CLINTON GROUP. 86 



defined and nearly equal — size about an inch in the length of the hinge : also others to be 

 hereafter noticed, among which is the well known European fossil, the Strophomena depressa. 

 Here it first appears going west, and is found in no lower position in the district than the 

 Clinton group. The bed of ore is about two feet thick, but it is much intermixed with the 

 calcareous and siUceous materials of the shale and slate. 



Above the ore is a mass of greenish blue shale and slate, with similar and darker colored 

 sandstone, of a thickness of thirty feet or more. Near the top of this mass is the same body 

 of stone quarried at Gaylord and Norton's to the south of Utica, but it is not so thick. The 

 Bilobed fucoid is of greater size here than in any other of its localities. The remaining parts 

 of the group are not well exposed ; the sides of the creek are low, the ground becomes more 

 level, and loose materials abundant ; shale and sandstone appear, and finally the masses 

 which belong to the next group above ; and then the shales of the Onondaga salt group, which 

 form the next rise by the side of the creek. 



At Reed's saw-mill near New-Hartford, the two ore beds appear, and are about twenty feet 

 apart. The lower bed is of better quality than the upper, which is about two feet thick, the 

 lower one foot. The fossil shells connected with the upper ore bed are more numerous and 

 better preserved at this locality, than in any other yet noticed in the district. Not far from 

 hence is the last locality of the red sandstone of the group. 



On the road from New-Hartford to Clinton, there are several excavations for iron ore by 

 the road side. The ore lies very near the surface, being covered by alluvion only. From long 

 exposure, it has lost portions of its cement, and is friable and more pure. Its greatest thick- 

 ness is about two and a half feet. It probably belongs to the lower bed, according to obser- 

 vations made further east as to quality of ore ; but judging from its thickness, it should 

 appertain to the upper bed. Though holding a higher geographical level, it would appear to 

 be geologically lower than the upper ore at the creek to the west. It was examined at an 

 early period of the survey, before the characters of the two beds had been well ascertained. 



Beyond these excavations is Stebbins' creek, where the upper ore bed is exposed on both 

 its sides below the bridge, and on a level with the road. Some of the ore is very good, but 

 the greater part is much intermixed with the rock. It is made up of the larger, as well as of . 

 oolitic concretions ; the former kind, when examined, proved to be corals, encrinites, etc. 

 coated with iron, and often replaced by it, which is the case with all the corals found with 

 the ore, the encrinites being generally replaced by carbonate of iron. There is an increase 

 of carbonate of lime in this part of the group, which continues through the town of Clinton. 

 This mass of ore with its immediate associates is about four feet thick ; below which is about 

 seventeen feet of sandstone, shale, etc. and then similar ore, but much inferior ; again layers 

 of sandstone and shale about five feet thick, and a layer of iron about ten inches, hard and 

 siliceous ; under which is greenish shale of various kinds, with thin layers of sandstone 

 extending to near the bottom part of the brook, the base of the group being covered with 

 alluvion. In the finer parts of the shale below the ore, there are some accretions of sandstone 

 which have considerably deranged the straight courses of the shale. Above the bridge, the 

 layers of shale and sandstone which rise upon the upper ore bed, show for several rods a 



