OF NORTH AMERICA. 
75 
6. Catskill mountains system. — The end of the Devonian period has been marked by ruptures and 
elevations of the strata of The Old Red Sandstone upon almost all the southern boundary line of New 
York State. The general disposition of the strata , particularly near the village of Catskill , gives for the 
direction of the upheaval E. 15° S., and W. 15° N.; a direction which coincides with the systems N° 3 
and N° 6 , that Ed. Hitchcock has indicated in the south-east part of Massachussetts. These systems of 
Hitchcock have dislocated strata, which although very much altered by the metamorphism, can however 
be recognized as of the Devonian epoch; they form the outline of the anthracite basin of Bristol County. 
In New Brunswick we observe upon the outline of the Coal basin, different lines of dislocations , the di- 
rection of which falls into that of the Catskill mountains. 
My friend J. W. Dawson, in a recent and remarkable book, entitled Acadian Geology, places at the 
end of the Devonian period the Cobequid mountains, the mountains of Cape Porcupine in Nova Scotia, 
and almost all the hills in the south-east part of Cape Breton. According to this able observer, the di- 
rection of the line of dislocation is W. 15° S. , which differs 25° from the direction of the Catskill mountains. 
It may happen, hereafter, that the metamorphic and eruptive rocks, indicated by Nicolet at the 
Great Oasis, and the pipestone quarries. Plateau du Coteau des Prairies, will be recognized as entering 
into this system. 
7. Alleghany and Ozark mountains system. — Until now, geographers and geologists have called 
Alleghany or Appalachian chain all the mountains which extend from Montgomery, Alabama, to Capes 
Roziere and Gaspe, at the mouth of the S' Lawrence. According to the preceding classification, almost 
the whole of the mountains which form the States of Massachussetts , Vermont , New York and Maine , 
and Upper and Lower Canada, were much anterior to the apparition of the Alleghanies; and I have dis- 
tinguished six systems of mountain ranges of different ages and directions, having no connection with 
the direction and age of the Alleghanies. For me, in a geographical point of view, the Alleghanies com- 
mence between Montgomery and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and extend, without interruption, to the left 
bank of the lower part of Hudson river, in Putnam County, Now York. In a geological point of view, 
this system of Alleghanian dislocations continues into Connecticut to the eastward of New Ilawen, cros- 
ses Rhode Island, which it forms almost wholly; the eastern part of Massachussetts, passing by Lowell; 
it terminates at Portsmouth, New Hampshire; then it recommences from Cape Sable, Nova Scotia; 
runs to Capo Canso, and forms all the eastern and central part of Newfoundland. The general direc- 
tion of the Alleghany system is from North-East to South-West. A deviation more to the east is marked 
in the part which extends from the environs of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to the environs of New York 
City. This deviation arises from the meeting of the dislocations of this system with those of the Meri- 
dional system, which, in crossing and penetrating each other, have resulted in a mixed direction, at an 
angle of from eight to ten degrees further east, for the region of the Alleghanies between the Susque- 
hanna and the Hudson. The influence of this deviation has extended much further to the south-west; 
and I do not hesitate to attribute to it very considerable faults , which are found in following the bases 
of the highest of the Alleghany mountains in the western part of Pennsylvania , and Virginia, and in Ten- 
nessee; and which show, from time to time, sharp and angular curves in the form of bayonets. 
The precise epoch of the dislocation of the Alleghany system is the end of the Carboniferous de- 
posit. To this system is owing, almost wholly, the elevation of the Middle and Western States of the 
Union. A part of this elevation forms the magnificent ranges of mountains so celebrated as the Penn- 
sylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky Alleghanies; they present an orographic regularity, of which ex- 
planations have been attempted that are far from satisfactory, when one is able to study the mountains 
themselves; and, we think, at present the phenomenon is too complicated, and the observations too 
few', to permit of general rules for the orography of this part of the Alleghany system. Professor Henry 
D. Rogers has published several times, and especially in: On the Physical Structure of the Appalachian 
Chain , as exemplifying the Laws which have regulated the elevation of great Mountain Chains , generally ; by 
Professors W. B. Rogers and IL D. Rogers; p. 474 etc. (See: Reports of the first, second, and third meet- 
