Prosser and Cumings— Jjower Silurian Sections. 



041 



Sprakers. 



Twenty miles southeast of Little Falls and three miles below Canajoharie 

 is the small village of Sprakers,* at the upper end of the lower gorge of the 

 Mohawk river. About a mile below the railroad stations the valley is very 

 narrow and is bounded on each side by nearly perpendicular walls, in places 

 350 feet in height, composed largely of Calciferous sandrock. About two 

 miles below the New York Central railroad station, on the northern side of 

 the river, is a conspicuous point known as the Great Nose, where the 

 Laurentian gneiss is exposed, above which the massive Calciferous sand- 

 stone is clearly shown. On the southern side of the river opposite this 

 point and farther down the river in the valley and in the West Shore railroad 

 cuts at the foot of Little Nose, the gneiss is also shown. The scenery in 

 this gorge is very picturesque and the locality is one of the most charming 

 in the beautiful Mohawk valley. 



Flat Creek Section. 



At Sprakers, Flat creek enters the Mohawk river from the south, the 

 banks along its lower course being steep and rocky. From the village to a 

 point a short distance above the falls, the rocks along the creek belong to the 

 Calciferous sandrock, while the bank above shows about seventeen feet of 

 Trenton limestone, capped by Utica slate. A quarter of a mile farther up 

 the creek the second gorge begins, the steep sides of which are composed 

 entirely of Utica slate. At least 230 feet of the slate are shown in the 

 bank of the creek. There is a fall formed by some of the harder lavers of 

 the slate, while pillars of erosion and several very pretty amphitheaters 

 occur. 



VII A 1 . Covered slope from the river level to the lowest 2 /=% 

 rocks exposed in Flat creek. 



A?. Light grey, massive, calcareous sandstone exposed in the 95^% 

 creek bed and along its steep banks. Calciferous sandrock. 



A z . In the upper part of the Calciferous, a portion of the layers 9 5 F = e | 13 

 is thinner and contains great numbers of fucoidal markings. There is no 

 sharp line of division, but these fucoidal layers begin to be conspicuous some 

 ninety-five feet below the top of the Calciferous. In the upper part of the 

 fall, about one mile south of Sprakers, are thick strata similar t<> those quar- 

 ried at various localities in the Mohawk valley termed the "Fucoidal layers," 



*Ou most of the maps this village is called Sprakers Basin, but Sprakers is the name of the post office and of the railroad 

 stations. 



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