392 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
On the east bank of the Hudson river, two and a half miles below Poughkeepsie, an exca¬ 
vation has been made in the slate rock for coal. A quartz vein intersects the slate, and in 
this, pieces of anthracite of the size of a pea are found. This vein has been followed down 
many feet, with the expectation of finding this combustible. It is scarcely necessary to 
remark, that masses of workable coal have never yet been discovered in veins traversing the 
strata. 
At another locality, near Poughkeepsie, a well has been bored two hundred feet in search 
of coal. Excavations have been made in ten or twelve places in the vicinity of Poughkeepsie, 
and from five thousand to six thousand dollars have been expended in search of this combus¬ 
tible. Many believe that coal exists at a considerable depth. A large piece of anthracite is 
said to have been found at the mouth of Wappinger’s creek, about fifty years ago. This 
fact, the black color of the slate in many places, and the films of anthracite which frequently 
glaze its surfaces, have nourished the hopes of those who ardently wished that coal might be 
found there. 
In Fishkill, on the farm of Mr. Annan, is an excavation which has been made in expecta¬ 
tion that coal would be found. It is in black slate, glazed with anthracite, and would be more 
likely to deceive those who are not familiar with coal regions, than any I have seen, except 
those of Hudson, and Rider’s mill in Chatham. This place has been called the Coal mine, 
for a century. It is at the base of the Highlands, and very near the junction of the granitic 
and slate rocks. 
Dr. Horton, speaking of these rocks in Orange county, says, “ In very many places in 
the county, this rock is loaded with carbon, so much so as to deceive the inexperienced eye 
into the belief that it is coal; hence the very common belief among us, that coal in abun¬ 
dance will yet be found in the county. Mining for coal, in a small way, has been undertaken 
in several places, and the rock has been penetrated, by boring for this purpose, more than 
two hundred feet. These undertakings have all resulted in loss, and, in a few cases, to a 
ruinous extent. ^ They tend, however, to reveal the true character of the rock, and to show us 
how small a probability exists of discovering extensive beds of coal in this formation.”* 
Excavations have been made for coal in several places in Ulster county, the principal of 
which are, • 
1. That on the bank of the Hudson, at the Blue rock in Marlborough. 
2. That a few miles west from the Hudson, on the Marlborough mountain. 
3. That at the base of the Shawangunk, near the Coxenclove creek in Marbletown, a little 
north of the road from Springtown over the mountain to Highfalls. This excavation was 
made in 1836, in the black glazed slate with thin scales of anthracite or carbonaceous matter. 
Pyrites occur also in thin scales between the laminae of the slate, and frequently they are 
plumose, and arranged around a centre something like the petals of a flower. They make 
beautiful specimens. 
4. In New-Paltz. 
5. In Plattekill. 
Third Annual Geological Report of New-York, p. 143. 
