QUATERNARY DEPOSITS. 



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On West-Canada creek, above Prospect, the alluvial extends for some distance, showing 

 by the side of the creek a height of bank of sixty or eighty feet. The lower part consists of 

 dark-colored clay, with some rolled stones ; above which is a mass of sand ; and finally, rolled 

 stones, sand and earth. Towards the mouth of the creek, the banks are equally high ; but 

 as the side or face of the deposit was covered by the materials which have fallen from the 

 upper part, no correct opinion could be formed of its nature. 



The alluvial which forms the entrance to Steel's creek, in Herkimer county, rises from 

 thirty to forty feet in height, consisting chiefly of clay and sand ; the clay is brovraish, having 

 lost its coloring matter by exposure. Near the new dam of Mr. Remington's forge, the two 

 materials are much intermixed. Some parts of the sand show accretions, owing to limestone 

 from water, which has cemented the sand, forming a very solid stone. 



The clay on the Mohawk and its tributaries often contains some pebbles of limestone, which 

 injures its quality for bricks ; the pebbles being converted into lime by burning, slake, and 

 thus mar the quality of the bricks. 



Throughout the great level to the west of Oneida county, the blue and brown clays so com- 

 mon to the east section of the district, were not distinctly seen ; nor any other than a yellowish 

 or a red-colored clay, in any considerable quantity. The yellowish was common over the 

 counties of Oswego, Madison, Onondaga and Cayuga, north of the Helderberg range, but its 

 position as regards the other deposits of its class was not satisfactorily exhibited in any one 

 place. There are but few points through that section, where any striking superposition of the 

 diflferent deposits was observed, and none in which the whole were exhibited, owing to but 

 few excavations having been made, though hills of alluvion are exceedingly numerous, espe- 

 cially in the counties of Oswego, Onondaga and Cayuga. The best locality noticed is at 

 Chittenango, where three distinct deposits are seen, which separately were observed in many, 

 not to say innumerable places in all those four counties. 



The wood-cut No. 76 represents a section of the hill by the side of Judge Warner's house 

 in the village, and in the angle formed by the road which leads to Kirkville, and the street 

 which extends down the creek. 



1 . The first or lowest mass is a yellow sand in layers, having a slight inclination north, 

 showing that the waters which deposited it had a southerly direction. The top of the sand 

 is deeply water-worn, showing a change of action after deposition. 

 Geol. 3d Dist. 28 



