CHAMPLAIN DIVISION. 
401 
In Hamptonburgh, limestone exists as a bed in the argillite. This bed is about two and 
a half miles long, and fifty or sixty rods in breadth. The contact of the two rocks is no 
where visible, although they are within a few rods, and in some places but a few feet distant. 
This bed has the same direction and inclination as the argillite. It is all fetid, and contains 
cubic crystals of sulphuret of iron, which are of a bright yellow color. Most of the layers 
are the usual color of sparry lime rock; some, however, are very dark colored, so much so 
that it was supposed to contain coal. An excavation was accordingly made for this mineral; 
it need scarcely be observed, that no coal was found. The surfaces of some layers are full 
of the fossil shells of the very early periods of animal life. The stone of this bed has been 
long used for lime, but the quality is not very good. The argillite closes round both ends of 
this bed. It is called the Neeleytown limestone, in the neighborhood where it lies.”* 
The rocks of the Trenton limestone group occur on the bank of the Hudson, about one 
and a quarter to one and a half miles above the village of Barnegate. The rocks are slate 
and slaty altered limestones, that would not be recognized as limestones without close exami¬ 
nation. Some few fossils were found in these altered argillaceous slaty limestones, that have 
been recognized as belonging to the Trenton limestone. The strata dip at a high angle to the 
east, like all the rocks in the vicinity. 
Limestone and slate interstratified in thin layers were observed in many places in the masses 
of upturned strata of the Hudson valley, east of the anticlinal axis. They are supposed to 
belong to the Trenton limestone group, because, 
1. They are composed of similar alternating strata of black and dark grey limestone and 
black shale. 
2. They are often associated with such other limestones and calciferous sandstones, as we 
know are associated with and underlie the Trenton limestone group in some parts of the dis¬ 
trict, where the rocks are undisturbed. 
A locality of this slaty limestone was observed on the macadamized road from Troy to 
Bennington, at the distance of about a mile from the Hudson river. 
Another was observed at a quarry by the road side, on the east side of Kinderhook lake. 
The strike is N. 20° W., and the dip from 25° to 80° eastwardly. 
Another in the banks of the Kinderhook creek at Malden, Columbia county. The layers 
at this place are thicker than on the east side of Kinderhook lake, being from six to ten inches, 
and they are interstratified with slate. It crosses the stream below the dam, and above the 
bridge, with a thickness of about thirty feet. Another mass crosses the stream under the 
bridge. The limestone is dark colored, compact, and intersected by veins of calcareous spar. 
Another locality is by the road side, not far from Malden, where the limestone is interstra¬ 
tified with slate and grits. 
Another locality is at Rider’s mills, one mile above Malden. The rock has been blasted 
out here in many places above and below the dam, in the banks and bed of the stream, and 
* Geological Report of New-York, 1839, p. 148. 
51 
Geol. IstDist. 
