250 Report of the State Geologist. 



boulders, can be obtained without the expense of transportation for fifteen to 

 twenty miles. 



At present the output from the five quarries, which have been opened in 

 it, is not large, but the amount is governed entirely by the demand for good 

 building stone. 



Salina Group. 



The Salina group is composed of two thick deposits, which differ greatly 

 both in appearance and character. The lower beds are known as the Red 

 shales, and the upper as the Gypseous shales. ■ 



Red Shales. The Red shales include many layers of green shales, and 

 clouded or mottled red and green beds are of frequent occurrence. The red 

 color is, however, very pronounced, a strong brick red; the green is a light 

 but generally distinct pea green. Some of the upper layers near the contact 

 line are olive. Red is the predominating color in the lower beds, and green 

 toward the top. The shale is very soft and clayey, crumbling into dust on 

 exposure, if dry, or turning to clay, if wet. Some of the green and olive 

 layers are fissile to a slight degree. 



In the Onondaga Brick Co.'s quarry, near Warner's, there occurs a layer 

 of coarse sandstone that resembles the Medina sandstone. Thin layers of 

 drab magnesian limestone occur among the shales in all parts of the sub- 

 group, but more abundantly toward the top. The Red shales constitute the 

 bed rock in a belt averaging about seven miles wide, extending across the 

 county parallel with the line of the Erie canal, w hich may be taken as its 

 southern boundary. From this territory there are to be deducted outliers of 

 the succeeding Gypseous shales in the hills in the northern part of Camillus. 

 and th» j northeastern part of Syracuse. 



In the town of Van Buren, and particularly in its northern part in the 

 vicinity of Dead creek and the Seneca river, the hills are beautifully banded 

 and clouded in given and red where the shales come to the surface, <>r are but 

 thinly covered by clay produced by their disintegration. The range of hills 

 north of the West Shore railroad, near Warner's station, is mainly composed 

 of shales of the middle and upper parts of this sub-division. The Onondaga 

 Vitrified Brick Co. takes the raw material for its very large output of brick 

 and tile from one of these hills, where a section seventy-five feet thick is 

 exposed. The Central City Brick Co. also has a quarry in nearly the same 

 horizon, in ;i low hill one and one-half miles southeast from Kirkville, near the 

 Erie canal, from which it manufactures brick extensively. 



