USA > New York > A geographical history of the state of New York: embracing its history, government, physical features, climate, geology, mineralogy, botany, zoology, education, internal improvements, &c., with a separate map of each county > Part 2
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May 15,
45
151
Strawberries ripe, -
June 12,
58
210
Hay harvest commenced,
July 8,
34
127
Wheat harvest commenced,
July 25,
45
186
First killing frost,
Sept. 23
57
471
First fall of snow, -
Nov. 5,
536
Mean, or average temperature,
460 49'
59
577
Mean annual maximum of heat,
920 00'
59
550
Mean annual minimum, below zero,
120 00'
59
551
Mean ann. range of the thermometer, 101º 00'
59
550
We will now proceed to consider the climate of the several districts, into which we have divided the state, in their order.
1st District. Long Island.
The climate of this district is remarkable for the uniformity of its temperature. The greatest heat of summer is on an average 12º less, and the greatest cold of winter from 10° to 18° less, than in other parts of the state.
The spring is somewhat backward, trees blooming a week later than in the in- terior of the state; yet strawberries ripen, and the wheat harvest commences earlier than the average of the state.
* This is the average for the southern and middle portion of the state only.
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STATE OF NEW YORK.
Frost occurs at a much later period in autumn, than in any other section. At East Hampton, it is a full month, and at Jamaica and Flatbush, nearly three weeks, later than the average of the state.
2d District. The Valley of the Hudson.
This valley is remarkable for the great annual range of the thermometer; the heat of summer and the cold of winter being equally intense. The average tem- perature of Albany is nearly 2º higher than that of the state. The extreme cold of winter at Kinderhook, Lansingburgh, Cambridge, Salem and Granville, causes the mercury to sink 10° lower than in the southern towns of the valley. The spring opens a week or ten days later, at Albany, and above that city, than at the city of New York.
3d District. Valley of the Mohawk.
The average annual temperature of this valley is 1º less than that of the state. Northerly and easterly winds prevail in this section. The latter seems to be a diversion of the south, or south west wind, which prevails in the valley of the Hudson.
Utica, in this district, may be considered as a fair representative of the general climate of the state, as its temperature is about the average temperature of the whole state.
4th District. North and North East of the Valley of the Mohawk.
The climate of this region is characterized by a low average temperature, ex- treme cold in winter, great range of the thermometer, backward seasons, and early frosts.
Gouverneur, in St. Lawrence Co. reports a lower degree of temperature in winter, and with one exception, a lower annual average of temperature, than any other town in the state, from which meteorological records have been received.
The average annual temperature of the whole district is more than 2º lower than that of the remainder of the state.
5th District. The Region South of the Mohawk, extending to the smaller Lakes.
The average annual temperature of this section is about 2º lower than that of the state, and the autumnal frosts occur from 4 to 13 days earlier. Vegetation is uniformly backward, yet the robin appears earlier than in other sections.
Pompey, in Onondaga county, is the coldest place reported, its annual tempera- ture being 32° lower than that of the state; yet the cold of winter is not so in- tense, nor do the autumnal frosts occur as early there, as in the state generally.
6th District. That portion of the State West of the small Lakes.
The climate of this section, like that of Long Island, is characterized by uni- formity. The mean temperature does not differ materially from that of the whole state, but the average annual range of the thermometer is only 96°, while that of the state is 104º.
Vegetation in the spring is somewhat in advance of the state generally, cor- responding with that of Albany.
The prevalent local wind of this region is from the southwest. In the autumn it is violent throughout the whole section, and frequently attended with rain ; but on Lake Erie, probably owing to its meeting with other currents of wind, it fre- quently manifests extraordinary fury in September and October, and occasionally produces disastrous shipwrecks.
The extreme heat of summer is very uniform throughout the state. Only 5 places, out of 55, show a difference of over 3º from the average of the state, which is 92°.
The average time throughout the whole state, from the blooming of the apple tree, to the first killing frost in autumn, is 174 days. On the west end of Long Island it is 12} days more; and in St Lawrence county 22 days less. These are the extremes.
NATURAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK.
I. GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY.
GEOLOGY may be defined as that science which treats of the struc- ture of the earth, and the substances which compose it.
