St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1859-09-01
NUMBER 35.

Upper Heidelberg series, the Hamilr
ton, Portage and Chemung groups,
are all embraced within less than two
hundred feet while in New York and
( Pennsylvania these formations have a
thickness of from four to six thousand
icct, and form conspicuous topographic
cal features constituting o great
part of the White mountains, and i'm.
pnrtant portions Of the Appalachian
chain.
The Catskill mountain group. hav,
ing tlIirkncss of more than three
: thousand feet, and which forms tho
conspicuous highlands from which it
derives It's name, IS quite unknown to
the west of the Cincinnati axis and
the succeeding conglomcratcs, sand,
stones and shaIcs are likewise absent
from the series in the west. while their
4 places are i'll a degree filled by the
carhonitcrous limcstomes which attain
far less thickness.
The same remarks hold true in re-
/ gard to the Coal formation, which,
from having thickness of more than
six thousand feet in Pennsylvania,
has become reduced to less than as
many hundred feet in Iowa.
! This remarkable fact of the thin.
ming out wcstwardly of all the sedi-
mentary formations, points to a cause
IN the conditions of the ancient ocean,
and the currents which transported
the great mass of materials along Ger,
tain lines which became the lines of
greatest accumulation of sediments,
and consequently present the greatest
thickness Of strata at the present
time. 1t is this great thickness of
strata, whether disturbed and inclined
as in the Green and White mountains
and the Appalachians generally, or ly-
ing horizontally as in the Catskill
mountains, that gives the strong fea-
tures and the hilly and mountainous
country of the east, and which grad
ually dies out as we 60 westward, Just
in proportion as the strata become at.
tcnuatcd.
The subdued features of the West
are therefore due, not alone to the alb
sencc Of great distributing forces, but
to the absence OF the great tcnuity Of
the formations, or paucity of mate
rlals or strata to be disturbed Tho
thickness of the entire series of sedi-
mentary rocks, no matter how much
disturbed or dcnuded, is not here great
e"u"S" W P'ou"'c mountain features ;
anu '''c NUS c'e|a'eo Por',ohS Oh this
r'S ~" are 'noSe "ne'e no uistI'out'hS
.o,.c esseh''','y ahec''nS 'He horizoh'
'"'''y oi the strata mas acteo.
The mounds, or highest portions Of
the country in any part of this west
ern plateau, lie in the undisturbcd dis,
trlcts, and exhibit nearly horizontal
beds and are simpl y due to the origi-
nal accumulation Of sediments form
ing the rocky strata, which have sub
s'Iurht'y Oecn deh"GGd' leaving these
iSoia''" P'rtioiS. iHrsc are every
Whefe capped nE lhc "iG"cSt rock OF
that part OF thc country, IN" Niagara
! limestone, ana nave an elevation OF
from l"ur TO SIN hundred ioct ABOVE the
MlSSlSS'PPl river ana TINS elevation
GiN'S us very nearly tue lhrNness OF
the strata rom the IT. fctcrS sand
stone [" the Niagara IimcS'oncF. Now
II. we We're 70 measure Tie rhltte thick-
ness OF the strata rom the iotSdam
Na''u''o,'' 10 'le NiaS"ra limestone
,i,a'.t - , tLa 'T n"5 '''i,'' Ii
rnI :, =, a',,d,',;., r,,,, '';,- ''" a;,t,.
.I',i ',r' e. ~ ~ - '7''
c'ro ;nst,oI '''' nf tl,a a.. ~ nnIanao- enIa.
,,I;',r, c,'I ,;H Wv "'S'u' ''''.o.A .D-
",0,' IS A., "," :" ,, Wis "0t,'n WI IN'e
1;o,' VI NV a''.''0 ~ W. '''.r ..iI u'E'
,''' t"' o' o''''"' '''",!'" 1r,! do my 'a'o
ceon "a W 'Se"i'S'"' %: '''.,,o'n 'n' w.
'io,'t I ''o .La % p7aI Az ,''tsStJ". J uo"n'
I".JI 'Lt,il I ~ .n0 o'st"ri o"'.uS.o".; VIZ
sno',''' ,,'',C '';o"'i,I: ~ do "'any .hou'
ha'n h",ao' InInol ~ lrot u, - ' f, 40 We '''e'o
'a - '''
Thus 1t would appear that the height
OF thesc mountains IS not que TO up
hea'ai from oe'hcath' or 10 'he ioio,hS
anu p',ca'.c" Vi the peus o"t 'hat
the "'S.oca''o''s .. 'he strata ana coh'
sel"ei't oeh"ua'ioh rehaer thc e,e'a'
t'oh a'ways less than IL WouId nave
peeh mace py I"e actuai ti'cIhess or
.he strata, l'ao 'ley re''ia',ea "ha's'
taroed ana pl'eu upon each other III
the'r hor,zohtai co1aitioh' anu theso
agencies.
| A.. ,
ASaiii, III i'uol .iiat u'slutoahces
OF the strata do not necessarily pro-
ducc elevation several lines along tho
co,,try or ;nos of ,r,;cI;p,I oxos
-
Which sho" INC strata W oe iheiiheo
from ten to thirty degrees, lar from
producing mountain features, arc
along the lowest levels OF the country,
This occurroure of limos Of hirhIv IN
II ..o o.~o....-.:l -. AZ
" Wv 1910
time by q low country, shows that
the cause prOducinp S0ch Disturbance
10 ,ot tb,t nro5,c;no. ,rou,to;, .lar,-
-
The general trend OF the older strata
on the west side of Lake Michigan is
f.o,, Tho ,or,bwos+ a., .ho ,o,,boost