The plaster rock may be examined at the quarries in 
any of the towns mentioned, or at South Syracuse, for- 
merly Brighton, or on the Split Rock Road, three miles 
southwest of the city. At the latter place there are some 
thick seams of satin spar,* which is not rare in any of the 
beds, although not always in thick seams. A mile north- 
west of Fayetteville, at the cut on the Chenango Valley 
Railroad, we find pure whitet and the transparent gypsumt 
in masses, or pockets, in the rock. 
In many of the clayey layers overlying the beds of gyp- 
sum, we find large hopper-shaped crystals, after salt. 
These are interesting to us as geologists, because, until re- 
cently, they were the only evidence we had that salt ever 
existed in the rocks of our county. These hopper casts, 
which are found in many layers of this group, were at one 
time immense crystals of solid salt. This salt has long 
since been washed out by percolating waters, leaving only 
these pseudomorphs in theclayey shale. Itis these waters, 
holding in solution the salt that once filled the hoppers, 
that have for a long time been pumped up, boiled and 
evaporated, thus furnishing the salt for which our county 
is noted. This supposition will appear more plausible 
when I mention the fact that only three years ago a well 
was sunk in the southern part of our county, and after 
passing through the overlying and protecting limestones, 
pure rock salt was found. Since that time many other 
wells have been drilled through the overlying rock in the 
southern part of the county, and in every instance solid 
salt has been found. According to the statements of the 
workmen, they drilled through some 1,600 feet of over- 
lying rock, after which a bed of rock salt, varying in thick- 
ness from 60 to 200 feet, was found. In Tully Valley 
there are thirty such wells. Their plan of operation is to 
allow the water from the Tully Lakes to flow into the 
omer, 
* Fibrous gypsum, +t Selenite. 
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