276 GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 



Stockbridge and Smithfield, all but a small portion of the northern part of Fenner, the greater 

 part of Cazenovia, and the middle northern part of De Ruyter. The greater part of the 

 mass consists of hard coarse bluish shale, in parts calcareous : a considerable portion of it 

 does not disintegrate when exposed to the weather, but exhibits innumerable divisions which 

 produce no determinate forms ; the longest side, however, is the horizontal one. This is the 

 kind so abundant in many parts of Brookfield, East-Hamilton, Madison, Eaton, Fenner and 

 Cazenovia. It is usually highly fossiliferous, and is the common building material. The 

 sandstone portion of the group is rare ; but Uttle being seen beyond the valley of the Chenango 

 canal, firom about the hills near Peck's basin to Chenango county. Its greatest line of expo* 

 sition is firom the hill back of the Seminary at West-Hamilton, to Ladd's quarry by the side 

 of the canal near the county line. The softer parts of the group, so abundant further west, 

 are not seen in great mass ; owing probably to the soil covering the side-hills, and to a greater 

 amount of the harder shale. 



The soil of this group is superior to that of any of the higher groups, owing to a greater 

 amount of finer particles, and more carbonate of lime. The hill sides slope gradually, and 

 are generally covered with soil, the rocks only occasionally appearing. 



There are no extensive quarries in the group opened, except at West-Hamilton on the 

 Seminary hill, and at Ladd's to the south. Considerable rock was excavated in making 

 the feeder by the side of the hill near Hamilton village, consisting of the coarse variety of 

 shale. 



The hill at the seminary is the most favorable point for the examination of the group as it 

 appears in the county, begiiming at the small quarry near the road-side below the boarding 

 house, and ascending thence by the brook and the middle quarry to the upper one. The 

 same series in part are also to be seen at Deacon Burchard's, where fossils are far more 

 abundant. 



The low hill-side to the south and east of Woodstock, shows the same sandstone and fossils 

 as at Hamilton, and the stone is quarried. 



The valley through which the Chenango canal passes, is the most interesting feature of the 

 surface of the group. It drains at present a large portion of the group, and at one period, 

 from its breadth and its connection with Oneida and Oriskany valleys, was a large water 

 course. Its flat bottom, composed for a depth unknown of alluvion, gives it the appearance of 

 having been a lake, after its excavation had ceased, and alluvial materials were poured into it. 

 The ponds which yet remain in it, are evidences of its former nature ; such as Woodman's or 

 the Long pond, and Leland's pond, with one below and another above it. 



The valley of Woodstock is excavated in the same part of the group, but not to so great a 

 depth in the group, except at the south end of the county. In digging a ditch back of Benja- 

 min F. Burgess' shop at the village, the tooth of an elephant was discovered as before noticed ; 

 the ground is a swamp, covered with about two feet of muck, under which is yellow clay ; 

 the tooth was nearly buried in the clay, and it showed no marks whatever of transportation. 

 Facts of this kind are important ; for the possession of a few fragmentary relics, such as the 