An examination of the banks of rivers, the sides of precipices, &c., shows that there are two kinds, or classes of rocks; the one being de- posited in layers, or strata, of variable thickness, are called stratified rocks, and bear evidence of having been, at some remote period, de- posited as a sediment, from water ; the other irregular in shape, con- taining numerous crystals, and most of the metals in common use, and forming the basis of the lofty mountain chains, are termed unstratified rocks, and were undoubtedly brought into their present form by the action of fire, which then existed, and probably still exists, in the in- terior of the earth.
Granite is the principal constituent of the unstratified rocks, and probably formed the original crust of the earth. It still exists below all the other rocks. Owing, however, to violent convulsions of na- ture, (such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, &c.,) which have occurred since the layers above it were deposited, it has in many places been forced up through fissures in these layers, so as to ap- pear on the surface, or has raised them up, so as to form mountains or hills. If these were still covered with water, or became again sub- merged by a subsequent convulsion, new layers were again deposited, frequently at considerable angles with the first deposit.
The figure represents such an occurrence.
C
C
a, represents the unstratified rock upon which the layers b, b, had been deposited in a horizontal position ; but by a convulsion of na- ture, the whole mass had been upheaved, and the granite had forced
2*
22
STATE OF NEW YORK.
its way to the surface; being however still submerged, new layers c, c, were deposited, at an angle of nearly 450 with the first.
Hypersthene and primitive limestone also occur among the un- stratified rocks.
THE STRATIFIED ROCKS are divided into six orders or systems, as they are called; viz.,-beginning at the lowest strata, or those next succeeding the unstratified rocks, we have,
I. THE PRIMARY, OR PRIMITIVE SYSTEM, consisting of disinte- grated granite, deposited by the waters ; and probably again modified by the action of the subterranean heat.
The rocks, composing this system, are known as gneiss, mica schist, and hornblende. There is no evidence of the existence of either animal or vegetable life, during the period while this strata were de- positing. Nearly all the metals, used in the arts, are found in these rocks, and in the granite on which they rest.
II. THE TRANSITION SYSTEM. This system embraces a great variety of formations, and occupies a large portion of the crust of the earth. Its lower strata consist of limestones, sandstones, and shales or slaty rocks. Above these, is a layer of sandstone, known as the old red sandstone, which is succeeded by a limestone, forming the bed of the vast coal formations, which furnish so large an amount of fuel to the world. Over these is deposited a magnesian limestone, and another layer of red sandstone, distinguished as the new red sandstone.
The period, when these deposits were made, was characterized by extraordinary luxuriance of vegetable life. The coal deposits are all of vegetable origin, and were reduced to their present form, by the influence of heat, decay and pressure. In the rocks belonging to this system are also found, in immense quantities, the lower orders of animals, shell fish, snails, and a few fishes, and amphibious rep- tiles. None of them, however, belong to species now known to be in existence.
III. THE SECONDARY SYSTEM, composed of oolitic-limestone, greensand, and chalk. This system contains a large number of fos- sils, both animal and vegetable. Among the former are those gigan- tic amphibious animals, mostly belonging to the lizard and crocodile tribes, whose skeletons, found both on this continent and in Europe, have excited so much attention. There are also many shells, fishes, insects, and a few quadrupeds. Several hundreds of species of plants have been found in the secondary rocks. These fossils, vegetable and animal, with scarcely an exception, belong to extinct species.
IV. THE TERTIARY SYSTEM. This consists of deposits of clay, sand and gravel, in some instances hardened into rock, but generally containing evidence of the comparative recentness of its deposition. It contains an immense number of fossils, both animal and vegetable ; of these about 12 per cent. have been identified as belonging to ex- isting species, and the remainder generally bear a marked resem- blance to plants and animals now in existence, which the fossils of the earlier periods do not.
V. THE DILUVIAL DEPOSITS, called also the erratic block group. In thi system are included the boulders, scattered so abundantly over many sections of the earth's surface, and many of the more extensive deposits of sand, gravel and clay, which are evidently the result of
23
GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY.
the resistless action of an overwhelming deluge. These deposits con- tain numerous animal and vegetable forms, the greater part of which belong to existing species, although occasionally extinct races are found.
VI. THE ALLUVIAL DEPOSITS, including the deltas, or earthy de- posits at the mouths of rivers, the beds of lakes which have be- come drained, the valleys of rivers subject to periodical inunda- tions, the shores of oceans, seas, &c.
