164 
[Assembly 
the fissile slate, which it is proposed provisionally to call graywacke 
shale. About one mile south of Hudson, an excavation has been made 
for coal during the past year. Mr. Rowley pointed it out to me, and 
informed me of the fossil remains in the shale. Some of the rocks 
might be mistaken for coal by those who are not minutely acquainted 
with coal and its varied aspects. The slate is highly impregnated with 
carbon, the fissures being filled with thin films of anthracite, and small 
pieces of this combustible of the size of a pea are not uncommon. This 
slate strongly resembles the impure anthracite and anthracitic shales of 
some of our coal mines. 
At Rider's mills, both the slate and limestone are glazed with anthra- 
cite; and these materials having been excavated from a mill race, indu- 
ced high expectations of the value of the coal mine that was believed to 
lie below, and which was supposed to be bituminous coal. Mr. Rider 
was offered a large sum for his farm, which he refused in consequence 
of the supposed value of the mine. 
Two excavations have been made for coal near the line between Ca- 
naan and Austerlitz, one on the farm of Elisha Lord, in Austerlitz, the 
other on Joseph Olmstead's land, in Canaan. At one of these places, a 
company in New- York expended $1,100. They bored about 100 feet, 
and in that depth passed through five inches of carbonaceous or plumba- 
ginous slate. The rocks of these hills are talcose and chloritic slates. 
The nature of these rocks is a suflScient index to the geologist to judge, 
that it would be a geological miracle to find workable beds of coal in 
them. 
On the east bank of the Hudson river, two and a half miles below 
Poughkeepsie, an excavation has been made in the slate rock for coal. 
A quartz vein intersects the slate, and in this, pieces of anthracite of the 
size of a pea are found. This vein has been followed down many feet, 
with the expectation of finding this combustible. It is scarcely neces- 
sary to remark, that masses of workable coal have never yet been dis- 
covered in veins traversing the strata. 
At another locality, near Poughkeepsie, a well has been bored 200 
feet in search of coal. Excavations have been made in ten or twelve 
places in the vicinity of Poughkeepsie, and from $5,000 to $6,000 have 
been expended in search of this combustible. Many believe that coal 
exists at a considerable depth. A large piece of anthracite is said to 
have been found at the mouth of Wappinger's creek, about fifty years 
ago. This fact, the black color of the slate in many places, and the 
