166 [Assembly 
ter; and whenever found in place, it will always enable the ob- 
server who is familiar with the species, to recognize the formation 
to which it exclusively belongs. This rock occasionally appears, 
embracing strata of limestone, west of Oswego; and sections may 
be observed at the village of Wolcott, Wayne county, and a few 
other places, where the red sandstone does not exist, having thin- 
ned out and disappeared in the direction of Lake Ontario. Near 
Clinton, in Oneida county, there is a siliceous conglomerate, dip- 
ping at an angle of 10° to S. W., which is either a portion of this 
formation, or of the next above it, but time has not yet been given 
to the investigation of its true relative position. 
2. Red or Variegated Sandstone of Jspiagara River, 
We have chosen this name because it is descriptive of the only 
sandstone developed in the course of the Niagara river, and there- 
fore cannot be misunderstood by those who have seen it in that in- 
teresting locality. This widely distributed series of red and gray 
sandstones and shales has been termed " saliferous rock" by Eaton, 
but it is by no means proved that it contains salt, although the 
brine springs certainly sink into its fissures, and may traverse the 
horizontal strata to a great distance from the original source of 
the springs. Another objection to the term saliferous in geology, 
would be the occurrence of rock salt in formations of various geo- 
logical date. The sandstones and shales of Ohio, through which 
the brine is drawn, described by Dr. Hildreth, belong to the bitu- 
minous coal series, and are of much more recent date than the 
sandstones and shales of Niagara and Genesee rivers. 
The rocks of this formation extend from a line drawn nearly 
north and south through Lewis and Oneida counties, to Niagara 
river. They are bounded on ihe north by the waters of Lake On- 
tario, except in places where the subordinate rocks appear on the 
surface, and are very generally uncovered in ravines and water- 
courses north of the Erie canal. On the south of the canal they 
are rarely seen, except where they approach the primary rocks, 
and they are covered generally by lofty hills of a more recent 
date. They evidently rise towards the gneiss range, and become 
more nearly horizontal the further they recede from it, until they 
approach the Pennsylvania line, where they are again tilted off to 
the south. This formation is very interesting, in consequence of 
the peculiar and uniform nature of its organic remains, which un- 
fortunately have never been studied by those who have hitherto 
