Luthee — Economic Geology of Onondaga County. 



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way of Oswego river, lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence river, while Fabius 

 creek, which has its rise in a small spring on the top of Pompey hill, together 

 w ith Labrador brook, the outlet of the Tully lakes, and Cold creek in Spafford, 

 flow south into the Tionghnioga river, and reach the ocean by way of the 

 Susquehanna river and Chesapeake bay. 



Five deep, narrow valleys extend from the south line of the county in a 

 northerly direction and break through the Helderberg escarpment at different 

 points. These principal valleys, named in order from the east, are : Limestone 

 creek valley, Butternut creek valley, Onondaga valley, Otisco or Nine Mile 

 creek valley, and the Skaneateles lake valley. They have many lateral 

 branches, some of them quite extensive, and deep rocky ravines with high 

 cascades are numerous. 



Limestone creek valley is situated near the east line of the county. The 

 DeRuyter storage reservoir for the Erie canal at the southeast corner of the 

 county, is near the south end of the valley. From the reservoir, which is 

 about 1,250 feet A. T., to Delphi the descent is rapid, and a deep gorge has 

 been cut by the stream through an immense mass of glacial drift that chokes 

 the valley at this point. From Delphi to near Manlius the descent is slight; 

 the sides are sloping and there is an intervale half a mile wide. At Manlius. 

 where, the valley is cut through the limestone, it is narrower and rocky. 

 Edward's falls, one and one-half miles south of the village, are ninety feet 

 high, and below them is a narrow gorge with high banks. Just below the 

 village of Manlius the valley of the west branch of Limestone creek is connected 

 with the main one by a deep ravine, one-half mile long, ending at Brickyard 

 falls, seventy feet high. Above the falls the valley, which is generally rough 

 a id irregular, extends towards the south for several miles. Pratt's falls, five 

 miles south of Manlius, in this valley, are 137 feet high. Below the junction 

 of the two streams the valley spreads out rapidly. The floor is somewhat 

 uneven, and the bed rock is but thinly covered, cropping out in many places. 

 The sides of the valley are rough and steep, with bare masses and cliffs of 

 limestone, 200 to 300 feet high, on both sides as far as Fayetteville. North of 

 Fayetteville the bordering hills are lower and do not extend beyond the 

 Erie canal. 



Butternut creek valley is connected at its head in the w estern pari <>f 

 Fabius with the valley of Limestone creek by a wide, high, east and wesl 

 valley, and also with the Tully lake plateau by an extension which has a 

 southwesterly course, with the drainage in the same direction. Near Apulia, 

 where the bottom ,of the valley is highest, it is 1,225 feet A. T. It is narrow 



