SECOND ANNUAL REPORT 
Of so much of the Geological Survey of the Third Dis- 
trict of the State of New- York as relates to objects 
of immediate utility, by Lardner Vanuxem. 
The counties whose examination forms the subject of this report, are 
Montgomery, Herkimer, Oneida, and Oswego. These counties were 
chosen in consequence of containing the oldest, and therefore the rocks 
which form the base of the third district. We were influenced, moreo- 
ver, in our selection, by the fact of these counties not containing the 
brine springs, and from their rocks being far inferior in position to the 
rocks of the counties south belonging to this district; the rock of those 
counties making the nearest approach, not only geographically but geo- 
logically, to the rocks in Pennsylvania which contain coal. From the 
circumstance of coal and salt being considered to be the two most im- 
portant objects in the survey of the third district, it were highly desira- 
ble that all points or questions as to their presence or absence, and like- 
wise the source or origin of the brine springs or salt water, should in the 
final report of the third district be definitively settled. Therefore it is, 
that their investigation is reserved to a future, and more mature period 
of the survey. 
So, also, we have reserved the exploration of the unsettled parts of 
the counties of Montgomery, Herkimer, and Oneida, having examined 
just so much as would enable us satisfactorily to ascertain the class of 
rocks to which all such parts belonged. The unsettled parts which ap- 
pertain to the third district, being but small compared with the great 
area of the same class of rocks embraced in the second district, it was 
judged advisable to await, and follow up the investigations of Professor 
Emmons, rather than commence with the little knowledge yet acquired 
of them. When we know how small is the distance in those wilds 
which can be traversed in a day, and how limited is the view, from the 
