Luther — Geology of the Salt District. 



195 



thick. The records of all the east side wells show it to have a fairly uniform 

 thickness of about forty-five feet on that side of the valley. 



The bottoms of the wells on the west side are from forty-one to ninety- 

 nine feet below the top of the salt. The actual thickness of the one bed of salt 

 referred to in the records at hand is not stated except in that of Well No. 30, 

 where it is given as ninety feet. 



All of the salt taken from this locality thus far has been from the upper 

 bed, which contains, after due allowance is made for all impurities, consider, 

 ably more than 100,000 tons of pure salt per square acre. 



The detailed record of Well No. 2, Group A, shows that beneath the first 

 salt bed a stratum of shale forty feet thick occurs, then a second bed of salt 

 seventy-four feet, shale thirty feet, a third salt bed thirty-six feet, shale 

 thirty feet, then a fourth salt bed sixty feet thick, making a total of 201 feet 

 of salt. Drilling ceased in " magnesian shale " six feet below the bottom of 

 the fourth salt bed and 320 feet below the top of the upper salt bed. This is 

 the lowest horizon reached in the Solvay wells. 



In Well No. 1, Group B, the record says a total thickness of 318 feet of 

 salt was penetrated, but does not state the amount of shale included. 



A well was sunk to the salt bed near Ludlowville, in the town of Lansing, 

 Tompkins county, in 1891, for the Cayuga Lake Salt Company, of which 

 Mr. R. C. Lamberson is president, and a second well was put down in 1892. 

 Works with a capacity of 800 barrels per day were erected in 1891 for the 

 manufacture of fine salt. The grainer, open pan and vacuum pan processes 

 are used. 



The only information in regard to the rock section in these wells that 

 could be obtained is that "it coincides with the section in the Ithaca well 

 except as to depth. " The wells are located near the tracks of the Lehigh 

 Valley railroad and close to the shore line on the east side of Cayuga lake, 

 about eight miles north and two miles east from the Ithaca test well. 



A vertical wall of rock extends parallel to the lake shore nearly the 

 whole distance from the head to Aurora, and rises sometimes to the height of 

 100 feet or more. The bluff is back from the water's edge a sufficient distance 

 to allow space for the railroad tracks that wind along between it and the lake. 

 A wide break in the escarpment occurs near the Ludlowville station where 

 the valley of Salmon creek opens into the lake basin. The rocks have 

 been entirely removed for some distance back from the lake and a great 

 accumulatien of delta gravels and drift has taken their place. They are 

 abundantly exposed, however, a little farther up the stream, which, near Lud- 

 lowville, flows through a rocky ravine and forms a high cascade. 



