PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS IN NEW YORK 427 



a few square miles in Sandy Creek township and belongs to the 

 uppermost beds of this great stratum. 



Above the Trenton the XJtica shale and the Hudson river series 

 appear in the regular order over which in due succession to the 

 southward the Medina sandstone is found. The latter is perhaps 

 the best marked element in the geology of the county. Above 

 the Medina, the Clinton in strong force and the Niagara in feeble 

 development, are added in ribbon-like bands around the southern 

 edge of the Medina. But little of the surface rock of Oswego 

 county is to be credited to the Niagara. 



The two principal formations are the Hudson river and Medina 

 groups. Over the rock floor the glacial drift is spread in an ir- 

 regular sheet. Strong morainic features are shown in several 

 parts of the county. 



The rocky floor is dissected by the rivers that cross the surface 

 of the county, affording fine exposures of the geologic series. 

 The Oswego river affords a good section of the Medina at 

 Fulton while the Salmon river gives a splendid exposure of the 

 Pulaski or Lorraine shales, and the Oswego sandstone is well 

 shown near Lake Ontario. The Oswego is a fine and steady 

 stream that carries the waters from the Finger lakes of central 

 New York to Lake Ontario. It has a rapid fall but is always 

 clear, the lakes acting as settling basins for the inflowing streams. 



a Fulton. Explorations of a random sort called attention to this 

 region as a possible source of gas more than twenty years ago. 

 A well was sunk partly on such expectations, on the Van Buren 

 farm in the valley of the Oswego river, four or five miles north 

 of the village of Fulton, for the purpose of a test. Surface indi- 

 cations had long been noted here, consisting principally in the 

 bubbling of gas through the water in boggy spots. The thin 

 accumulations of bog iron ore that cover with an iridescent film 

 the pools of standing water were possibly counted among the 

 surface indications. The latter have no possible significance as 

 leading to valuable stocks of gas or oil and the bubbling referred 

 to can in many instances be well enough accounted for by the 

 decomposition of vegetable matter which is always going on in 

 such locations. 



But a shaft 4 feet by 4 was sunk to the rock, which was 

 reached at 18 feet. The drill then descended into the rock, 



