Luther — Geology of the Salt District. 



199 



Mr. Adams states that he drilled through 600 feet of limestone overlying 

 the salt bed, the upper 400 feet being much harder than the lower 200 feet. 

 He also states that the bottom of the salt was not reached in any of the three 

 wells. 



About the year 1890, a deep boring was made at Dundee, Yates county, 

 for Mr. George Borden and others, in which it has been reported the salt bed 

 was reached. No information whatever can be obtained from the owners in 

 regard to the rock section in the well. 



It is located on the high ridge between Seneca and Keuka lakes, ten 

 miles northwest from the Watkins well, at an altitude of about 100 feet A. T. 

 The geologic horizon of the mouth of the well is in the upper Portage shales 

 and flags, approximately -150 feet higher than that of the Watkins wells. 



An allowance of 100 feet for decreased thickness of the Hamilton group 

 would make the probable depth to salt about 2200 feet. No use is made of 

 this well. 



No wells have been drilled to the salt in new localities during the last 

 three years, owing to the depression in the business of manufacturing salt, and 

 several of the smaller and less favorably located plants have ceased operations 

 entirely. 



GEOLOGY OF THE SALT DISTRICT. 



Nearly all the geologic formations from the top of the Hudson river 

 slate to, and including the Chemung group, into which the rock strata found 

 in central and western New York have been divided, have brine springs 

 issuing from them or occupy such positions as to require that they be drilled 

 through in sinking wells to the great rock salt bed. 



Named in the order of their positions in the strata, beginning with the 

 highest in which wells that were sunk to the salt bed have had their beginning, 

 these formations have been designated as follows : 



Chemung group, Portage group, Genesee slate, Tully limestone, 

 Hamilton group. Marcellus shales, Onondaga limestone, Oriskany sandstone, 

 Lower Helderberg limestone, Salina group, Niagara group, Clinton group 

 Medina sandstones, Hudson river slate. 



They are all sufficiently persistent in character and thickness to enal >le 

 a careful observer, by an examination at one exposure, to identify the same 

 formation at others and to follow the line of its outcrops without much 

 difficulty, Dut they not only differ from each other more or less in thickness 

 and the character, condition and color of the sediments of which they are com- 



