NEW YORK. 



71 



of the salt wells are made, not through or into rock, but only through the lake marl and other loose 

 material mentioned, to a depth of 150 to 450 ft. No rock salt orbed of salt has ever been discovered 

 in this State, although it has been in Canada; but in this Salina formation are two porous or 

 Vermicular masses of limestone, looking as if perforated by little worms, and hence the name; and 

 between them are certain hopper shaped cavities in the shale in which, as well as in the perforations 

 of these limestones, salt in a crystalline and solid state, it has been conjectured, formerly existed, the 

 saline materials of which have been dissolved in water which percolated through the formation and 

 passed into the basin where it is now found, the bed of marl on which is Onondaga Lake, being 

 afterwards formed over it. But the origin of the salt water may be said to be at present unknown. 

 Forty gallons of the brine produce a bushel of salt, weighing 60 pounds. These are the most pro- 

 ductive salt wells in the world in so small a territory two miles long and one-fourth of a mile wide. 



28. Marcellus, from which the formation is named, is three miles south of this station. 



29. Sfeaneateles. From the Junction with the N.Y. C. & H. R. R. R. the Skaneateles railroad 

 runs south up the outlet of the lake of that name over the Coruiferous limestone. The lake outlet 

 with its falls, amounting to 463 feet to Jordan, affording excellent mill sites and many exposures 

 of the rock. Before reaching Skaneateles Village the railroad passes over the Marcellus shales. 

 Skaneateles Lake, where the railroad terminates, is 14 miles long, from a half to a mile and a half 

 wide; its greatest depth south of Borodino is 320 feet and its surface 879 feet above tide. The 

 sides of the northern end of this lake, at the beautiful village of Skaneateles, gradually slope to the 

 water, corresponding in inclination to each other, and adding greatly to the beauty of the lake. 

 The water line, with the exception of the south part, is excavated in the Hamilton group. The 

 south part of the lake is more narrow, and the banks rise abruptly to a considerable height above 

 the water. The Tully limestone, at the top of the Hamilton, and over that the Genesee slate, appear 

 to the south of Borodino, rising, when first seen, 150 feet above the lake, and the south end or head 

 of the lake is surrounded by the Portage group. 



30. Auburn. The Corniferous member of the 9. Upper Helderberg limestone and the Onondaga 

 limestone, which is its lower member, are extensively quarried at Auburn. The State Prison and the 

 facings of many of the buildings of this handsome little city are entirely made of this limestone, 

 and several fine churches are built of it. The formation ends at the main street where the 10 a. 

 Marcellus shale begins, and it extends in the stream up to the outlet of the lake. Beginning below 

 the city and following up the stream to the State Prison, the outlet exposes the following section : 

 eight feet of the upper part of 6. the Waterlime of the Salina formation, one foot of 8. Oriskany 

 sandstone, over eight feet of 9 c. Onondaga limestone and twenty-seven feet of the Corniferous 

 exclusive of its upper member the Seneca limestone. 



31. Geneva. The Seneca limestone or upper part of the 9. Upper Helderberg disappears near 

 Waterloo and reappears at a distance of six or seven miles west near Oaks Corners. The whole 

 mass of limestone, and all the rocks north of it to Lake Ontario, have been removed from all the 

 intermediate space, and along the shore of that lake the great depth of alluvium conceals the rock 

 if any be present. Near Oaks Corners the limestone suddenly terminates as if broken off and 

 removed, leaving an abrupt descent to the east which bears evidence of the erosive action of water. 

 Seneca Lake and Lake Ontario probably originally communicated by this deep old channel. Ontario 

 is 196 feet lower than Seneca. The same state of things seems to exist north of Cayuga Lake. 

 where the drift material causes the Monteztima marshes and the shallowness of that lake at that end. 

 Seneca Lake is 40 miles long, Smiles wide, 530 feet deep, and its surface is 441 feet above tide water. 



32. Jordan. Between Skaueateles Junction and Elbridge the Oriskany sandstone is over 30 feet 

 thick, being at its maximum. At Auburn it is from six inches to two and a half feet thick. 



33. Weedsport. At many points between Syracuse and Rochester, and on the Southern Central 

 and other cross roads, are seen numerous hills or short ridges running from north to south, from 

 fifty to one hundred feet high, with steep slopes and very sharp crests. These are not of drift or 

 alluvium, as they appear to be, but are in reality outliers of the marly deposits of the Salina or 

 Onondaga salt group, with only a thin covering of loose materials. Mount Hope at Rochester, the 

 hills south of Brighton, Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, James street hill and University hill in 

 Syracuse, and numerous hog-back ridges about Jordan and other places, are of this character, being 

 Salina shales in place, spared when the adjoining valleys were eroded. There are, however, some 

 hills composed of gravel, or a mixture of gravel and sand, but very little glacial drift on this R. R. 



34. Great crops of peppermint are raised here, and this place supplies the world with peppermint 

 oil. There seems to be some peculiarity in the soil which adapts it for the production of this plant. 



