THE GEOLOGY OF THE SYRACUSE QUADRANGLE 3/ 



attempt was made to separate it. The source of this white clay 

 is one of the most puzzling problems in the local geology. The great 

 thickness and extent of the deposit rather taxes the imagination to 

 ascribe it entirely to the leaching out of the coloring matter by the 

 growth and decay of the organic matter of the overlying peat beds, 

 especially so since most of the vegetable matter is of plants with 

 small roots. The alternative views are almost equally taxing on 

 the imagination, namely, that it is due ( I ) to a gradual accumula- 

 tion of the clay, or (2) to the downward percolation of the swamp 

 water through the bed of clay. Favoring the last view is the fact 

 that the clay is everywhere underlain by a bed of gravel, but op- 

 posed to it is the character of clay which is so impervious to the 

 movement of water that it would require such a long period of 

 time. 



No attempt has been made as yet to utilize this white clay, prob- 

 ably due to the fact that its existence is unknown to the industrial 

 world. So far as known to the writer, this is by far the largest 

 body of light colored clay in the State of New York. 



In nearly all the other swamp areas in this region the peat is 

 underlain by shell marl so far as their contents are known. This 

 shell marl is composed of the remains of small calcareous shells 

 which are still accumulating rapidly in many of the shallow lakes 

 in the region. No systematic examination has been made of the 

 marl deposits in the immediate vicinity of the city. Similar marl 

 deposits were exploited and used in large quantities at the village 

 of Warners, 15 miles west of Syracuse, in the manufacture of port- 

 land cement. The cement plant at Warners was abandoned some 

 years ago and at present no marl is used in this portion of the State. 



CLAY AND SHALE 



Besides the bed of white clay in the Cicero swamp, there are 

 many other clays and shales in the region. The surface clays have 

 been utilized in a number of places in the manufacture of red 

 building brick and tile, and to some extent for paving brick. 1 



The red Vernon shales have been utilized in the manufacture of 

 brick at Belle Isle near the west margin of the quadrangle, near 

 Kirkville in the east portion of the quadrangle, and at Warners 

 15 miles west of the city of Syracuse. There is an unlimited amount 

 of this shale convenient to rail and canal transportation. 



1 Economic Geology of Onondaga County. 22d Ann. Rep't State Geol. 

 N. Y. 1902. p. 109. 



