76 ^ NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



wood which, in most cases, may be easily cut by a spade, though 

 near the surface the decomposition is not sufficiently advanced to 

 permit this. In the cultivated portions the surface is a black 

 soil well adapted for all kinds of garden crops. The peaty 

 character of the bog is not shown till a depth of a foot or two is 

 reached, but thence downward to the marl or clay the peat is of 

 apparently good quality. The top layer of peat ranges in depth 

 from 31^ to 6 feet or more and is underlain in most of the swamp 

 by a bed of marl. Two exceptions to this general rule were found 

 north tof Oniontown. In the first case clay was found at a depth 

 of 3 feet near a creek in Oniontown, and in the second case, north 

 of Oniontown, in a ner^^ly cleared portion of the swamp that has 

 not been burned over to remove the leaves and other loose stuff 

 not as yet changed to peat, the bottom of the peat was not reached 

 at a depth of 6 feet. 



The different strata of marl and peat are well shown along the 

 Douglas ditch, and the thinning out of certain layers was well 

 illustrated in one or two cases. As has been stated above, under- 

 neath the top stratum of peat is a layer of marl, the thickness of 

 which varies from 6 inches to a foot. Immediately beneath this 

 is another bed of peat which for several miles has about the same 

 thickness as the marl above, but at the eastern part of the swamp 

 the thickness of this bed increases, while near Ognon it gradually 

 thins out and finally disappears. In the marl bed below the 

 second peat deposit a gradual change in the mineral constitu- 

 ents is to be noted, as within the space of a half mile a total change 

 from sand to marl was observed, though the thickness of the de- 

 posit continues about the same, and no change in color was to be 

 observed. Whether the peat that underlies these deposits from 

 the western part of the swamp to a point about a half a mile 

 from Ognon, is to be found at Ognon is a question that is yet to 

 be settled. It has been stated that the marl at this point is more 

 than 50 feet deep, but thin beds of peat might easily be overlooked 

 in such drilling as has been done here. 



