PLAN OF ARRANGEMENT 
IN THE 
STATE GEOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 
The plan of arrangement adopted in the State Collection has been, as far as possible, in the order of 
nature. The object to be attained, being the dissemination of information among a large number of 
persons who have given little attention to the science of Geology, the simplest mode of presenting the 
subject would of course be most satisfactory. The room appropriated for the purpose is about seventy 
feet long and thirty-four feet wide. Around the outside of this room is a series of vertical cases, and 
about four feet within this area is a series of tabular cases; thus presenting a double series of specimens. 
A single case is devoted to the productions of a roclr or group, and nothing foreign to it is allowed to 
enter. Each tablular case, being 3| feet long by 2| wide, contains from 50 to 70 typical specimens of 
rocks and fossils of the group, giving the observer at a glance a comprehensive view of the most pro¬ 
minent and important features of each. In the vertical cases a more numerous collection is arranged, 
and the more rare or less characteristic productions of the rock or group here find a place. 
The accompanying diagram will render this description more intelligible. On entering at the door, 
the visitor turns to the left, bringing himself in front of the range of vertical and tabular cases, (reference at 
present being had to the latter only.) The first case presents him with the most characteristic and impor¬ 
tant varieties of granite, gneiss and associated rocks and minerals. The second presents a series of 
magnesian slates, crystalline limestones, etc. being a metamorphosed group known as the Taconic (Tagh- 
konic) system. The third case presents the products of the lowest known sedimentary rock containing 
organic remains — the Potsdam sandstone. From this point every successive case at the right hand pre¬ 
sents the observer with the next rock in the ascending order of the series; and by passing on in this 
direction around the room, the whole series is examined in their natural order of superposition. 
By the aid of sections this is made intelligible even to the least initiated, and has proved a very satis¬ 
factory mode of arrangement. The series terminates in New-York with the conglomerate of the Car¬ 
boniferous system, and the next case is devoted to a collection of coal and coal plants from Pennsylvania, 
showing the full development of the group. Succeeding this we have the red sandstone of the southern 
part of New-York, being the New red, or of a formation intermediate between it and the coal. The three 
remaining cases are devoted to surface products, as boulders, sands and clays, marl, peat, and modern 
tertiary fossils. 
The collection of fossils, not yet completed, is to be arranged in drawers beneath these cases. In the 
gallery of this room there is a geographical collection of specimens, presenting the productions of each 
county separately arranged. 
