

 the north by the Mohawk ; the Alluvial, on the southern half of 

 Long Island. 



An interesting fact brought out by McClure's investigations was 

 the occurrence of salt springs and gypsum beds in eastern Ten- 

 nessee and as far north as Oneida lake, N. Y. He mapped these 

 beds in Tennessee only, but says, " it is probable that this formation 

 is on the same great scale which is common to all the other forma- 

 tions on this continent : at least rational analogy supports the sup- 

 position, and we may hope one day to find, in abundance, these two 

 most useful substances which are generally found mixed or near 

 each other." This indicates the keen insight of this early geologist 

 in foreseeing the valuable beds of salt and gypsum discovered since 

 then in our Silurian strata. This same map and text was published 

 in a French journal in 181 1 and a reprint of it may be found in the 

 report of the United States National Museum ( for 1904) 1906, 

 facing page 189. 



Mr McClure was never satisfied with this map on account of 

 the poor base map on which he represented his geological features. 

 So after traveling in Europe and making further excursions 

 throughout the United States, he revised and published it in much 

 better shape in 1818. Regarding Xew York State he says. " During 

 an excursion last summer an opportunity was afforded of ascer- 

 taining and extending the limits of the transition in the states of 

 Pennsylvania and Xew York, as well as the boundary of the great 

 primitive formation, north of the Mohawk, and fixing the limits 

 of the transition on Lake Champlain and in the state <>f Vermonl 

 with more precision." The principal changes on the Xew York- 

 map are the coloring of a large portion of the Adirondack^ as 



