Having premised the character of the sandstone, all the series occupying a position above it must derive their character, as secondary deposits, from this. The limestone cannot, therefore, be a part of the carboniferous or "medial." The slates, as shown at Cashong, are fragmentary, and rather nearer slaty grauwacks. The arenaceous and calcareous upper deposits assume nearly the position of the oolitic series, and, in fact, ought, in some localities, to be regarded as equivalents.
Western Coal-Mines.—Much of the data employed in these inquiries is the result of previous examinations of the great coal deposits in the Ohio Valley, and other parts of the western country. Here we have the coal-sandstone and the slate clay, with slate, &c., alternating with the coal-measures. Such is the order of deposits at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela, where the formation is well developed, and where there exists, too, in the elevated valley hills, several repetitions of the series. The zechstone, or compact limestone, which is a pervading rock in the Mississippi Valley, occupies a position next above the great Mississippi sandstone.[ [245] It may always be distinguished from the shelly, entrochal limestone of the Genesee,[ [246] by the absence of gypsum and of the fetid odor emitted on fracture.
Alleghany Valley.—A question of interest, in connection with the extent of the Ohio Valley coal-formation, arises from the attempt to fix the point to which this formation ascends the Alleghany Valley—being the direct avenue into Western New York. I have examined this valley in its entire length between Pittsburg and Olean, in Cattaraugus County, and have not been able to observe that there are any evidences of its termination below the latter point. The general order and parallelism of strata remain the same. The coal stratum is apparently present. The qualities of the coal at Armstrong, and at various points below French Creek—the first primary fork of the river—are not distinguishable from the products of the Pittsburg galleries. Less search has been made above that point, but wherever the hills have been penetrated, they have—as at Brokenstraw—produced the bituminous coal. Above the Conawango Valley, which brings in the redundant waters of Chatauque Lake, the Alleghany discloses frequent rapids. The effect of parallelism upon the strata is to sink the coal-measures deeper as they ascend the Alleghany; and this cause may, in connection with the unexplored character of the country, be referred to in accounting for the absence of coal along this part of the line. The reappearance of traces of this mineral at Potato Creek, forty miles above Olean, is a proof, however, that the coal-formation extends to that point. This locality is a few miles within the limits of Pennsylvania. It occurs in a valley.
Coal in Western New York.—The coal-bed above Olean is south of the summit of the Genesee, and not remote from its primary source. The expectation may be indulged that the western coal-formation embraces portions of Cattaraugus and Alleghany or Steuben counties. The noted spring of naphtha, called Seneca Oil, is on Oil Creek in this county. As this substance, in the class of bitumens, is nearly allied to the coal series, it may be deemed favorable to the existence of the formation in the substrata.[ [247] Fragments of carbonized wood are frequently found in the large tracts of marine sand,[ [248] as well as in some of the mixed alluvions of these counties; and it needs but an examination, as cursory as it has fallen to my lot to make, of this portion of the country, to render it one of high geological interest, and to denote that the coal-measures probably extend into some portions of Western New York.[ [249]
ADDENDA.
Animals inclosed in Rock, &c.
Toads.—In 1770, a toad was brought to Mr. Grignon inclosed in two hollow shells of stone; but, on examining it nicely, Mr. G. discovered that the cavity bore the impression of a shell-fish, and, of consequence, he concluded it to be apocryphal.
In 1771, another instance occurred, and was the subject of a curious memoir read by Mr. Guettard to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. It was thus related by that famous naturalist:—
In pulling down a wall, which was known to have existed upwards of a hundred years, a toad was found without the smallest aperture being discoverable by which it could have entered. Upon inspecting the animal, it was apparent that it had been dead but a very little time; and in this state it was presented to the Academy, which induced Mr. Guettard to make repeated inquiries into the subject, the particulars of which will be read with pleasure in the excellent memoir we have just cited.
Worms.—Two living worms were found, in Spain, in the middle of a block of marble which a sculptor was carving into a lion, of the natural color, for the royal family. These worms occupied two small cavities to which there was no inlet that could possibly admit the air. They subsisted, probably, on the substance of the marble, as they were the same color. This fact is verified by Captain Ulloa, a famous Spaniard, who accompanied the French academicians in their voyage to Peru to ascertain the figure of the earth. He asserts that he saw these two worms.
Adder.—We read in the Affiches de Provence, 17 June, 1772, that an adder was found alive in the centre of a block of marble thirty feet in diameter. It was folded nine times round, in a spiral line. It was incapable of supporting the air, and died a few minutes after. Upon examining the stone, not the smallest trace was to be found by which it could have glided in or received air.