NEW RED SANDSTONE. 
259 
sandstone rocks, and our geologists have not iden- 
tified any of them as belonging to the new red for- 
mation. As there are numerous brine-springs in 
the red sandstone of Oswego, and extending west 
to the Niagara River, this circumstance would seem 
to lend great probability to the opinion that this 
rock is equivalent to the new red sandstone of Eu- 
rope. But whether this be so or not, the formation 
which we designate as the new red sandstone occu- 
pies a narrow belt of country, ranging for many 
miles up the valley of the Connecticut River, com- 
prising red, soft argillaceous shales and harder red 
sandstones, and, near the top of the series, a coarse, 
variegated conglomerate, made up of a vast assem- 
blage of pebbles of primary and other rocks. In 
various places Professor Hitchcock has observed 
ihe marks of extinct and gigantic races of birds of 
the wading class deeply impressed in this rock in 
various places ; also fossil remains of fishes of dif- 
ferent species. In New- Jersey we find the same 
formation bounded on the southeast by the Hudson 
River, Staten Island Sound, the Raritan River from 
its mouth to the mouth of South River, and from 
thence by an irregular line to Trenton, thus em- 
bracing the southeastern portions of Hunterdon, 
Morris, and Bergen, together with the whole of 
Somerset, all Essex, and a portion of Middlesex 
counties. The strata repose directly on granitic 
gneiss, and consist, in the ascending order, of alter- 
nating red conglomerates, sandstones, and shale, 
surmounted by a coarse, variegated, calcareous con- 
glomerate. From New-Jersey we trace this for- 
mation across the Delaware into Bucks county 
(Penn.), and across the Susquehanna^below Harris- 
burgh, into York county, and so on through Fred- 
eric county, Maryland, to the Potomac River in 
Virginia. 
Recent explorations in Virginia have also brought 
to light an ^extensive group of sandstone strata, 
