3. CENTRE TOWNSHIP. F 3 . 187 



beach of an existing ocean. The sand may, therefore, be 

 considered the relics of r>ebbles that have disappeared, and 

 the pebbles the remains of greater ones which only exist by 

 the law of the survival of the hardest. Whence the sand 

 was obtained to form this ancient Oriskany sea-beach is a 

 question which cannot be here discussed for want of space. 

 This local softness of the Oriskany sandstone is one of 

 the causes of the disarjpearance of the ridges in many places 

 where antecedently they would be expected. Many such 

 instances may be observed by any one who traces out the 

 lines of this formation in the field. 



The Oriskany iron ore. 



In many places the Oriskany sandstone is deeply stained 

 with iron. Some of its layers are very ferruginous. Blocks 

 often occur completely covered with a black shining crust, 

 which consists of the hydrated oxide of iron or brown hema- 

 tite. These pieces have raised fallacious hope of the dis- 

 covery of beds of iron ore in this rock. But such hopes 

 have al ways been disappointed. No deposit of ore is known 

 to exist in the Oriskany sandstone in Perry county, and 

 with the exception of a bed to be presently mentioned none 

 exists immediately above or below it. Though the sand- 

 stone ridges may with care be used as a guide to ore, yet 

 they themselves contain no useful store of that mineral. 



The enlarged local map of outcrops north of New Bloom - 

 field, page plate XV, Fig. 1, will show the complex struc- 

 ture of the country immediately north of New Bloomfield, 

 and at the same time serve as a guide to the iron ore bed at 

 the base of the Marcellus black shale. Land owners in the 

 district shown will be enabled to determine, by examining 

 the map, whether or not this ore bed can be found on their 

 land. At the same time the quantity and quality of the 

 ore can be discovered only by digging. There is no other 

 known means of proving the thickness or quality of any 

 bed of iron ore, and all who claim the possession of any 

 such means are claiming what they have not. I cannot too 

 frequently repeat that the geological map can only show 

 the place and not the quan f; tv or quality of the ore. Yet 



