vanhise.]  EASTERN    UNITED    STATES.  393 
in  several  instances  after  continuing  with  this  parallelism  for  a  certain 
distance  the  ore  crosses  a  stratum  of  rocks  and  then  resumes  its  paral- 
lelism, and  then  obliquely  crosses  another,  and  so  on.  Also  in  other 
places  where  there  are  great  beds  of  ore,  a  few  small  strips  of  ore  pene- 
trate the  surrounding  rocks  as  if  they  have  been  cracked  asunder  and 
these  seams  forced  up  from  the  main  mass  below. 
The  rocks  that  are  most  metamorphosed  are  usually  near  granite, 
syenite,  trap,  quartzose  and  metalliferous  protrusions,  dikes  and  veins. 
It  is  believed  that  trappean  injections  took  place  as  late  as  the  time  of 
the  red  sandstone  of  New  Jersey.  The  granitic,  syenitic  and  augitic 
rocks  appear  to>  belong  to  the  epoch  immediately  preceding  the  slates 
and  grits  of  the  Champlain  division,  since  they  have  altered  the  pre- 
existing rocks  where  they  come  in  contact  up  to  that  time,  but  no  traces 
of  such  changes  are  found  in  the  more  recent  rocks.  Another  intrusion 
of  granite  is  believed  to  have  preceded  the  red  sandstone  of  Eocklaiid 
and  New  Jersey,  being  probably  more  recent  than  the  rocks  of  the 
Catskill  division. 
Gozzens,  Jr.,109  in  1843,  divides  the  rocks  of  Long  island  into  gran- 
ite, syenite,  serpentine,  mica-gneiss,  hornblende  slate,  quartz  rock, 
primitive  limestone  and  diluvium.  The  distribution  of  all  is  given. 
At  the  Palisades,  on  the  west  side  of  the  Hudson  river,  the  section 
from  the  base  up  is  granite,  serpentine  (different  from  that  at  Long 
island),  sandstone,  greenstone-slate  and  trap.  The  section  of  Staten 
island  from  the  base  upward  is  granite,  serpentine,  sandstone,  trap  or 
greenstone,  beds  of  iron  ore  and  diluvium.  At  Donderberg  the  section 
is  granite,  gneiss,  talcose  slate,  limestone  (called  transition  limestone) 
and  brick  clay. 
Emmons  (E.),110  in  1846,  gives  a  systematic  treatment  of  the  char- 
acter and  relations  of  the  Taconic  system.  The  Taconic  system  is 
held  to  be  below  the  New  York  system,  because  the  base  of  the  latter 
is  perfectly  schistose,  like  that  of  the  former,  and  because  the  mate- 
rial of  the  New  York  system  is  derived  from  the  Taconic.  Again, 
contacts  between  the  Taconic  system  and  the  calciferous  sandstone 
and  Hudson  river  shales  show  that  the  former  are  unconformably 
below  the  rocks  of  the  New  York  system.  As  evidence  that  the 
Taconic  system  is  newer  than  the  primary  rocks  is  the  occurrence  of 
porphyritic  quartz  of  the  Taconic  upon  gneiss.  It  is,  then,  not  to  be 
doubted  that  there  is  a  system  of  rocks  lying  between  the  Hoosac 
mountain  range  and  the  Hudson  river  of  an  age  posterior  to  the  gneiss 
and  mica-slate  and  anterior  to  the  New*  York  system.  It  consists 
throughout  of  beds  of  sedimentary  matter  in  a  state  of  fine  division 
conformable  to  each  other  and  arranged  in  uninterrupted  succession, 
although  their  lithological  characters  are  very  diverse.  The  Taconic 
system  comprises  the  Taconic  slate-bearing  fossils,  the  Sparry  lime- 
|  stone,  the  Stockbridge  limestone  and  the  brown  sandstone  or  granu- 
lar quartz.    The  primary  limestone  carries  graphite,  and  on  this  account 
