DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FORMATIONS. 2?' 



The "Old Road," or the division of theKY. C. & H. R. R. R., from Syracuse 

 to Rochester, via Auburn, runs on the gypseous portion of the formation, and the 

 plaster-beds can be inspected at Marcellus station, close to the railroad, but the 

 best gypsum quarries are on Cayuga Lake, just north of Union Springs, the masses 

 being from fifteen to twenty-five feet thick. Sulphuric acid springs, and numerous 

 sulphur springs occur in the State of New York, in the Salina formation, often 

 rising through the crevices of the overlying Water-lime group. 



4. The fourth or succeeding portion of the Salina formation, consists of those 

 rocks which show groups of needle-form cavities, placed side by side, caused by 

 the crystallization of sulphate of magnesia, and presenting a finely striated columnar 

 appearance. The rock is a dark gray or drab colored, impure limestone, with 

 cavities containing crystals and often embracing shaly beds. It appears to be a 

 magnesian limestone, its usual color is a brownish drab, also dove color, and it 

 breaks with an earthy fracture. 



The Salina formation extends westward across Canada, and the salt-deposits 

 of Goderich in Ontario are in it. Six large beds of rock salt have been found there 

 in boring, measuring in all 126 feet in thickness, at from 1,027 to 1,385 feet in depth 

 from the surface, the beds measuring from 6 feet to 35 feet each in thickness. 



The salt-deposits and brine-springs of the world are by no means confined to 

 the Salina formation ; on the contrary, they are found in almost all the formations 

 from the oldest to the youngest, and always accompanied by gypsum and red and 

 vareigated marls. 



5. The fifth division of the Salina or Onondaga Salt group is the "Water- 

 lime, which has generally been considered aa belonging to the Lower Helderberg, 

 but which properly is part of the Salina. All the hydraulic cement of the State 

 of New York, known as Rosendale Cement, and Syracuse or Manlius Water-lime, 

 is manufactured from a portion of the stone of this Water-lime formation. It is 

 an earthy, drab-colored limestone and usually consists of two layers of drab 

 limestone, always separated by an intervening mass of blue ; it is easily recognized 

 by its gray or ash color when weathered. It has a thickness of not less than 

 30 feet, and often attains a thickness of 100 feet or more in New York. When 

 the Water-lime is burnt the stone does not slake, if of a good quality. It is 

 ground in a mill, and then it hardens or sets when mixed with water, and remains 

 so under water, its goodness depending on the hardness or cohesion when set. 

 Its peculiar quality is owing to the proportion of silica and alumina it contains. 

 The Water-lime continues across the State of New York, the drab layers which 

 constitute it being always found. The courses into which the layers of Water- 

 lime are sometimes divided show a crenulated or notched surface, like the sutures 

 of a skull, the two surfaces interlocking each other. Professor Hall says the 

 Water-lime is a distinct member, which does not belong to the 7. Lower Helderberg 

 group of strata, but to that below it, the 6. Salina, of which it is the upper member. 

 It is not closely related to either, but more nearly to the Salina, and is much more 

 widely spread than the other members of the Salina. The cement quarries of the 

 Delaware River, between Pennsylvania and New Jersey are in this formation, but 

 cease after passing the Lehigh River westward. The beds near Copley are Trenton 

 or older. In Middle Pennsylvania, where the Salina group, destitute of gypsum 

 and salt,, measures 440 feet, the cement beds above measure 580 feet, and the 

 Lewistown limestone (Lower Helderberg) 162 feet, as measured by Ashburner and 

 Billin, in 1876. 