These also contain, in untold quantities, relics of animal and vege- table existence, but, with very few exceptions belonging to races now known. The gigantic mastodon has been found in these deposits.
We have been thus particular in noticing the fossils belonging to each system, because they serve as way-marks, by the aid of which, even the most unlettered may read the progress of the earth's history, from the period, when it was first set in motion, a vast mass of molten granite, devoid of vegetable or animal life, to the present time, when its green fields, and its innumerable hosts of living and moving be- ings, attest with myriad voices, the power and wisdom of the great Creator.
The whole of these formations do not exist in every part of the world ; but wherever geological explorations have been made, it has been found that the same order is observed; and, that, although some one, or more, of these systems are absent, those which are present follow the arrangement we have described.
In the state of New York the secondary formation is wanting,* as well as the upper members of the transition system,* and in most parts of the state the tertiary system.
It will be seen, by the following table, that coal is not laid down among the formations of the state. All the formations of New York, except the alluvial and diluvial deposits, and the beds of tertiary, on the St. Lawrence, are below the coal measures; the Catskill group, which is the highest member of the transition system in New York, being the layer immediately beneath it.
It is true that there are layers of Anthracite, an inch or two in thick- ness, and extending over a few feet of surface, between the strata of rocks of an earlier era, in various parts of the state ; but coal does not exist in the state, in sufficient quantities to be of any practical value. This deficiency, however, is abundantly made up by the vast coal fields of Pennsylvania and Ohio, which, by means of the extended systems of internal improvement, are rendered so easily accessible.
The prevalence oflimestone in nearly all the formations is worthy of notice, affording, as it does, the basis rock best adapted to yield the materials for fertilizing the soil.
The table exhibits the geological formations of the state, accord- ing to the arrangement adopted by the state geologists in their late survey.
III., IV. and V. ofthis arrangement are comprised under the general head of the Transition system, heretofore described.
* The existence of a small bed of oolite in Saratoga county, and the somewhat doubtful era of the red sandstone of Rockland county, can scarcely be considered as exceptions to this statement.
24
STATE OF NEW YORK.
TABULAR VIEW OF THE ROCKS OF NEW YORK , ARRANGED IN SYSTEMS, GROUPS AND FORMATIONS.
Systems.
Groups.
Formations.
I. Alluvial.
Alluvial.
II. Diluvia].
Diluvial, including boulders, &c. Clays and sands.
III. Old Red sand stone system.
Old Red sandstone, Conglomerate,
or Catskill group.
Old Red sandstone.
Erie group,
Chemung sandstones and flagstones, Ludlowville shales.
Helderberg limestone, Schoharie grit,
Helderberg series,
Brown argillaceous sandstone, Encrinal limestone, Oriskany sandstone,
Green shaly limestone, Pentamerus limestone.
IV. New York tran- sition system.
Ontario group,
Onondaga salt and gypseous rocks, Limestone and green shales, Argillaceous iron ore,
Medina sandstone, soft, green and va- riegated.
Grey sandstone and conglomerate, Lorraine shales and roofing slates, Utica slate,
Champlain group,
Trenton limestone, Birdseye limestone, Chazy limestone, Calciferous sandrock,
Potsdam sandstone.
V. Taghkanic, or Ta- conic system.
Light green shales, sometimes dark and plumbaginous. Grey and clouded limestone, Brown sandstone.
VI. Gneiss, or Primary system.
Gneiss, hornblende, and mica slate, Talcose slate and steatite.
VII. Superincumbent rocks.
Greenstone, trap and porphyry.
VIII. Unstratified rocks.
Granite, Hypersthene rock. Primary limestone, serpentine, Magnetic iron ore.
There are in the state two tracts of primary and unstratified rocks. The first is nearly circular in form, and occupies the counties of Essex, Warren and Hamilton, and portions of Saratoga, Fulton, Herkimer, Oneida, Lewis, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Franklin and Clinton. The Black river forms its southwestern boundary, from Wilna, in Jefferson, to Remsen, in Oneida county.
The second is in the southeastern part of the state, of a somewhat triangular form, and comprises Putnam and Westchester, together with the larger part of New York, and part of Rockland, Orange and Dutchess counties.
These two sections together occupy nearly one third of the state.
25
GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY.
They contain extensive and valuable mines of iron, lead and plumba- go, both in the northeastern and southeastern portions of the state. Their surface is generally broken and elevated, towering up to the height of more than a mile above tide water, in the Adirondack group, and attaining a considerable, though less lofty altitude in the beetling cliffs which overlook the waters of the Hudson.
