9m GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 



kinds so characteristic of this group, the layers being soiled with iron ; lower down, green 

 shale and thin sandstone with the same kind of fucoids ; tlien sandstone, with diagonal divi- 

 sions projecting in one place from the side of the ravine like a protruded or up-heaved mass ; 

 below this, the Oneida conglomerate appears. The iron ore was not seen, being covered up ; 

 but ore was taken from this locality by Judge Cleedand, in order to ascertain the quality of 

 iron which it would produce : it proved to be good. 



South of the village of Mohawk, and along Steele's creek and its branches, are favorable 

 points for examining the group from the conglomerate to the grey band ; this latter, through 

 that section, attains its maximum thickness, being over seventy feet. It appears as a cliff 

 in several points, as on the road to Dennison's, below Eaton Burrill's saw-mill, etc. It is 

 used for hning the canal through parts of the towns of German-flatts and Frankfort. The 

 rock is of quartz sand, white where long exposed, but grey, yellowish and brownish when fresh 

 quarried. It is full of cracks, which divide the mass into conveniently sized stones for hand- 

 ling. Near Mr. Betts', on one of the roads south by Steele's creek, it contains fossils, among 

 which we find the casts of the head and teul of the Dolphin-head trimerus (T. delphinocepha- 

 lus), which first appears with the iron ore beds in this group, and extends through the Niagara 

 group, with which it ceases ; also casts of an orthoceras, and of six or seven undescribed 

 bivalve shells. This is the only locality in this sandstone, where these fossils were seen in 

 place. 



The red laminated sandstone may be seen in two or more points. The red oxide of iron 

 which colors it, has every appearance of having been transfused; it does not fill up the interstices 

 between the grains of sand, but has attached itself to their surface, penetrating in part, and pre- 

 senting a crystalline appearance. It was quarried between the east branch of Steele's creek, 

 and the road which leads to the Mohawk river. 



In the first branch of Steele's creek to the west, the upper iron ore bed may be seen in place. 

 Numerous fragments of it also exist in the brook, containing encrinal disks, which have under- 

 gone partial solution upon their edges as represented in No. 3 of the wood-cut, and are re- 

 placed by lamellar carbonate of iron of a yellow color. Fragments of the Chnton hemicryp- 

 turus, particularly the tail, and for this reason it is alone figured in the wood-cut, are found 

 in the on, and the Broad agnostis also. The ore is a mass of accretions, ooHtic, and of 

 rounded fragments of organic bodies coated with ore. 



Back of Frankfort, on the road which goes to the furnace and to the Minden turnpike, a 

 quarry was opened in the red sandstone, as was said, for the Ontario Bank at Utica. South 

 of Utica are several points where some of the members of the Clinton group may advantage- 

 ously be seen. The quarries of Blackstone & Davis are opened in the lower part of the 

 group, below the ore beds ; those of Gaylord & Norton in the upper part, above the ore ; 

 between which, are the ore pits or diggings of Mr. Wadsworth. The stone of these quarries 

 is carried to Utica. At Blackstone & Davis', there is a thickness of six or seven feet of sand- 

 stone ; none of the layers, exclusive of the upper ones, are over six or seven inches thick, and 

 some but half an inch, and separated or coated with shale. The color of the sandstone is 

 t grey, with some parts red ; the shale is blue when fresh quarried, but becomes a yellowish 



