292 GEOLOGY OP THE THIRD DISTRICT. 



11. Chenango County. 



This county, like most of those of the southern tier, consists of high ranges of hills, with 

 broad surfaces, and with deep valleys more or less level. The Unadilla and the Susquehan- 

 nah form the east boundary of the county, ranging v^ith the Chenango, wrhich passes somewhat 

 diagonally through the heart of the county ; these rivers being seated in equally deep valleys, 

 and the land rising into hills of several hundred feet of elevation. There is no other stream 

 of importance, connected with the county, except the Genegansette river, whose course is 

 north and south, emptying into the Chenango below the village of Greene. 



The lowest rocks of the county are those belonging to the Hamilton group. It contains 

 also the Tully limestone, the Genesee slate, the Portage, the Ithaca, the Chemung and the 

 Catskill groups. 



The whole of the Hamilton group is confined to the towns of Sherburne and Smyrna, and 

 to a strip extending along the Unadilla river through the towns of Columbus and North New- 

 Berlin, below the village of which it passes under the higher rocks. It is well exposed along 

 Handsome brook, to the northeast of Sherburne village, exhibiting a mass from sixty to 

 one hundred feet thick, chiefly of the dark-colored shale of the group, and abounding in its 

 characteristic fossils. The falls in the creek are over the shale, which extends towards the 

 mouth of the creek, and is soon lost under a covering of alluvion and soil, being the most 

 southern part of the Chenango valley where seen. 



The same mass makes its appearance to the east of the village of Smyrna ; beyond which, 

 at a lower level, are those of the upper rocks of Hamilton seminary, and of Ladd's quarry 

 on the canal above Sherburne. 



The ridge from Madison county, composed of the Hamilton group, appears to incline rapidly 

 near Sherburne, so as to admit the Sherburne flags to appear at the level which they present, 

 at less than two miles below the village. 



At North New-Berlin, the group is exposed in the sides of the creek ; and at the quarry, 

 and mill-dam back of the village, on the road to Chenango valley. The fossils are numerous, 

 and the same in all respects with those in the creek near Sherburne. 



The Tully limestone was seen but in one locality at the northwestern part of Smyrna, on 

 the road to De Ruytcr village, where the road crosses the west branch of the Chenango. 



Genesee slate. But little was seen in the county : it does not form the same well defined 

 rock to the east, which it does to the west. It appears along the same road as the Tully lime- 

 stone, and at North New-Berlin, &c. 



Portage and Ithaca groups. These groups appear to be the surface rocks of the town 

 of Lincklaen ; of the west parts of Pitcher and German ; of Otselic ; the northern part of 

 Pbarsalia ; all those parts of Smyrna, Sherburne and Columbus, not occupied by the lower 

 rocks ; all but the southwest part of Plymouth ; the northern and west portion of North- 

 Norwich, the group extending upon both sides of the Chenango below the village of Oxford ; 



