RED-SANDSTONE DIVISION. 
The dykes of trap rocks filling the rents of the red-sandstone division, and the effects 
produced in these rocks by such causes, have already been described. 
No fossil remains have been observed in the red sandstone of Rockland and Richmond 
counties, except some obscure fucoids, during the examinations I have made of those rocks. 
The impression of a fern is said to have been found at Belleville, and also the tooth of the 
Maestricht animal; and in the sandstone quarries at Nyack, the bones of small animals like 
squirrels and sheep, are stated to have been found in loam beneath twelve feet of sandstone, 
and four feet of earth overlying sandstone.* 
Considerations on the Causes of this Formation. 
It has already been stated, that the red-sandstone formation under consideration extends 
from Stony point on the Hudson, across New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, 
into North-Carolina. It has been observed that the strata dip slightly to the northwest, some¬ 
times as much as fifteen degrees ; produced, not by any uplifting agency since the deposi¬ 
tion of the strata, “ but assumed originally at the time of their deposition, in consequence of 
the setting of the current from the opposite or southeastern shore.”! 
Prof. Rodgers supposes “that these materials were deposited by an extensive ancient 
river, having its source in the Southern States, and its estuary in the region of the Raritan 
and the Hudson, and having its course for the most part southeast of the chain of the Blue 
ridge and the Highlands. Several important facts connected with this trough, such as its 
present configuration, the uniform dip and direction of its slightly inclined beds, implying 
a steady current; their singular constancy of character, so indicative of one general source 
for the whole ; and the obvious identity of their materials with the soils now furnished by the 
ancient rocks from whence we would derive these deposits, all go to confirm the above sup¬ 
position. 
“ When the details of the geological surveys of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, 
now approaching to completion, shall have been united with the delineations herein given of 
this interesting group of rocks, the long and narrow tract which they occupy will be seen to 
possess in a striking degree the features of a noble river, taking its rise in the primary region 
of the Southern States, and meeting the ocean probably at and beyond the outlets of the Ra¬ 
ritan and the Hudson. 
“ The traveller passing along the red sandstone belt from the Hudson to the northern con¬ 
fines of North Carolina, will, if his mind be directed to these considerations, become early 
impressed with the accordant nature of the evidence which accumulates as he advances. In 
commencing his journey, he will see the whole formation occurring in part still beneath, in 
part above the present level of the ocean. Passing the Raritan, where for a certain distance 
the tide washes a portion of it, he will next find it on the Delaware, elevated above the ocean 
*Dr. S. J. Mitchell’s Lecture before the Newark Mechanic’s Association in 1828. 
t Prof. Rodgers. Geological Report of New-Jersey, 1840, p. 115. 
Geol. 1st Dist. 37 
