278 
[Assembly 
ing to extensive denudations in Oneida. The high east and west range 
or elevation in Herkimer, being broken down in part into north and 
south ridges, through which the waters of the Sauquoit, the Oriskany, 
the Shanadea, and Oneida creeks now flow. The rocks which, in Her- 
kimer, expose but little surface, our knowledge of them being almost 
confined to those parts which form the sides of ravines and small creeks; 
in Oneida, on the contrary, present a breadth of a mile or more, and a 
length which extends from the ridge between the valley of the Sauquoit 
and Oriskany, to near the western end of the county. 
The same diversified group, the saliferous rock and the gray band of 
the " survey of the Erie canal," holds the same position in Oneida, and 
extends throughout the county, with about the same, if not greater, 
thickness. It is in this mass, south of Utica, that the quarries of Messrs. 
Blackstone & Davis, Gaylord & Norton, are opened for the supply of 
the city and the enclosure of their farms. The quarries of the two for- 
mer are in the lower part of the mass, consisting of thin beds of hard 
greenish sandstone, separated by a very thin bed of green shale. The 
surface of the sandstone is thickly covered with fucoides, of numerous 
and undescribed species, successive growths of these plants seeming 
to have been destroyed by the successive irruptions of mud, which gave 
rise to the green shale which covers them. 
The same mass which is quarried at Davis's, is likewise quarried on 
Swift creek, near Rodgers's machine factory. In both quarries the up- 
per bed is made up of white and black pebbles, of the size of a pea. 
The lower surface of the bed is perfectly straight, or horizontal, whilst 
the upper one is waved, furrowed or water worn, a fact amongst hun- 
dreds, which shews the fitful state of our planet at that period. In both 
quarries the same green shale which lies between the beds of sandstone 
forms a thick mass upon the pebbles. 
The white sandstone, or the gray band of Prof. Eaton, appears to be 
wholly wanting in Oneida; nor does the red sandstone appear to occur 
west of Oriskany creek. The green sandstone is, however, more abun- 
dant, some of the layers containing a large proportion of carbonate of 
lime, being made up of encrinal remains, cemented by that mineral. 
In some quarries these remains are highly coloured with red oxide of 
iron. Quarries of this hard green sandstone are common in all the 
towns containing the iron. 
The whole of the red oxide of iron of the county, of which there 
are three beds, belongs to the protean group. It is to denudation and 
