302 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
The impressions of fucoids are very common on some of the red rocks, of both shales and 
sandstones. 
No bones or scales of fish have been observed in these rocks, in the First geological district. 
The general arrangement of the parts of the Catskill division is, 
1. Conglomerates, and coarse grits. 
2. Red shales, slates and grits. 
3. Grey and greenish grey slaty grits. 
4. Chocolate-colored grits, with red shales and slates^ 
The Montrose sandstone of Prof. Vanuxem is below the top of this series in the Catskill 
mountains ; and beneath this, nearly all the strata described by him in his reports are found, 
characterized by their peculiar fossils ; but these rocks in the First geological district are 
generally of a coarser texture, down to the Helderberg limestone series, than in the Third 
district; and the fossils are as rare comparatively in this, as they are abundant and beautifully 
preserved in the other. 
The Catskill division occupies the county of Delaware, and portions of the counties of Sul¬ 
livan, Ulster, Greene, Schoharie and Albany. Seams and layers of pure anthracite have been 
observed in some places, and fossil plants have been found, not only in the shales associated 
with the anthracite, but also abundantly in the grits and slaty sandstones of the middle and 
upper parts of the series. These strata are all below the coal-bearing rocks of Pennsylvania, 
and it is not considered probable that coal will be found in useful quantity in them. 
By referring to the Geological map of the State, it will be seen that the Catskill division 
occupies a small area in the Third and Fourth geological districts, along the southern boundary 
of the State, but the main body of it forms the elevated land called the Catskill mountains. 
Two main systems of joints traverse these rocks, and all the subjacent ones down to and 
into the primary, and they conform in direction to the main axes of elevation and fracture, 
namely, north-northeast to south-southwest, and east-southeast to west-northwest. These 
joints are nearly vertical, and in slaty rocks are very smooth, as smooth as if cut through with 
a saw. They afford great facilities for quarrying, and save much labor by having their faces 
smooth-dressed by nature. 
The following detailed section gives the rocks as they can be seen, from the top of the 
South mountain near the Mountain House on the Catskills, down to the Helderberg division 
at the Katerskill creek at the Stone bridge between Catskill village and the Mountain House. 
They are grouped as they occur in terraces, which are numbered from the church in the val¬ 
ley, up to the toll-gate at the immediate base of the mountain, and thence up the mountain to 
the shanty in the ravine. 
