IG Oolitic formation of Saratoga County. 



Art. III. — A Description of the Oolitic Formation lately 

 discovered in the county of Saratoga, and state of JVeto- 

 York ; communicated by Dk. John H. Steele. 



Being, about a year ago, in the shop of Mr. Lyman B. 

 Langworthy, an ingenious mechanic at Ballston-Spa, he 

 shewed me a small specimen which was evidently Oolite; 

 he was unable, however, to designate the spot from whence 

 it came, but believed that it had been found in the vicinity 

 of that place. Some time after, a farmer brought me a 

 specimen, as large as a man's hand, which he said he had 

 picked up on his farm, and that it contained '^pelrifed 

 m2istard-seed." I was, until recently, unable to discover 

 the place of its origin. Being in company wMth Dr. Childs, 

 an intelligent physician, in the neighbouring town of Mil- 

 ton, he informed me that the formation in question occur- 

 red on the farm of Mr. Benjamin Rose, an uncle of his, in 

 the town of Greenfield. 1 soon after visited the place, and 

 found the object of rry search evivlontly in situ in several 

 places on that and ibe adjoining farms; and I have sub- 

 sequently been able to trace its connection^ in different pla- 

 ces, for several miles in nearly an east and west direction, 

 along the southern line of the town — its extent north and 

 south is probably not so great. 



The easternmost point, where this formation discovers 

 itself, is about two miles from the village of Saratoga 

 Springs, and within half a mile of the primitive rocks which 

 terminate the southernmost point of the Palmertown 

 mountain ; from this spot it stretches across the valley 

 which separates the Palmertown from the Kayadarosseras 

 mountain, and probably may yet be traced around the ter- 

 mination of the latter mountain, to that of the Sacandaga, 

 and, possibly, along the whole extent of these primitive 

 spurs of what professor Eaton calls " the McComb's moun- 

 tains."* 



•'■■■ Profe?sor Eaton, to whom I gave a specimen of the Oolite here de- 

 scribed says, "There is nolhir.g anr.logons to it in the secondary fornia- 

 linn of the Canal district, we?t of Utica, thougih some of the western rocks, 

 which lie abo\'e the iron fotniation, resemble the European rocks which 

 are there contijraons ♦o the Oolite. I3nt I think the Oolite may yet be 

 found in eonneolion with wliat [ have called c ilciterous slate, between the 

 spurs of gneiss, which extend dovvn from the McComb's mountains, i 



