36 Kraus — Occurrence of Gelestite near Syracuse, JSF. Y. 



These " Vermicular Limestones " have given geologists much 

 trouble as to a satisfactory explanation of their porous struc- 

 ture. Vannxem speaks of the cause of their porous character 

 in the following language : " The cells show that parts of the 

 rock were disposed to separate into very thin layers, which pro- 

 ject into the cells, an effect wholly at variance with aeriform 

 cavities, whose removal caused the cells in question. This 

 view appears to be fully confirmed by the discovery in this 

 rock of those forms which are due to common salt, showing 

 that a soluble saline material had existed in it, had acquired 

 shape in the rock, and had subsequently been dissolved, leav- 

 ing a cavity or cavities. " * The discovery at Livonia, !N". Y., 

 of such a cellular rock filled with salt seems at first to support 

 Vanuxem's theory to a very considerable extent. Of this rock 

 filled with salt, Lutherf says : " In the shaft sunk to the rock 

 salt beds at Livonia, N. Y., at the depth of 1,396 feet, thirteen 

 feet above the salt bed, a stratum of the cellular, magnesium 

 limestone was reached, in which the cells were filled with salt. 

 A large block was placed in a running brook, and in a few 

 hours the salt had been dissolved out, leaving the rock in pre- 

 cisely the same condition that it presents when found in loose 

 fragments or in the outcrops in this (Onondaga) County." 



It seems almost impossible to conceive how the very soluble 

 sodium chloride could be disseminated through a rock, as 

 would be necessary to give rise to this peculiar porous structure 

 of the "Vermicular" limestones, as is clearly illustrated by 

 figs. 4 and 6. Certainly such a deposition of salt would not 

 be in harmony with the now generally accepted theory of 

 OchseniusJ as to the formation of salt deposits, as we find 

 them in New York State, Stassfurt in Germany, and elsewhere. 

 I believe that sodium chloride is an altogether too soluble salt 

 to have been the original occupant of these many cavities of 

 the " Vermicular Limestones." 



According to Wackenroder,§ celestite is slowly, but com- 

 pletely, soluble in water containing sodium chloride in solution. 

 Virck|| says, that 100 parts of water containing 15*54 per cent 

 of sodium chloride dissolve 0*2186 grams of strontium sul- 

 phate, which is the composition of celestite. The same 

 authority says, that it is even more soluble in water containing 

 magnesium chloride, and not quite so soluble in water contain- 

 ing calcium chloride. 



* Vairaxem, Natural History of New York, Third District, 1842, 101. 

 f Luther, Economic Geology of Onondaga County, 1895, 265. 

 % C. Ochsenius, Die Bildung der Steinsalzlager und. ihrer Mutterlaugensalze. 

 Halle, 1877. Kemp, Handbook of Bocks, 1900, 78. 



§Comey, Dictionary of Chemical Solubilities, 1895, 455. 

 1 Ibid., 1895, 455, also Chemisches Centralblatt, 1862, 402. 



