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[Assembly 
no probability that any important increase of brine, in quantity or 
saturation, would be obtained by boring. There is no evidence here 
of a deep basin, like that of Salina, where springs unite and con- 
centrate their mineral wealth. 
Some geologists have supposed, that because salt and coal are 
associated in England, the salt district will be found to contain the 
latter mineral; but it has been ascertained that salt is not peculiar 
to a certain system of rocks. Dr. Buckland, in his Bridgewater 
Treatise, observes, although the most frequent position of rock 
salt and of salt springs is in strata of the New Red Sandstone for- 
mation, which has consequently been designated by some geolo- 
gists as the saliferous system, yet it is not exclusively confined to 
them. The salt mines of Wieliezka and Sicily are in tertiary for- 
mations; those of Cardona, in cretaceous; some of those in the 
Tyrol, in the oolites; and near Durham there are salt springs in 
the coal formation." Those of New- York are far below the coal 
formation, in rocks of the same age with the Silurian system of 
Mr. Murchinson. Thus the Author of Nature, ever mindful of 
the wants of his creatures, has distributed this substance, so essen- 
tial to health and comfort, very generally throughout the habitable 
portion of the globe; whereas, had it been restricted to the new 
red sandstone formation, very little, if any of it, would have been 
found in North America, and the inhabitants of the vast interior 
would have severely felt the privation. 
3. Red Oxide of Iron and Associated Strata, 
Upon the red sandstone of Niagara river, in the banks of the Ge- 
nesee, near Rochester, and in other localities, are a series of rocks, 
the first of which has been termed " Ferriferous Slate" by Mr. 
Eaton. It is about 23 feet in thickness on the Genesee, very fis- 
sile, and of a beautiful green color. Mr. Eaton observes that " it 
separates into brittle, irregular laminae, which readily dissolve into 
tenaceous clay soil." Occasionally, layers of it are more indura- 
ted, and contain indistinct fucoids. The same rock on Black creek, 
in the town of Wolcott, Wayne county, is indurated and difficult 
to break, and contains crinoidal remains similar to those in the iron 
ore above it. We doubt not this variety would yield hones of a 
fine quality. Near Clinton, Oneida county, it is replete with shells 
and forms of marine vegetables. 
