Pennsylvanian period.
Upper Productive Coal series. Monongahela series.
Lower Barren Coal Measures. Conemaugh series.
Lower Productive Coal Measures. Allegheny series.
Pottsville series.
The New York System.—We now come to the epochal survey of the State of New York, one that established the principles of, and put order into, American stratigraphy from the Upper Cambrian to the top of the Devonian. No better area could have been selected for the establishing of this sequence. This survey also developed a stratigraphic nomenclature based on New York localities and rock exposures, and made full use of the entombed fossils in correlation. Incidentally it developed and brought into prominence James Hall, who continued the stratigraphic work so well begun and who also laid the foundation for paleontology in America, becoming its leading invertebrate worker.
This work is reviewed at great length in the Journal in the volumes for 1844–1847 by D. D. Owen. Evidently it followed too new a plan to receive fulsome praise from conservative Owen, as it should have. He remarks that the volumes “are not a little prolix, are voluminous and expensive, and do not give as clear and connected a view of the geological features of the state as could be wished.... We are of the opinion that before this work can become generally useful and extensively circulated, it must be condensed and arranged into one compendious volume” (46, 144, 1844). This was never done and yet the work was everywhere accepted at once, and to this end undoubtedly Owen’s detailed review helped much.
The Natural History Survey of New York was organized in 1836 and completed in 1843. The state was divided into four districts, and to these were finally assigned the following experienced geologists. The southeastern part was named the First District, with W. W. Mather (1804–1859) as geologist; the northeastern quarter was the Second District, with Ebenezer Emmons (1799–1863) in charge; the central portion was the Third District, under Lardner Vanuxem (1792–1848); while the western part was James Hall’s (1811–1898) Fourth District. Paleontology for a time was in charge of T. A. Conrad (1830–1877); the mineralogical and chemical work was in the hands of Lewis C. Beck; the botanist was John Torrey; and the zoologist James DeKay.
The New York State Survey published six annual reports of 1675 pages octavo, and four final geological reports with 2079 pages quarto. Finally in 1846 Emmons added another volume on the soils and rocks of the state, in which he also discussed the Taconic and New York systems; it has 371 pages. With the completion of the first survey, Hall took up his life work under the auspices of the state—his monumental work, Paleontology of New York, in fifteen quarto volumes of 4539 pages and 1081 plates of fossils. In addition to all this, there are his annual and other reports to the Regents of the State, so that it is safe to say that he published not less than 10,000 pages of printed matter on the geology and paleontology of North America.
In regard to this great series of works, all that can be presented here is a table of formations as developed by the New York State Survey. Practically all of its results and formation names have come into general use, with the exception of the Taconic system of Emmons and the division terms of the New York system. (See p. 88.)