692 



Report of the State Geologist. 





CALCAREOUS 













LAYER 



[N BAXK. 



RED SHALE. 



BLUE 



S If A T V 



Silica 



25 



.40 



52 



.30 



57 



79 



\ 1 n TTl 1 Tl 



■ I 1 1 1 1 I 1 i 1 1 ( I , • » ■ ■ 



9 



.46 



18 



.85 



1 6 



1 5 



• J. o 



X CI I 1C U2LlUx5, 



2 



.24 



6 



.55 







OA 





22 



.81 



3 



.36 



p 



>7Q 

 . < O 



TV/I o rrvi ODl Q 



iTJLcl^Ilt/Olctj .... 



10 



.39 



4 



.49 



A 

 -t 



ft*/ 

 . < 



Carbonic acid, . . . 



20 



.96 





04 



3 



.42 



Potash, 





QK 

 . uD 



4 



.65 



4 



.11 



Soda, 







1 



.35 



1 



.22 



Water and organic 















matter, .... 



7. 



,60 



5 



.30 



4 



.50 





99 



.81 



99. 



.89 



99 



.79 



Total fluxing impuri- 















ties, 



36 



.39 



20 



,40 



17 



.93 



These shales must be quite fusible owing to their high percentage of 

 fluxing impurities. 



At the works of the Onondaga Vitrified Brick Company, the shale 

 crops out in considerable thickness near the yard, and is of various shades 

 of red, green and some grey; it disintegrates very rapidly and the whole 

 bank is traversed by numerous cracks so that a small blast brings down 

 a large amount. 



The material is mixed with a surface clay in the proportions of one 

 of clay to three of shale; it is ground in a dry-pan, and molded in an 

 auger machine ; the green bricks are dried in tunnels and burned in circular 

 kilns ; the product is of a light-red color. 



Marcellus shale. This formation presents numerous undesirable features, 

 so that its occurrence is of little importance to clay workers. It is generally 

 slaty, gritty, and contains not unfrequently much iron pyrite and bituminous 

 matter. The rock is well exposed in the bed of the river at Le Roy. 



As the Hamilton, Portage and Chemung are the most promising and 

 most extensive of the shale formations occurring in this state, a series of 

 physical tests was made on samples from several localities, to determine their 

 characters as related to each other and also as compared w ith other deposits. 



The samples were ground to pass through a thirty-mesh sieve.* The 

 determinations made on these samples were : (1) Amount of water required 



* Of most of the shales ground up by disintegrations, about sixty per cent, of any sample will pass through a thirty-mesh 



sieve, and the balance through a one sixteenth or an one eighth inch mesh. 



