14 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The line of outcrops of this horizon shows cross sections of the 

 sandstone lentils west of this locality to be quite thin, one exposed in 

 the village of Phelps that measures 6 feet 6 inches being the thickest, 

 and one penetrated by the Livonia salt shaft 4 feet 9 inches thick. 

 The thickness increases eastward attaining 25 feet in a lentil in the 

 western part of Onondaga county and the formation is well developed 

 in the vicinity of Oriskany Falls, whence the name, first applied by 

 Vanuxem in his report on the Geological Survey of the Third Dis- 

 trict for 1839. 



In the Oriskany horizon in the old Shaliboo quarry i mile south 

 of Union Springs there are 10 inches of dark conglomerate composed 

 of bituminous shale in which there are embedded many pebbles and 

 fragments of waterlime. A stratum of calcareous sandstone i foot 

 6 inches thick, exposed on the north side of the bridge on Center street 

 in Union Springs in which there are many pebbles, represents this 

 formation. An outcrop of typical Oriskany sandstone 2 feet 3 inches 

 thick and containing many fossils occurs on a knoll a few rods south 

 of the residence of Mr George D. Backus. An old quarry in the woods 

 50 rods west of the Yawger cemetery i^ miles northeast of Union 

 Springs shows 9 feet of friable pinkish sandstone in three layers, all 

 fossiliferous, the lower one 4 feet thick being fairly crowded with 

 large brachiopods. 



In the woods on the Yawger farm % mile north of the cemetery, a 

 ledge extending in a north and south direction 35 to 40 rods, shows 

 Oriskany sandstone 5 feet 6 inches thick in the central part and ex- 

 traordinarily fossiliferous. Vanuxem refers to this locality on page 127 

 of the report on the Third District, 1842, and says of it : '' The fossils 

 are numerous, and better preserved than in any other locality of the 

 district, state or country that has come to our knowledge, the rock 

 being more solid and the sand of which it is composed purer and 

 whiter." 



Where exposed in the western part of the ledge at the crest of the 

 hill i^ miles north of Aurelius it is 2 feet i inch thick in ordinary 

 condition and has many fossils in the lower part of the stratum. It 

 is 10 to 12 inches thick in the old quarries in the northern part of 

 Auburn west of the crossing of North street and the New York Cen- 

 tral Railroad, and a small outcrop near the northeast corner of the 

 quadrangle shows about the same thickness. 



The occurrence of the fossils of large size and in some outcrops, 

 as north of Union Springs, in great abundance, tends to produce the 

 impression that the fauna of the sandstone in this region is a large one, 



