34 
GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 
Anthracite has been an object of exploration in many places where it appears in this rock, 
in the hope of discovering this valuable product in profitable quantity; those who sought it 
having no idea that coal was limited to a small part of the geological series, and that this rock 
was far below that part in which it so exists. One of the excavations, and the deepest, is at 
the top of the Noses, to the north of Spraker’s house ; the depth attained is said to have been 
sixty feet. 
The anthracite of this rock, from its appearing in the form of drops or buttons, and as before 
noticed, proves that its previous nature was bituminous, its own being infusible; and shows 
the heat, not dry but humid, to which the greater part of the rock had been subjected, and 
which readily accounts for the numerous siliceous and other products which are common to 
it. An analysis of this anthracite gave 86^- per cent of carbon; 2 of light cream-colored 
ashes, which were of silex ; and 11^ of water, the latter being in greater amount than has been 
obtained from the anthracite of the Coal era or series. 
The rock, in part, gives a fetid odor; and there are few rocks out of the Primary class, 
containing organic remains, but do the like; a phenomenon which appears to be caused by 
animal matter, and which may be perceived in .almost all the rocks belonging to the New- 
York system, at the moment of fracture, or when struck by a hammer. 
But one place was seen, where the calciferous rock showed any other metallic minerals 
than a little copper pyrites and iron ochre, or hydrate of iron: this was on the land of Josiah 
Rice, near Salisbury Corners. Several small openings had been made there ; but the parts, 
when visited, were too much covered up to observe positively whether veins existed or not. 
The appearance presented was that of irregular deposits, filling cracks, etc. in the rock. 
The ores were galena in cubo-octohedrons, copper and iron pyrites, and sulphuret of zinc, all 
in small quantities. 
Copper pyrites, forming rather handsome specimens, and in considerable quantity, as cabi¬ 
net specimens, were thrown out in blasting this rock to the west of Little-Falls, in the enlarge¬ 
ment of the canal, but no other metallic mineral noticed with it. The same kind of pyrites, 
but in minute quantity, may be seen in the same rock in the creek near Spraker’s’ basin. 
Sulphate of barytes is often found at the west end of Little-Falls. 
From the state in which the anthracite appears, and from the abundance and varied kinds 
of siliceous aggregates embodied in the calciferous sandrock, little doubt can exist of its having 
been connected with thermal waters. 
The Calciferous sandrock, resting immediately upon the primary, as its position shows at 
the Noses, Little-Falls and Middleville, the two masses being very different as to age, and 
with no conformity as to structure; the effect of this difference would be, that whatever 
derangement the primary mass might receive, it would not be communicated to the other in 
the same manner, from want of parallelism: hence separations or caverns would be formed, 
into which surface waters would find their way, and thus be subjected to the high temperature 
to which this rock, from its low position in the series, has been subjected. 
In the range of this rock through the Atlantic States, there are numerous points where it 
