Ries — Geology of Orange County. 



425 



As the Highlands east of Turners are approached, the <li|> continues to 

 lie northwest, but becomes steeper. Southeast of Turners, and just east of 

 the Erie railroad, the dip is N. W. 4;V, while in the quarry north of Ardeu, 

 where the limestone is seen in contact with the gneiss along a fault line, the 

 dip is nearly vertical, but in the upper portions of the quarry the layers turn 

 over slightly, the dip being to the west. The limestone in the quarry is dark 

 blue, finely crystalline and in layers of variable thickness. The strike of the 

 limestone is N. 45 l> E. The contact between the gneiss and limestone in the 

 upper part of the quarry is easily seen. 



When the furnaces at Greenwood and Southfield were running, the 

 quarry was important as a source of flux. 



The northwestern boundary of the Turners limestone area extends from 

 one mile east of Monroe to the southern end of Pine hill, in Woodbury town- 

 ship. The eastern edge skirts the gneiss ridge as a line of knolls, usually 

 covered with a veneer of gravelly drift. Much of this limestone area has a 

 heavy drift covering, and includes the large, swampy meadow tract between 

 Turners and Central Valley. 



South of Central Valley (277), the limestone strikes N. 50° E., and dips 

 70° N. W. Northeast of Central Valley, the limestone area narrows very 

 much and extends up the shallow valley between Pine hill and the Highland 

 ridge, in this valley it underlies the Oneida conglomerate. At the north 

 end of Pine hill it dies out suddenly by thinning or faulting, but reappears 

 in a short strip from Woodbury falls to Mountainville. 



Pine hill is a narrow ridge lying east of Skunnemunk mountain. It has 

 a steep eastern face and a gentle western slope. The members of the Medina 

 formation, both with a western dip, give rise to the elevation. The eastern 

 half and face are composed of the Oneida conglomerate, which is a coarse 

 quartzite in its upper portions, but exhibits the usual aspect of the formation 

 in its lower beds. The quartzite grades upward into the Longwood red 

 shales, which form the western slope of the hill. The transition is well 

 shown in the northwestern slope of Pine hill. 



The Longwood shales in Pine hill are of a bright red color; they vary 

 from a shale to a shaly sandstone, and are about seventy-rive feet thick. At 

 the north end of the hill the shale strikes N. 60° E., and dips 80° N. W., but 

 this is somewhat steeper than the usual dip. The conglomerate strikes 

 N. 60° E. and dips 50° N. W. The cleavage is a prominent feature of the 

 shale, and dips to the southeast. It is well shown in the road-metal quarries 

 at the southwest side of the hill. 



