66 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



no rock salt, and it is thought the brines are derived from leaching 

 of beds that are found to the south of Syracuse under cover of a 

 heavy thickness of shale. 



With the exception of the salt made at Syracuse, the rock salt 

 beds constitute the entire source of present production. The beds 

 are found in the Salina formation, a succession of shales, limestones 

 gypsum and rock salt, that has its outcrop along an east-west belt 

 from Albany county to the Niagara river and is represented by a 

 smaller separate area in southeastern New York. Test borings 

 indicate that the salt deposits are restricted to the western section 

 of the main belt beginning in Madison county, and that they occur 

 at intervals from that county to Erie and Cattaraugus counties. The 

 most easterly point where rock salt has been found is at Morris- 

 ville, Madison county. On account of its ready solubility it is 

 rarely encountered at depths of less than about iooo feet where the 

 cover is sufficient to protect the beds from the action of under- 

 ground waters. Since the Salina beds have a dip uniformly toward 

 the south, the mines and wells are all located on the southern side 

 of the outcrop which lies about the line of the 43d parallel. The 

 dip averages 40 or 50 feet to the mile. The persistence of the salt 

 to the south is indicated by the wells at Ithaca which reach the salt 

 horizon at over 2200 feet depth and by test borings in northern 

 Cattaraugus and Allegany counties which encountered salt at over 

 3000 feet depth. A boring at Canaseraga, Allegany county, pene- 

 trated 75 feet of rock salt beginning at 3050 feet. The western ex- 

 tensions of the beds in Erie county are stated by Bishop to be about 

 on a line between East Aurora, Patchen and Boston Corners and a 

 point 3 miles west of Springville. Brines have been found in wells 

 at Eden valley, Gowanda and other localities to the west of the 

 boundary, but no rock salt. In Cattaraugus county, however, rock 

 salt is reported to have been found in a gas well situated between 

 Cattaraugus and Gowanda. 



Rock salt mines. The active rock salt mines are situated at 

 Retsof and Cuylerville, Livingston county. Shafts have been sunk 

 also near Le Roy, Seneca county, and at Livonia and Greigsville, 

 Livingston county, but have not been in use for many years. 



The methods of mining the salt at the two active mines are very 

 similar. In both the bed is reached through vertical shafts of a 

 little over a 1000 feet depth. The Sterling Salt Co. at Cuylerville 

 has two shafts, and the Retsof Mining Co. at Retsof three, which 

 are bottomed in a bed of salt from 20 to 25 feet thick. The work- 



