GYPSUM DEPOSITS OF NEW YORK 47 



Rush. In the region south O'f the outcrop, gypsum has been en- 

 countered in various wells at Mumford and Caledonia at 60 feet 

 depth, and Mr Jenkins, a well driller of Scottsville, states that 

 an ajpparently good belt of g}qDsum runs from Wheatland to Max- 

 well, 4 miles southeast and that it lies about 45 feet deep across 

 the whole belt. He also states that gypsum was encountered in 

 a wel)l at the State Industrial vSchool. 



Opportunities for further prospecting are afforded aloog the 

 noTthern boiuidary of the Bertie waterlime nortih of Mendon Cen- 

 ter; in the area between Rush and North Rush; in the hilly region 

 between Garbutt and Maxwell, and in the hills north and northwest 

 of Mumford. 



Genesee county 



The northern half of the county is occupied entirely by the Salina 

 shales, and as yet these have not been differentiated into the Ver- 

 non and Camillus shales. Succeeding the shales are the waterilime 

 beds with their attendant gypsum bodies, while above and tO' the 

 sO'Uth the Onondaga limesto^nes and underlying waterlime beds 

 stretch acrcLss the county in a well marked escarpment, called locally 

 the " ledge." 



According to HalP the shales in the center of the towns of 

 Bergen, Byron, Elba and Alabama are gray or ash colored and 

 contain thin seams of fibrous gypsum, selenite and occasionally 

 small masses of granular gypsum. Succeeding the shales are a 

 series of bluish, slaty and drab colored impure limestones which, he 

 says, embrace large beds of gypsum. These gypsum deposits, so 

 important in former days, are no longer quarried, and their location 

 is almost forgotten. They have interest, however, as sources of 

 supply for the future. 



Near the eastern boundary of the county, gypsum beds have been 

 uncovered on the banks of Allen's creek, and at one time large 

 quantities of plaster were quarried near Fort Hill. 



About 3 miles northeast of Fort Hill, or about midway between 

 Fort Hill and South Byron, on lots 118, 144 and 182 large amounts 

 of gypsum w^ere formerly quarried. The deposit on lot 118, ac- 

 coirding to Hall, belonged to Mr Hughes and Mr Cash and was 

 '' a zifhitc gypsum free from seams and intermixture of clay." It 

 was covered by a bluish limestone with shaly seams. On lots 144 

 and 182 the gypsum was '' clay colored " and was overlain by a 

 drab limestone containing species of Avicula. These quarries be- 



^ Geol. N. Y. pt 4. 1843. p. 464-65. 



