36 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



utilized very little as yet and the extent of the deposits below the 

 surface is largely a matter of conjecture. 



A systematic examination of a portion of one of the larger 

 swamp areas of the region was made during the fall and winter 

 of 191 2 by two of the graduate students of Syracuse University.^ 

 In the course of the examination numerous borings were made 

 by means of a clay auger through the swamp deposits to the 

 underlying gravel. The borings were made at intervals of 100 

 feet along five north and south lines 300 feet apart. These north- 

 south lines across the swamp varied in length from 1400 to 4300 

 feet, making in all 128 bore holes. From the hundreds of samples 

 thus collected the character and extent of the deposits in this area 

 were determined with a great degree of accuracy. 



The results of the investigation showed at the surface of the 

 area a bed of peat varying from i to 31 feet thick; thinnest at the 

 margin and increasing toward the middle, but reaching a maximum 

 north of the middle of the swamp as shown on the accompanying 

 diagram. The clay underlying the peat is thinner near the middle 

 of the swamp and thicker toward the margin, with the greatest 

 thickness on the south side at the wider portions of the swamp. 



The peat in the area studied is of dark granular material to a 

 depth of 4 feet, below which to a depth of 10 feet it is more fibrous 

 and compact. At the bottom it contains so much water that it 

 forms a semifluid black muck. A sample from the surface of the 

 peat gave 61.44 per cent moisture and one from a depth of 10 feet 

 showed 84.275 per cent. Several tests for calorific value gave an 

 average of 8448 B.T.U. Tests for ash gave an average of 5.12 

 per cent. 



The light colored clays underlying the peat vary considerably in 

 composition. A partial analysis was made of some two dozen 

 samples from different parts of the area, the average of which was ^ 

 70 per cent insoluble in dilute hydrochloric acid, 20 per cent calcium 

 carbonate and 8 per cent alumina and iron oxid. The insoluble 

 part ranges from 68 to 84 per cent and in one sample as high as 

 94 per cent. It consists of silica and insoluble silicates which were ' 

 not analyzed separately. The calcium carbonate varies from 10 to 

 25 per cent ; and the soluble alumina and iron oxid from 4 to 9.6 

 per cent, mostly alumina as the iron content was so slight that no 



1 The results of their exploration and study are placed on record in a 

 thesis for the master of science degree at Syracuse University. The names 

 of the men who did the work are Arthur E. Brainerd and Clinton W. Perry. 



