CATSKILL GROUP. 193 



character. It is in this part of the quarry, that the large elongated bivalves figured at the 

 head of the group were found. Higher up the hill the soil is red, concealing the rocks, some 

 of which no doubt consist of red shale, so abundant on the Susquehannah to the east of the 

 hill, and to which the soil owes its color. It has found its way to the rocks at the top of the 

 quarry, staining, or rather soiling them red. 



In Chenango county, the group extends from the county line of Broome, covering the 

 surface of the towns of Bainbridge, Coventry, Guilford, and the greater part of Oxford, 

 receding a few miles below Oxford village from the Chenango river ; also from the Unadilla 

 to the north of Guilford, diminishing in width between the two rivers, gradually diminishing 

 in extending itself north, and terminating in the towns of Sherburne and Columbus. West 

 of the Chenango, it appears about a mile or so to the north of the village of Greene, forming 

 a part of the mass in the town of Oxford ; and extends north on both sides of the Genegan- 

 sette river, covering three-fourths of the town of Macdonough, the greater part of Preston, 

 the southwest portion of Plymouth, and the larger south half of Pheirsaha, its northern limit 

 being in the latter town. 



It is quarried on the west side of the Chenango river, north of the village of Greene ; the 

 rock being but a few feet above the road, showing thick blocks, subdivided into thin courses 

 obliquely arranged ; the rock is hard and unchemgeable. On the east side is the quarry of 

 McNeil, four miles south of Oxford village. It produces flags, stepstones, etc., some of 

 which are sent to Binghamton. 



The best stone for building and other purposes of the kind, in the county, is a grindstone 

 grit of a yellowish color, which is found in many places in the towns of Preston, Smithville 

 and Macdonough. It is easily wrought, hardens by exposure, and is used for grindstones, and 

 for building : the court-house at Norwich was constructed of this stone, and there are several 

 quarries of it opened in Preston. It is the upper rock of the group, and it is quarried to a 

 considerable extent as a building material and for grindstones. 



The group covers the largest portion of that part of the county of Broome which lies be- 

 tween the Chenango and the Susquehannah rivers, and that part south of the latter river which 

 lies between the river and the Pennsylvania line, forming and covering all the highest points 

 on the east and south sides of the county. 



In Tioga county, it is found only on the south side of its great river, capping all the high 

 hills, and extending itself into Pennsylvania, where it forms the greater part of the surface 

 rock of several of the northeast counties. 



On the geological map of the State, now being constructed, the Catskill group is colored 

 of a dark red. It is placed as a group with four divisions, making the fifth member of the 

 New York system. In the first chapter of this Report, it is distinctly mentioned that the 

 system is purely geographic, and an all important one, being the only system which could be 

 satisfactorily estabhshed at this time ; for no territory of the same extent is known, where so 



Geol. 3d Dist. 25 