The soil is less arable and fertile than in the lands of the limestone formations, but is covered, except in the older counties, with a gigantic growth of oak, pine and hemlock timber.
The gneiss of this system furnishes a fine building material, and under the name of granite, is abundantly quarried for that purpose. The serpentine, primitive limestone, and steatite, are also largely quarried for the purposes of the arts.
These rocks abound in minerals of great interest to the mineralo- gist. Garnet, beryl, chrysoberyl, pyroxene, sphene, tourmaline, apatite, colophonite, scapolite, Labradorite, epidote, &c. &c.
Geologists differ in opinion, on the question, whether the Taghkanic, or Taconic system should be ranked with the Primary, or the Transi- tion system. It is composed of brown sandstone, limestone and green shales, or slaty rocks. It contains some minerals, and furnishes a fine limestone for building, but has few, or no fossils. The soil which overlays this system is generally good, and often highly fertile.
Its range is quite extensive, although frequently of no great width. It comprises nearly the whole of the counties of Washington, Rens- selaer and Columbia, part of Dutchess, Ulster, Greene, Albany and Saratoga, and trending westward occupies a narrow tract in Schenec- tady, Montgomery, Herkimer and Oneida, and expands more widely in Oswego and Jefferson counties.
We next come to the New York system, as it has been appropri- ately named, comprising, according to the table, four distinct groups. We commence with the lowest of these, the Champlain Group. The constituents of this group are various kinds of sandstone and limestone, slate, conglomerate, and a peculiar stone, compounded of lime and sandstone, and hence called calciferous (or limebearing) sandrock.
Of these the Potsdam sandstone furnishes a beautiful and durable building material, and is also used in the manufacture of glass, and the preparation of sand paper. The Trenton and birdseye* limestones are used for the purposes of the arts. The Lorraine shales, and the Utica slate are employed for roofing, and to some extent for writing slates. The grey sandstone and conglomerate furnish stone suitable for grindstones.
The rocks of this group, and particularly the limestones and slates, abound in fossils of the earlier periods ; encrinites, trilobites and nu- merous others, unlike any of the crustaceous animals now in exist- ence.
The soil, throughout the territory occupied by this group, is gener- ally good, and much of it is highly fertile, being constantly enriched by the decomposition of the limestone, slate and sandstone, which is
* This limestone receives its name from the abundance of encrinites which it contains, which give it, when polished, an appearance somewhat resembling birdseye maple.
26
STATE OF NEW YORK.
effected by the combined action of air and water. The group occu- pies a very considerable, but irregular territory. It appears occa- sionally in small beds, then dips beneath the surface, and again ap- pears, as the surface rock, over an extensive tract. In the forms of Potsdam sandstone, calciferous sandrock, birdseye and Trenton lime- stone, and Utica slate, it bounds the great primary region of the northeast in every direction, varying in width from two to fifty miles. It also makes its appearance in narrow beds on either side of the Hudson.
The Ontario Group, which comes next in order, consists of three distinct portions; the lowest a marly sandstone, generally soft, and either red, green, brown, or variegated,-decomposing rapidly, when exposed to the atmosphere, and denominated Medina sandstone ; next, a series of soft, green, slaty rocks, also easily decomposed, and overlaid by clayey and flinty limestones, alternating with each other, and finally terminating in the limestone over which the Niagara pours its resistless cataract ; and lastly a group of limestones, contain- ing gypsum or plaster of Paris, water lime and salt, known as the Onondaga salt group.
This group, considered with reference to practical purposes, is the most valuable of the transition system in the state. It includes the salt springs in Salina and its vicinity, and at Montezuma, which yield so large an amount of revenue to the state ; the gypsum beds, which furnish such inexhaustible resources for the fertilization of the soil, as well as for the various purposes of the arts, to which this valuable mineral is applied ; and the water lime, called, after its preparation, hydraulic cement, a material indispensable to the proper construc- tion of canals, aqueducts, cisterns, and other masonry exposed to the action of water, and one which has proved of the greatest service in the construction of the public works of the state.
The fossils of this group are numerous and interesting. Shells of bivalve molluscous animals, corallines and madrepores, together with unequivocal traces of vegetable existence, mark this era.
