ROCKS COMPOSING THE TACONIC SYSTEM. 
145 
46. 
8 
1. Gneiss. 2. Second bed or Stockbridge limestone. 5. Second mass of magnesian slate.' 
2. First bed of limestone. 4. Granular quartz. 6. Sparry limestone. 
3. Magnesian slate. 2. Third bed of limestone. 8. Taconic slate. 
7. Shales of the Champlain group. 
The preceding section is intended to exhibit not only the rocks and their relative position, 
but also to illustrate my views in regard to their dip, and other phenomena which are brought 
to light in this system of rocks. While it is admitted that there are many obscurities which 
cannot be fully removed, and which with our present knowledge must remain, still it appears 
that the simplest illustration leaves fewer objections than those which suppose a complicated 
series of movements. With this view of the subject, I have adopted a mode of explanation 
which is as far removed from complexity as possible, and to which there could be no objec¬ 
tion, were it not assumed that the rocks of the western edge of the Taconic belt are newer 
than those of the eastern, or in other words, at the time of their deposition rested upon the 
eastern; but if dip is an indication of age and superposition, the fact is directly the reverse. 
Leaving the further consideration of this subject for another place, I will barely remark, that 
my object in presenting these views, is to elicit facts from other observers ; that by careful 
study in the field, we may be enabled soon to clear up all those points which are now so per¬ 
plexing. 
Turning once more to the preceding section, it is apparent, if the section is true to nature, 
that an easterly dip may have been given by several successive uplifts, or by the force which 
occasioned those uplifts. This force, if regarded as general, and as operating beneath the 
primary, we may consider that it might have upheaved the Hoosic mountain range, giving 
its masses the easterly dip; and as it was applied or exerted beneath those of the Taconic 
system, gave to its rocks also a similar inclination; and still passing onwards to the west, 
produced derangements of the strata of the same kind in the masses composing the Cham¬ 
plain group, the effects of which are more particularly seen in the Hudson river slates and 
shales. That this force acted beneath the primary, is rendered probable by the exposure of 
the gneiss, bearing up this series of rocks on one side without deranging them ; while on the 
other, the same rocks are thrown down, leaning against the gneiss at a high angle. But we 
have, besides the dip, other phenomena to explain; the occasional folding of the strata, or 
double contortions. We can conceive of but two methods by which changes of this nature, 
or folding of the strata, can be produced ; one of which is, a force applied beneath, whose 
general effect is to uplift the strata, but which at the same time exerts a lateral force, which 
bends or flexes them upon each other at the moment the masses are under movement; the 
Geol. 2d Dist. 19 
