Cherty Lime-rock, or Corniferoiis Lime-rock. 65 



I will here commence my directions for tracing rocks, which 

 extend along, laterally, above and helow the corniferous lime- 

 rock. First, those above it. 



1st Point. — At Lake Erie, a gray slate rock is seen lying im- 

 mediately on the corniferous lime-rock, along the south shore for 

 many miles. About two or three miles west of Eighteen Mile 

 creek, the rock becomes highly bituminous, and some specimens 

 will burn freely. This is the genuine Pierre Asphaltique of 

 Henri Fourtiel, Canton of Neufchatel, Switzerland. I have a 

 specimen before me, which I received from M. Ernest Calus, 

 Pearl st., N. Y., together with FournePs treatise. On compari- 

 son, it appears to be the same mineral which M. Ernest used in 

 a state of fusion in constructing the specimen side walk, last 

 summer, above the Astor House. This rock promises to be of 

 vast use as a substitute for slate and tin on flat roofs, &c. This 

 rock, though it has the same geological position four or five hun- 

 dred miles, varies greatly in character. On its upper side lies a 

 thin siliceous pyritiferous lime-rock, containing numerous tere- 

 bratulae, (now made a new genus,) which consist wholly of iron 

 pyrites. In this I found branching corals, scarcely changed in 

 appearance from specimens recently from the ocean. The same 

 rocks rest on the corniferous, near the water's edge, in lakes Sen- 

 eca and Cayuga. The most unequivocal are seen near the head 

 of both lakes, on the east side of each ; here they contain thin 

 layers of coal and much pyrites. 



2d Point. — At Auburn, on the bank of the Owasco creek, 

 there is a slate rock lying on the corniferous, of a darker gray, 

 containing bituminous pyrites, and minute layers of coal. 



3d Point. — At Otsego there are some almost insulated promi- 

 nences of similar slate, lying on the corniferous lime-rock, con- 

 taining coal. 



4th Point. — At Bethlehem Caverns, the same gray slate rocks 

 are seen reposing on the corniferous lime-rock, and it may be 

 traced many miles backward and forward, in a precipitous ledge. 

 But it becomes of a coarser texture, rarely containing coal, scarcely 

 bituminous, but contains a vast bed of iron pyrites, at the distance 

 of a few miles north of the caverns. Over this slate lies the true 

 coral rag of England, as appears to me from comparing speci- 

 mens. The best locality is Coral Cave, two miles north of Knox 

 Village. Livingston Cave is in a very coarse third gray wacke, 



Vol. XXXVI, No. 1.— Jan.-April, 1839. 9 



