2 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
The rock formations of the First Geological District may be arranged in the following order 
as great masses, viz: 
1. Gluaternary System. 
2. Tertiary System. 
3. Trappean System. 
4. Redsandstone System. 
5. Coal System. 
6. New-York System. 
Alluvial division. 
(Quaternary division. 
Drift division. 
Catskill division. 
Erie division. 
Helderberg division. 
Ontario division. 
Champlain division. 
7. Taconic System. 
a Primary System. J Safy'?" 
i Corniferous limestone, Onondaga limestone, Schoharie 
; grit, Cauda-galli grit, Oriskany sandstone, Catskill 
j shaly limestone, Pentamerus limestone, Water-lime 
C group, Onondaga salt group. 
Oneida or Shawangunk conglomerate. 
{ Hudson River group, Utica slate, Trenton limestone, 
( Calciferous group, Potsdam sandstone. 
The Quaternary system, including also the alluvial and drift, occupies the whole of Long 
Island, except a small area near Hurlgate ; most of Staten Island ; the flats and elevated plains 
of the Hudson and its tributaries ; those of Wood creek, the Delaware, and some on the Sus- 
quehannah. It also occurs in many of the high valleys of the Highlands, the Catskills, and 
other elevated regions of the first district. 
The Tertiary is found in some parts of Long Island. 
The Trappean rocks are mostly confined to Rockland county, and the most prominent 
mass is that called the Palisades. Dykes, veins and injected and protruded masses of rock 
belonging to this system, occur more or less in the primary region. 
The Redsandstone of the Hudson, in the first district, is entirely confined to Rockland 
and Richmond counties, but ranges southward into New-Jersey. 
The Coal formation exists in only a few small patches in Greene and Sullivan counties, 
and it is believed to contain no workable coal. 
The New- York system underlies all the area from the primary and metamorphic ranges of 
rocks on the east and north, to the western limits of the first district; and thence extends 
northwest, west and southwest, under all the country from the Blue Ridge to the Rocky 
Mountains, and from Alabama to Lake Siaperior; and to the primary range that crosses the 
.country westward from Lake Superior, above the Falls of St. Anthony, and the mouth of the 
Aux Liard on the St. Peter’s river. I have examined this formation more or less extensively 
at frequent intervals, over nearly all of this area. About fifty thousand square miles of it are 
.covered by the great coal formation that occupies the northeast and western parts of Penn¬ 
sylvania, the western parts of Maryland and Virginia, a portion of Tennessee and Alabama, 
