40 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



reports indicate that they simply drilled through the 40 feet of 

 mixed gypsum on the hill and struck limestone, not going as deep 

 as did Mr Tuttle. The Atlas Co. is also said to have drilled neigh- 

 boring farms without success. Conflicting opinions as to the extent 

 and value of these deposits, as well as a lack of information as to 

 several well records, make it impossible to arrive at any definite 

 conclusions 'concerning the deposits. Judging by the more western 

 . areas we feel sure, however, that deposits of good gypsum will be 

 discovered along the line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, both to 

 the east and to the west. The Bertie waterlime which, exclusive 

 of the surface soil and drift, is the surface rock of the region' aver- 

 ages 40 feet in thickness, so that in prospecting for the gypsum, 

 one might have to pass through a heavy drift mantle and perhaps 

 the v^ole 40 feet of waterlime before encountering the Camillus 

 shale in which the gypsum lies. 



Irregular pockets of gypsum occur near Port Gibson and have 

 been worked for land plaster for years but are no longer pro- 

 ductive. The most recent working has been that of Mr Ezra 

 Grinnell who owns a water-power plaster mill along the creek and 

 who obtained his gypsum from an 18- foot deposit near the mill. 

 The gypsum in the area is said to occur under beds of argillaceous 

 limestone in low knolls and hillocks, in the form of flattened 

 spheroidal masses. ■ It is fine grained, compact and contains no 

 selenite veins. 



Livingston county 



No gypsum beds have been recorded in the county, due to the 

 fact probably that they are heavily covered with limestone. The 

 northern border of the county is occupied by the drab colored 

 limestone of the Bertie formation, which overlies the gypsum beds. 

 The Garbutt and Wheatland gypsum, bed lies at an elevation of 

 about 570 feet A.T. With an assumed dip of 40 feet to the mile, 

 a fair average inclination, the bed on the border of the county 

 would lie at about 490 feet A.T., so that at a surface elevation of 

 600 feet the bed would be pierced at no feet. There is reason to 

 believe, however, that in the region between Caledonia and Mum- 

 ford and in the area north and northeast of Maxwell, the horizon 

 of the g}^psum approaches nearer to the surface. Though the pros- 

 pect of finding gypsum within these regions seems good, it will 

 require exploration with the drill to determine the matter definitely, 

 since in all probability the beds are not absolutely continuous with 

 the Camillus shale. 



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