18 
[As SEMBLY 
The account given of the salt springs of Worcestershire, in England, 
by an accurate observer. Dr. Charles Hastings, applies in almost every 
important particular to the region around the Onondaga springs. This 
author remarks, as others have done, that " wherever rock salt is met 
with, sulphate of lime or gypsum seems to be very generally discovered 
in mixture with the earthy strata above it. In most parts of the world 
where these gypseous strata are found, marine shells are mixed with 
them; but this has not been discovered to be the case either in Cheshire 
or in this county." 
Dr. Hastings gives the following section from the surface in the town 
of Droitwich: " First, a stratum of mould, three feet deep, then a stra- 
tum of red marl forty feet deep, which abounds with water of a brack- 
ish nature. After that, a stratum of marl which extends for one hun- 
dred and thirty feet. In this marl there are no springs of water; it is 
quite dry, but is penetrated with perpendicular veins of gypsum. At 
the distance of a hundred and thirty feet from the commencement of 
the gypsum in the marl, we come to the strong brine, which rushes up 
to the surface as soon as it is bored into. This brine is ten feet deep, 
and the rock salt is under this river of brine."* 
I have introduced these notices of particular localities of rock salt, 
rather than the general ones contained in geological treatises, because 
the facts can be the more easily applied to the case under examination. 
And it may be observed that the most prominent of these is the con- 
stant associations of gypsum with the rock salt formation.! In this 
particular, the similarity of the formation around the Onondaga lake ap- 
pears to me to be fully established. About a mile from Syracuse, on 
the rail-road from that village to Split Rock quarry, is a conglomerate 
made up of pebbles of various sizes and colors, and firmly aggreg'ated 
by an argillaceous cement. This stratum is three or four feet in thick- 
ness, and continues for some distance. In the marsh about a mile and 
a half from Syracuse, is an extensive deposit of marl, similar to that 
found in the immediate vicinity of Onondaga lake; and large masses of 
calcareous tufa are also found in this valley. 
Beyond this bed of marl are extensive beds of gypsum, of the seve- 
ral varieties which are known to occur in western New-York, viz: the 
lamellar, the fibrous, the dark colored and the earthy. The specimens 
* A Lecture on the Salt Springs of Worcestershire, (England,) with an appendix, by Charles 
Hastines, M. D., F. G. S. 
t This is by no means confined to the anhydrite, as has been asserted, but includes also the 
hydrons gypsum exactly similar to that found every where in the western part of this State. 
