APPENDIX. 389 



wbich are quarried. In some places, the mass is firm enough to 

 admit of blasting. In others, it is loose and veiny, and is readily 

 broken up with iron bars and sledges. Portions of it appear to 

 consist of a shelly limestone identical with No. 2. They are re- 

 jected in quarrying. 



o. Limestone similar to No. 3, four feet. 



At this depth it is covered by the waters of the outlet. How 

 deep it extends is uncertain. The rapids at the village of Vienna 

 are caused by shelving strata of this limestone. 



There is a suite character in these strata which appears to con- 

 stitute them a single deposit. The plaster-bed at Canasaraga 

 exists in a ledge more elevated in reference to the local stream, 

 and presents a broader section of the limestone. The shades of 

 difference which are observable in its color and texture, do not 

 appear to indicate a difference of geological era. Nor do appear- 

 ances denote, for the calcareous formation which embraces these 

 beds, much antiquity in the scale of secondary rocks. 



Saliferous Red Clay-marl. — Examinations, at various points, 

 render it a probable supposition that the red clay-marl of western 

 New York is the equivalent for the new red sandstone, in posi- 

 tions where the latter is — as it often is — wanting. It is exten- 

 sively deposited in the upland soils, in the range of the salt rock 

 and gypsum counties, from the summit grounds of Oneida County 

 west. It may be seen in various stages of the decomposition. I 

 have more attentively examined it on the upper parts of the 

 Scanado* and Oneida creeks. Large areas of it exist in West- 

 moreland, Verona, and Vernon townships, and bordering the 

 valley grounds of the Oneida reservation, and the northerly por- 

 tions of Sullivan County. The existence of salt water might, 

 apparently, be searched for with as much probability of success, 

 in the district thus indicated, as at more westerly points. 



CoAL-FoRMATiox. — With a strong predisposition to regard our 

 leading sandstone and limestone surface-formations as members 

 of the "independent" or true coal- formation, inquiry has led me 

 to relinquish the impression that they will, to any great degree, 

 be found to yield this mineral. If the sandstone is — as facts indi- 

 cate it to be — the new red or saliferous sandstone, it may be ex- 



* Usually written Skenanodoah, but pronounced as above. 



