106 Geological Survey of the State of New York. 
rocks have no analogy whatever with those derived from organic 
remains.” 
The rocks of the ition group resemble those in other coun- 
tries near the deposits of fossil salt; the strength of the brine in- 
creases generally with the depth of the wells; ‘the soil in their 
vicinity is subject to those peculiar slips or sinkings which have 
also been observed in the vicinity of beds of rock salt,” so com- 
mon about the English salt deposits of Cheshire and Worcester- 
shire, and the evidence is strongly corroborative of the theory that 
these brine springs (vide Vol. xxxv1) have inte source in deposits 
of rock salt. 
As has been stated, no rock salt has been seen; even those hop- 
per-shaped cavities in no case contain the crystal, or model of 
salt, as it is believed to have been; and if the considerations 
above stated are sufficient to warrant the strong belief that the 
source of the brine springs in the alluvial beneath the bottom of 
Onondaga Lake et aliis, was the rocks above, there is still anoth- 
er that tends much to strengthen it. 'There is evidence of the 
removal of a soluble mineral from the rocks mentioned, on a very 
grand scale, (considering the extent of the formation, ) and though 
the nature of the mineral does not appear with certainty, the on- 
ly one that is found in solution, in relative quantity, is the salt. 
The brine is obtained in small quantities in the rock borings, but 
the valuable wells are found by borings made in the alluvial, in 
places of great depth, and scooped out by violent agencies, that 
removed the rocks and brought in the alluvial, and are now, in 
some cases, reservoirs of salt water below, and of fresh water in 
lakes above, with an intervening impervious stratum, preventing 
their commingling. 
Were the vertical holes or pores of the vermicular rock, and 
the hopper-shaped cavities, and those in the other porous rocks, 
filled with rock salt, no hesitation would be felt in admitting the 
possibility of a supply of salt for brine springs in the lower rocks ; 
and if in the absence of such evidence, any thing analogous were 
shown to exist in other saliferous formations, it would seem to ex- 
plain and sustain the former supposed association of salt in the 
rocks. 
In Murchison’s Silurian system, p. 31, is a description of the 
Sailiferoiis marls” of England, from which we learn that at 
Droitwich, Singh the base apcings have been in use since the 
