GYPSUM DEPOSITS OF NEW YORK 37 



side, in a cut made by the railroad company for the purpose of 

 fining in low ground, the gypsum occurring in courses 4^^ and 

 2^ feet in thickness and very accessible. At one time, as men- 

 tioned by Mr Delafield, the plaster industry along the Seneca river 

 was an important one, and the output amounted to 5000 tons an- 

 nually. It has been abandoned for a long period, however, and 

 there is little prospect of its resumption. The deposits are all, no 

 doubt, of the impure " mixed " type, while any that might be en- 

 countered under the drift of Junius or Tyre townships would re- 

 quire sliaft mining and that too under unfavorable conditions such 

 as wet ground and the hke. 



^ Wayne county 



Only the northern or lower portion of the Salina shales outcrops 

 in Wayne county and that only along the southern border in a belt 

 averaging perhaps 6 miles wide. Although the contact between 

 the Camillus and \"ernon shales is not sharply defined, we may 

 infer from the thickness of the Salina shales in tlie county that 

 the exposed part lies below the Camillus and in the main perhaps 

 below the horizon of the salt beds. Wells drilled in Clyde show 

 the Salina to be 840 feet thick at that point, and at Al'loway it is 

 580 feet thick. 



Gypsum is said to be exposed at various places along the line of 

 the canal and the New York Central Railroad. i\t Clyde it is 

 found in wells at a depth of 25 feet, at Lyons at 40 feet, and at 

 Palmyra at the same depth. Gypsum was at one time quarried 

 at a point 2 miles west of Newark, where the railroad and canal 

 pass between two hills. North of the canal, on lot 85 owned at 

 that time by Winslow Heth, quarries were opened as early as 1832 

 and by 1839, 2000 to 3000 tons had been extracted. The gypsum 

 is described by HalP as being " mostly lamellar, transparent and 

 of that variety which receives the local name of isinglass plaster." 

 It was said to occur with varicoloured g}'pseous marl and to have 

 the form of '' large rounded, irregular masses." 



South of the canal was Blaekmar's quarry which was worked at 

 the same time and contained plaster of similar quality. Gypsum 

 has also been quarried around Port Gibson [sec descriptions under 

 Ontario county] and undoubtedly many similar pockets underlie 

 tlie area northeast of Port Gibson in Wayne county. Occurring as 

 they do in the lower Vernon shales, the deposits are not likely to 



' Gcol. Rep't 4th Dist. (1837) 1838. p. 3-'6. 



