84 



AN AMERICAN GEOLOGICAL RAILWAY GUIDE. (N.Y.) 



106. Otisville. One mile west of Otisville in the Erie Railway cut the 4 c. Hudson River shales 

 are seen running under the 5 a. Oneida conglomerate. This is the dividing line between two of the 

 great geological groups or periods, the Lower Silurian and Upper Silurian. In a moment the whole 

 character of the country is changed from cultivated grazing land on the Hudson River slates, the 

 Orange County milk country to the east of this line, to a poor, barren, rocky region on the Oneida 

 or Shawangunk and Medina formations, showing in a striking manner how the character of the 

 country depends On its geology. In descending the Shawangunk Mountain towards Port Jervis 

 there is an alternation of beds of the Oneida conglomerate, which is of a light gray color, and the 

 Medina sandstone, which is of a high red color. Some pockets of galena were discovered and 

 mined here, but were soon exhausted. At Port Jervis we are in the Hamilton, a formation producing 

 a country capable of supporting a population. The intermediate formations are very thin and 

 compressed together. 



107. Lackawaxen. From Port Jervis to Narrowsburg, the Delaware River and Erie Railway pass 

 through a deep and crooked gorge about 25 miles long, exhibiting some of the wildest scenery in 

 the country. The railroad is cut out of rock in many places and overhung as it were by ragged 

 precipices. 



108. Binghampton. West of Susquehanna'the Erie Railway and its branches run for more than 300 

 miles on the 11 b. Chemung formation. Most of it is a fine fertile country with some handsome towns, 

 the largest of which are Elmira and Binghampton, in valleys filled with gravel alluvium, and the 

 higher country formed of the calcareous Chemung shales, is quite productive, much of it being a 

 good grazing country; but there is no variety in its geology. East of Susquehanna the Chemung 

 formation is composed of harder sandstone. It contains less calcareous shale, and the soil is poor. 

 The country improves rapidly going westward from Susquehanna. 



109. Just west of Waverly are the Chemung Narrows, where 100 feet of rock are exposed. The 

 quarries have produced an abundance of characteristic fossils of the Chemung group in their 

 greatest beauty and perfection, the formation having been named from this locality. Five miles 

 south of Waverly the opening of the Susquehanna Valley may be seen, where the Chemung River 

 from the west and the Susquehanna from the east, unite and traverse the State of Pennsylvania 

 to Chesapeake Bay. At the west end of Waverly Village is a curious flat-topped hill, about 60 feet 

 high, called " Spanish Hill." It is an eddy hill of gravel formed in the drift period; but it can be 

 seen to better advantage on the south side, at Sayre on the Pa. & N.Y. R. R. and the G. I. & S. R. R. 

 There is a similar eddy hill iu tlie village of Union. 



