330 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
When making the reconnoisance, soon after the commencement of the geological survey, 
this business had but commenced, and there was no cement manufactured on the Rondout, 
except at Lawrenceville, and there but few kilns were in operation. It was not then known 
to the inhabitants that the cement rock was abundant, except at and near those quarries, until 
some of them were then informed of its inexhaustible quantities. Even now few are aware 
of the great extent of this rock, and still fewer understand how to trace out the situation of 
favorably located new quarries. 
The cement beds and overlying limestones, up the valley of the Rondout, (and in fact 
north to New-Baltimore,) are very much broken up, upheaved, overturned even, and con¬ 
torted very much. The facts connected with this derangement of the strata have a practical 
bearing, in exposing the cement beds so as to render them capable of being worked with the 
minimum expense, in a multitude of localities where they would not otherwise be accessible. 
Derangements of the rocks of the Helderherg division. 
Between Kingston and Wilbur, the strata are very much broken and contorted, having 
been traversed by numerous extensive faults and disruptions ; and where these have not 
occurred, the strata are bent and contorted in a remarkable manner. At some of the quar¬ 
ries on the- hill near Wilbur, the strata approach to a horizontal position, but they bend down 
more and more, until they pitch under the Rondout river, at angles of forty to fifty and 
sixty degrees. On the opposite shore, the same strata show their broken ends on the mural 
precipice that rises from the water, and their dip is slight, and in the same direction as the 
more moderate dip at the quarries on the top of the hill. The river here flows along a line 
of fault (Vide PI. 7, fig. 6). 
At White’s quarries, which are numerous, the rocks generally dip to the east-southeast, at 
angles from thirty-five to forty-five degrees ; but there are some, where the strata are nearly 
vertical; in one they are reversed, and dip seventy-five to eighty-five degrees to the west- 
northwest, and in one they are nearly horizontal (Vide PI. 7, fig. 5). There are generally 
two or three strata of the cement rock with seams of calcareous slate or shale between, 
varying from four to twenty feet thick ; and again, other strata of the cement are separated 
by strata of limestone twenty or thirty feet thick. Each hill seems to have been formed by 
the strata cracking in parallel lines, and then being upheaved or down-heaved on one side, or 
on a diagonal line, while the opposite side or angle remained fixed (Vide PI. 7, fig. 4 ; PI. 
8, figs. 1, 2, 3, 8; PI. 26, fig. 7). The same strata are seen in each hill, and in the same 
order of succession, except in some few cases of overturn, where the strata are reversed 
(Vide PI. 8, fig. 7). 
On Pine mountain, between Rondout and Kingston point, is a high clifiF of limestone 
overlying the grey grits of the Hudson slate series. The strata of these grits are from eight 
to twenty inches thick, homogeneous in texture, and divided into blocks by joints, which 
traverse the rocks in parallel directions with regard to the planes of stratification. The strata 
of this rock here dip to the east-southeast at angles of forty to sixty degrees. The overlying 
