188 
[Assembly 
period from the date of my commission, to the close of the favoura- 
ble season, be so examined as to give satisfactory practical detail; 
yet as no less than 2,200 miles of distance of that district wdiS 
travelled over, more than half performed on foot, much important 
scientific information, both general and particular, was obtained, 
which cannot but greatly facilitate future operations, and by the 
connection of science with art, ultimately lead to practical results. 
The rocks, or the solid materials of which the counties are 
composed, so far as I have examined them, belong wholly to the 
transition class of the French, and greater number of the British 
geologists, forming but a part of that most important geological 
division, and embracing that portion of the carboniferous system 
of the Reverend Mr. Conybeare, immediately below the bitumi- 
nous coal series, or upon which the coal series rests, when fol- 
lowing in their regular order. These rocks of the fourth district, 
correspond with all those masses which Professor Eaton, in the map 
appended to the second edition of his Geological Text Book, places 
above his third carboniferous formations, so far as l ean understand 
it aright, exclusive, however of the very modern secondary group. 
As in Europe, so in New-York, the series consists of products of 
the land, and products of the ocean, all originally mud, sand, peb- 
bles and carbonate of lime; in some localities tolerably pure, in 
others more or less intermixed with each other. The mud has 
given rise to slate, shale, and indurated marl. The sand, to flag- 
stones, freestone, both building and grindstone. The pebbles, to 
conglomerate or puddingstone, and the carbonate of lime to lime- 
stone. Besides these general rocks, the admixtures of two or more 
of their materials have produced numerous varieties, as is common 
with the materials of all other general rocks. The geographical 
distribution of these rocks as to quantity, is exceedingly dispropor- 
tional, the shale and slate forming by far the greater part of the 
whole mass. Sandstone is next in abundance. The conglomerate 
occurs only in three or four localities, and of very limited extent. 
Limestone appears only as a surface rock in Otsego, Seneca, Erie 
and Niagara; and in none of the other counties, so far discover- 
ed, is it in sufficient abundance to be burnt for lime, excepting in 
the outlet of Crooked Lake, and near the level of Seneca Lake. 
The materials of which the rocks of the fourth district are for- 
med, were doubtless arranged by an ocean, from the numberless 
. marine shells, rrustaceous and zoophytic remains, which so gene- 