Its minerals are not numerous. The clayey limestones contain iron ore; fluor spar and selenite appear occasionally, and sulphur springs gush up from different sections. Its soil is of unsurpassed and perpetual fertility, being constantly enriched by the slowly decomposing lime and gypsum. It is the granary of the state, and- before the wide prairies of the west waved with the golden grain, it supplied nearly the whole country with bread-stuffs. The oak. beech, maple, elm, butternut, hickory and black walnut, are the prin- cipal forest trees. The Ontario group commences at the southwest- ern extremity of Lake Ontario in Canada, and extends eastward with a medium breadth of twenty miles to its termination in Montgomery county.
The Helderberg series comprises four kinds of limestone and three of sandstone. Of these the Helderberg limestone is extensively used as a flagging stone, under various local names; it is also employed to some extent as a building material; the Oriskany sandstone is also used as a building material ; it occasionally contains lime. Of the remaining layers, one of the sandstones is dark, shaly and brittle ; the other calcareous and abounding in fossils. Two of the limestones contain large quantities of fossils, and derive their names from that
27
GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY.
fact ; in one the encrinite, one of the most beautiful of the crustace- ous fossils, is predominant; in the other, the pentamerus, whose shell bears some resemblance, in form, to that of the common oyster. The remaining limestone is slaty and easily decomposed.
The Helderberg limestone is cavernous, and many of its caves have been explored for a considerable distance. They contain sta- lactites and stalagmites of great beauty.
The principal minerals of this formation are bog iron ore, calcareous and fluor spar, jasper, sulphate of strontian, in great abundance, satin spar, alum, bitumen and small veins of anthracite. The soil, overlying these rocks, is generally either a fine clay, or sand lying upon clay. Marl occurs quite frequently. By suitable cultivation it yields good crops of wheat and other grains. The timber is usually oak, chestnut, hickory, pine and hemlock.
This group occupies a narrow tract, commencing in the western part of Orange county, and passing northeasterly through Ulster to the Hudson ; thence along the banks of that river, to Albany county, where it turns westwardly, passes through the centre of the state im- mediately south of the Ontario group, forming the bed of most of the small lakes in western New York, and terminates on the shores of Lake Erie.
The Erie Group is divisible into two portions, the lower, denomin- ated Ludlowville shales, is composed of soft slaty rocks, alternating with thin beds of limestone, and is easily decomposed ; the upper, called the Chemung group, consists of thin, even beds of gray sand- stone, with intervening shales, or beds of slate.
Some of the fossils, found in this group, possess great beauty, and show the approach to that period of vegetable luxuriance, which marks the coal formation. Ferns, and other vegetable fossils fre- quently occur, and the avicula, delthyris and other shell fish, strongly resembling some living species, are found imbedded in the rocks.
The minerals of this group are few, and of no great importance. Petroleum, or mineral oil, called, in some parts of the state, Seneca oil, occurs in several localities, and the shale is often so strongly impreg- nated with it as to burn quite freely. Carburetted hydrogen, or in- flammable gas, also issues from the surface in a number of places, and in such quantities, as to be used, in one or two instances, for illumin- ating villages, light houses, &c.
The soil where the Ludlowville shales form the surface rock, though apparently rough and broken, is rendered fertile by the con- stant decomposition of the rock. It is well adapted to the culture of wheat and other grains. As we ascend, to the more elevated surface of the Chemung sandstone, we find a marked change in the character of the soil ; the white pine and hemlock take the place of the oak, maple and beech of the lower lands, and attain a gigantic growth. These lands produce the grasses luxuriantly, and, as they become cleared, will afford pasturage to vast herds of cattle and sheep.
The Erie group covers nearly the whole of Chautauque, Cattarau- gus, Wyoming, Allegany, Steuben, Yates, Tompkins, Chemung and Tioga counties, together with portions of Broome, Chenango, Cort- land, Ontario, Livingston, Genesee and Erie, as well as a narrow tract in Sullivan, Ulster, Greene, Schoharie and Otsego counties.
This completes what, for convenience, has been termed the New
-
28
STATE OF NEW YORK.
York Transition system. The remaining group properly belongs to the Transition system of the English Geologists, and is by them de- nominated the Old Red sandstone, that rock being its principal con- stituent. The State Geologists, from the fact of its being the pre- dominant rock of the Catskill mountains, have given it the name of the Catskill group.
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