340 Dr. Bigsby's Sketch of the Topography 



Saliferous Rock of Mr. Eaton is an aggregate of minute 

 rounded grains of quartzose sand, simplyj or mingled with 

 argillaceous, so forming red or greenish sandstone, or soft red 

 or greenish brittle clayslate. The sandstone kind is distin- 

 guished from the old red sandstone by its rounded grains, as 

 thev appear under the magnifier, and by its not containing 

 glimmering scales, except in rare cases. — (G. S. p. 35.) 



" From near Little Falls to the west end of Lake Ontario, 

 this rock may be traced in the most satisfactory manner. It 

 is about 250 miles in length*, and something more than twenty 

 miles in breadth on an average (on the south shore of Lake 

 Ontario exclusively). Its thickness, where it crops out in Steel's 

 Creek, and some other places, will average about eighty feet. 

 But a Mr. Bennett bored into it 140 feet, from the bottom of 

 Oak Orchard Creek, seven miles south of Lake Ontario, and 

 did not reach its lower surface. At and below the Genesee 

 Falls, and at the mouth of the Niagara River, a thickness about 

 equal to Mr. Bfetinett's boring may be seen, without any evi- 

 dence of a near approach to its next underlaying stratum. 



" This rock is manifestly the floor of all the salt springs of 

 the canal district. It descends like an inclined plane to the 

 Genesee River, where it is about 250 feet lower than at the 

 ridge between Little Falls and Utica, where it crops out and 

 terminates. From Genesee River westerly it is an ascending 

 plane. It rises up to the canal level eight miles west of that 

 river; though where it crosses the river on the same level, the 

 upper surface of the rock is considerably more than one hun- 

 dred feet below it. This difference, however, does not depend 

 wholly on the general western ascent of the rock ; for it also 

 ascends as it recedes from the lake. To have a correct con- 

 ception of the form of this rock, we must view it as the southern 

 side or brim of the great elliptical basin which holds the waters 

 of Lake Ontario."— (G. S. p. 103, 104.) 



" Beginning at its eastern limit, where it crops out, near 

 Little Falls on the Mohawk, we find no salt springs within 

 about twenty miles. 



" Throughout this twenty miles, the rock is mostly of the 

 red sandstone kind, and more coarse and harsh than it is 

 further west. But near Vernon Centre, seven miles south of 

 the canal, where the first salt spring occurs, the red slate ap- 

 pears with the red sandstone in considerable proportion. 



" This spring issues from the upper surface of the rock on 

 the west side of Skanando Creek ; whose banks consist of the 

 soft red saliferous slate, beautifully spotted with nodules of 

 green slate, resembling the ferriferous slate. 



* Meaning, as visible here; for it extends tiiroiighout the Basins of Lake 

 Eiic nnH iMisbissifipi. 



" The 



