274 
f Assembly 
The gritj from its solidity, exhibiting no tendency to alter by expo- 
sure to the air, would be greatly used, -were it not for the abundance of 
superior limestones which the uplifts to the east have rendered so acces- 
sible along the banks of the Mohawk, 
In a practical point of view, this rock in Oneida county forms an 
important line of division in the description of the rocks which occur to 
the north and to the south of it, dipping as the rocks do to the south 
and west. From the millstone grit to Lewis county, and between Her- 
kimer county and the eastern boundaries of the towns of Camden and 
Florence, the whole area within these limits is covered with rocks, 
which are older than the grit, all of them passing under that rock. 
These rocks are first, the shales and the green sandstone of the lower 
part of Salmon river, and of the quarries to the south of Rome; then 
the black shale, the Trenton limestone, the birdseye, the calciferous 
sandrock and the gneiss. 
The whole of the gneiss, or primary mass, is limited to that part 
of the area which lies to the east of Steuben, and the course of the 
Black river, in no place extending beyond the margin of the river. The 
calciferous and the birdseye are likewise restricted to the same limits. 
Gneiss and granite form the bed and the side of Black river at Smith's 
mill, also at Hawkins' mill, a few miles below. The calciferous was 
not met with, not having extended our examination into the unsettled 
portions, for reasons previously given. The birdseye forms the bed and 
the sides of Black river, at Wheeler's mill, about two and a half miles 
from the village of Boonville. It is in layers of several feet thick, di- 
vided by the action of water into large angular blocks, the water having 
penetrated the original cracks and wore away the sides, so as to cause 
in some instances a separation of several feet. The erosive action of the 
water has not been confined to the sides; portions of the lower layers 
have been removed, deranging the upper ones. The effect of the action 
of water is exhibited in a more remarkable manner in Dry Moose river, 
whose outlet is about a mile below Wheeler's mill. The whole of the 
bed, which is of the birdseye for the distance of a mile or more, presents 
the same appearance as at the mill, the water in ordinary times finding 
its way through the separations below the surface of its bed: hence its 
name. This effect belongs only to rocks whose materials are soluble in 
water; and limestone and gypsum are the only two possessed of this 
property. Though not of equal quality with the birdseye of the Mo- 
hawk, from a greater admixture of black shale, yet, showing no marks 
