164 
[Assembly 
of my colleague, Mr. Vanuxem, that metallic veins owe not their 
origin to igneous injection, but to the segregation of metallic parti- 
cles, originally embraced in the surrounding rocks. A vein has 
been wholly exhausted and obliterated, but the probability of dis- 
covering a larger or more productive one in this locality, is such, 
that we would not wish to discourage the attempt. The rock is 
compact and difficult to break in the immediate vicinity of these 
veins, but it is elsewhere, on the creek, very generally fissile. 
Proceeding up stream, in a southerly direction, we soon arrive at 
a beautiful water-fall, where the vertical black rocks remind the 
spectator of the similar gorge at Trenton-Falls, scooped out of 
strata of the same geological date. The rocks of this series were 
deposited in the bed of the first oceanic waters which, in the revo- 
lutions of our globe, w^ere crowded with various forms of animal 
life. Shells, chiefly bivalve, trilobites, and zoophytic animals, ex- 
isted in such numbers, that their exuvise have materially contri- 
buted to swell the vast bulk of mountain masses, and to add to the 
beauty and value of marbles, whose elegant variegated surface is 
chiefly due to the presence of organic remains. This portion of 
the series, however, in our district, does not aflbrd such regular 
strata, nor furnish such large masses, as the gray sparry limestone, 
and is therefore not so extensively used for building. It burns into 
excellent lime, and is employed principally for that purpose. At 
Tribes^ Hill w^here it occurs quite pure, and in thick layers, it is 
quarried for buildings, canal bridges and other purposes. About 
three miles north of Amsterdam we find it quite pure, compact and 
durable, and very suitable for a building material. 
This rock is developed in its greatest thickness in the north-east- 
ern portion of Oneida county, gradually thinning out and finally 
disappearing in its south-eastern prolongation. North of Trenton- 
Falls there is a capping of gray crinoidal limestone, but we are 
as yet ignorant of its precise character and limits. 
^ SECTION II. 
1. Gray Sandstones and Shales of Salmon River, 
The next series of rocks in the ascending order, comprising nu- 
merous alternating layers of gray sandstone and dark lead colored 
friable shale, are in our district only visible to any extent, in Oswe- 
go county, where they are exhibited in fine sections of the banks of 
