﻿REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 10,10 9 



to the unconformity existing between these two formations. The 

 region south of Cold brook and east of West Canada creek 

 seems distinctly different from the rest of the region, and extends 

 over as far as White creek on the Little Falls quadrangle, where the 

 only outcrop in the whole region is a Lowville limestone quarry. 

 The Trenton and Dolgeville members are not seen and there seems 

 to be little evidence to indicate their presence except for a possible 

 indefinite small thickness of Trenton. 



The southwestern bank of the West Canada creek is markedly 

 different from the other bank. It is steep and from a point about 

 a mile and a half below Poland gives a continuous outcrop nearly 

 to Newport. North of this point the steep bank is made up of 

 glacial material until a point about two miles above Poland is 

 reached, where the Trenton outcrops by the bridge. 



Below Poland there are about 31 feet of Lowville in the bank 

 and in the hills immediately bordering the creek. Above this occur 

 from 7 to 9 feet of Black River limestone, which in general forms 

 the top of the lowest terrace. Upon this rests the Trenton lime- 

 stone with a thickness of about 200 feet forming the bordering 

 hills. These are covered with sand, an underlying boulder clay 

 appearing in places and commonly covering contacts. Where the 

 country flattens out on the top of the hills the Utica shale appears 

 and covers all the region to the west and south as far as the Mohawk 

 river and some distance beyond. To the west along Nine Mile 

 creek at a point just west of South Trenton a low fold brings the 

 Trenton up about a foot above the surface of the creek and shows 

 the Trenton-Utica contact. The Trenton also shows at two other 

 points farther downstream, the region between being shales. 



Southwest of Newport is a ridge of high hills which continues 

 to the west, becoming lower and broader. This ridge is capped 

 with the sandy Lorraine shales, having a thickness of 340 feet at 

 the eastern end. Since there are but 440 feet of these shales occur- 

 ring south of the Mohawk between the Utica below and the Oneida 

 conglomerate above, it might seem probable that there existed at 

 one time on the top of these hills an extra hundred feet or more of 

 the Lorraine shales with a cap of the resistant Oneida conglomerate, 

 thereby explaining the presence of this very prominent and domi- 

 nant ridge, which seems to have been an important factor in deter- 

 mining the preglacial physiography of the region. 



The thickness of the Utica shale is about 600 feet. This would 

 seem to indicate that the rock floor of the Mohawk valley in this 

 section might be Trenton limestone. 



