Geological Survey of the State of New York. 103 
that rise in them, furnish an abundance of water power, anda 
very tolerable means of internal communication, and form on the 
levels, numerous transparent lakes, like those of New England, 
and particularly of its mountainous parts. 
As yet civilization has not penetrated this extensive wilderness, 
although it has drawn its cordon of settlements around it, and the 
interior is still the resort of wild beasts, and its deep recesses are 
now turdden by the adventurous huntsman in his chase after the 
moose, deer and elk, and with his traps taking the bear, the wolf, 
and until within a few years, the beaver. It is a region of unsuc- 
cessful land speculation, a land where proverbially “there is no 
law,” where more than once the silent ‘and unsuspecting Indian 
trapper has fallen by the rifle of the crafty settler. It possesses 
great variety of beautiful scenery, its soil under judicious hus- 
bandry, is capable of sustaining an immense population, and were 
it reclaimed by a hardy race of virtuous settlers, the time would 
not be distant, when it would be densely peopled by inhabitants 
possessing a character resembling that of New England as nearly 
as does its geology, and a kingdom would be added to the already 
powerful state of New York. Where so little strictly geological 
labor can be performed, the efforts of the geologist of this district 
to exhibit its capabilities of improvement are highly praiseworthy, 
and from his description of Hamilton Co., and from the accounts 
we have received of other parts from other sources, he is doing the 
community a great service, by calling public attention to it. If 
we may judge from the probable results, his labors here will rank 
in importance below those of no one of his associates. ues 
The only remaining topic of the Report to which time will 
permit a reference, is that of the brine springs, &c. of Ononda- 
ga. Difficulties of such a nature attended their examination, that 
great obscurity sur Jed the subject until tly. The numer- 
ous observations and theoretical discussions of Dr. Beck and of 
Mr. Vanuxem, the geologist of the third district, have now placed 
the subject in aclearer and more intelligible view. The rela- 
tions of the rocks are thus described. Between the green shale 
of Herkimer and “the millstone grit” of Oneida, are found, be- 
tween Utica and Rome, a series of rocks, called “the shales and 
green sandstone of Salmon river,” and the red sandstone of Os- 
wego, that cover a considerable portion of the north part of Onei- 
da, the greater portion of Oswego, and the red sandstone covers 
