106 



GEOLOGY OF THE THmD DISTRICT. 



were found, which, from its truncated apex, appears to be different from any of the other 

 species. The same were also found in a similar rock in the fourth district. 



South of Syracuse, on the west side of the valley, not far from 

 the mill, are Hunt's plaster beds. The lower part contains the 

 gypsum, as represented in wood-cut No. 21, enclosed in layers 

 of brownish and greenish shale, some more hard than others. 



No. 2, consists of similar layers, with two small nodules of 

 inferior plaster. 



No. 3. Greenish layers : four feet thick. 

 No. 4. Thin yellowish layers : four feet. This section was 

 taken from the south quarry. 



At the north quarry there are two masses uncovered, and their 

 insulated character is well exposed as in the annexed wood-cut 

 No. 22, G G being the gypseous masses, all which show the 

 uniform manner in which the gypsum is found and formed, and 

 that it exists in insular bodies, and not in regular beds or layers. 

 The greatest exposition of gypsum is along Nine-mile creek, 

 from Camillus to a mile or two beyond the great embankment. 

 The plaster beds were laid open in the grading of the railroad from Syracuse to Auburn. The 

 lower part is the dark colored mass, which encloses the lower range of plaster beds. It shows 

 in many points low undulations, probably the result of up-lifts caused by gypseous masses 

 below the line and level of the railroad. This is the mass in which Dr. Beck found about 

 twenty per cent of magnesia. It is about five feet thick, and about seventy feet above the 

 valley. 



No. 2. Thin layers of a lighter shade than the lower : four feet thick. 

 No. 3. Light greenish grey or yellow, with numerous hoppers, and usually arranged so as 

 to form a cube ; at the west end of the section, they are often filled with lamellar transparent 

 gypsum ; at the east end they are empty, but often coated with a crust of minute crystals of 

 carbonate of lime : five feet. 



No. 4. Rather a light-colored mass, with gypsum. At the upper end near the embankment, 

 the gypseous masses are much larger than at the opposite end, some yielding from fifty to 

 one hundred tons of plaster. Thickness of the deposit about twenty feet. 

 No. 5. Thin layers, but of variable thickness : fourteen feet. 

 No. 6. Vermicular rock, coextensive with the section, about four feet thick. 

 Some idea of the quantity of plaster in the range may be formed from the report of the 

 Engineer of the Syracuse and Auburn railroad, upwards of forty thousand tons having been 

 taken out from the hill-side between Camillus and Auburn, in a distance from five to six miles ; 

 the amount of excavation in any one point being inconsiderable. 



Very little gypsum is quarried in Ca)ruga county, excepting near the lake shore, to the 

 north of Springport. The deposits extend along the lake and its outlet, for thirteen or 

 fourteen miles. The quarries which furnish the whole of the plaster upon the lake, are about 



