NJDEP - NJGS - First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of the ...

9its proper basis. Had it not been for the fossilsj or remainsof plants and animals that were found in the aqueous rocks ofthe. State of New York, the geologists of the survey of thatState would not have been able to determine the non-existenceof coal in that region, which has been the means of preventinga usclcss expenditure of thousands of dollars, in searchingfor that material. It was. by means of organic remains thatthe extent and boundaries of the salt-bearing rocks of thatState have been ascertained and accurately defined. It is bymeans of the occurrence of particular fossils in the marl formationsof this State, that the researches of the past year haveproved the existence of three distinct beds, .and determinedaccurately the extent and thickness of each of them--a matterof great importance to the land-holders of that section of theState. It is evident_ then, that to attempt to describe the geelogicalfeatures of a country, and particularly their economicalimportance, without considering their organic remains_ wouldbe throwing aside the grand principles upon which the scienceis founded.CHEMISTRY AND MINERALOGY.In the preceding paragraphs we have referred to the differentformations of rocks which compose the crust of theearth, and tbe various changes which from time to time theyhave undergone_ as well as the great lapse of years duringwhich these changes have taken place. ,It is one of the first aprinciples of l_atural Philosophy that no change can take placein nature, which cannot be referred to some cause, some active'force, as the agency. This fact is satisfactorily demonstratedon every hand in the world around us. Whether we considerthose mighty and wonderful changes in the earth, or the moreinsignificant changes which take place in the merest atom uponits surface, every where the same law holds g6od..At this stage, then, of geological iavestigation_ after havingexamined the varied results of a series of changes thai;have been going on for myriads of years_ it becomes us to ex-NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY