308 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
17. Many very fine sections nnay be examined in Delaware county. It is perhaps useless to 
mention localities where they may be seen on almost every road, and in every valley; 
but some of the finest were observed on the Willewemock river, which is the main 
tributary of the east branch of the Delaware. It is called, on Burr’s map of Dela¬ 
ware county, the Beaver kill; but the Beaver kill is the main northeastern branch, 
that has its source in Shandaken, Ulster county, and flows mostly in Sullivan county, 
within a mile or two of the line of Delaware county, and unites with the Willewe¬ 
mock river about a mile south of the line of Delaware county. The mountains come 
so close upon this river, that for many miles above its mouth there is no road, and the 
explorer must leave his conveyance and go on foot or on horseback, frequently fording 
the river, or cross it on a floating log instead of a boat.* 
18. At the falls of the Schoharie creek, near the meeting of the lines between the counties 
of Greene, Schoharie and Delaware, the red slate occurs at the bottom of the falls, 
and has been deeply excavated by the water ; while the superincumbent thick-bedded 
strata of grit break off at the natural joints of the rock, and fall into the basin exca¬ 
vated below. The fall has thus receded. 
19. A cliff overhanging the road on the bank of the Schoharie creek, near the line between 
Windham ahd Lexington, Greene county, offers a fine section of a few of the rocks. 
The red and reddish-brown colored slates and sandstones, and green slate, may here 
be observed. Some fucoids were obtained at this place. These strata are overlaid 
by thick-bedded grey grit. 
20. Strikersville falls present a fine section. 
21. The red and green variegated shales were seen in the bank at Catskill creek, one mile 
below Preston hollow. 
22. The reddish sandstone and shale occur in the bed of the small creek in the village of 
Prink-street, in Durham. The grey grits also occur there, abounding in coarse, im¬ 
perfectly characterized vegetable fossils. A thin bed of impure conglomerate lime¬ 
stone also occurs there. Ascending the mountain from Durham towards Woodstock, 
vegetable impressions are abundant in the grey grits which alternate with the red 
rocks. The impressions are usually not more than half an inch broad, and very im¬ 
perfectly characterized, and are filled with coal when fresh broken. One stem was 
observed about six inches in diameter and one and a half foot long, imbedded in a 
loose mass of the grey grit (vide PL 25, fig. 9). The general form and the joint were 
alone distinct; none of the cortical markings were distinguishable. 
* The wild mountain scenery, the country in a state of nature with its magnificent forests, the bracing mountain air, the pure 
limpid cold waters abounding in the finest trout, would, I should think, offer inducements to many who have no taste for geolo¬ 
gical investigations, to visit such scenes. I have often caught as many fine trout in a few minutes as my party could consume, 
and had them cooking as soon as they had ceased to flap, when encamped in the wild mountain regions of Delaware, Sullivan, 
Ulster and Greene counties. 
