No. 200. J 
279 
to the hardness of the ore, and the sandstone which frequently accom- 
panies it, in resisting destruction, that so extensive a surface is expos- 
ed. Numerous pits being opened in the towns of New-Hartford, Kirk- 
land, Vernon, Westmoreland and Verona. This ore is invariably in 
concretions, either minute like fish roe, or the size of small grains of 
wheat, resembling the small elongated sugar plums, frequently contain- 
ing the joints or disks of the encrinite, fragments of trimerus, and more 
rarely orthis. Very few specimens of the ore but contain small parti- 
cles of pyrites, which, although the ore makes good iron, as I was ge- 
nerally informed, would make still better were it invariably roasted 
and exposed for some time to the air before smelting it. It is well 
known that by no degree of heat, or by any known flux or mixture, can 
iron be freed from sulphur* but if roasted, the sulphur, by exposure to 
the air, readily changes to sulphuric acid, which is readily expelled by 
heat, the acid being put into the state of vapour. The beds of ore are 
from twelve to twenty inches in thickness. 
Throughout Oneida, above the iron ore beds, forming a part of the 
same group, there are from one to two layers, according to locality, of 
a peculiar rock, exhibiting a concretionary structure. It is composed 
principally of carbonate of lime and sand, frequently presenting either 
constituent in a crystalline state. These layers are found in Swift creek 
at Hart's mill, on a branch of the Oriskany, in the creeks at Skanandea 
and Vernon, and in the ravine back of Dr. Noyes' house, near Hamil- 
ton college. At this latter place galena and blende in small quantities 
have been found in it. The only locality of either mineral met with in 
the county. 
Reposing upon the group described as in Herkimer, so in Oneida the 
red shale follows, with no variation other than with more numerous green 
spots; as, for instance, near the salt sulphur spring or well to the east 
of Vernon centre. To the red shale succeeds the immense series of wa- 
ter limestones and the upper limestone, equally if not more prolific of 
calcareous tufa than they are in Herkimer. The tufa is found on the 
sides of the ridges or slopes, and in the ravines and small streams which 
cut into the two rocks. A locality of the former kind, remarkable for 
its great extent, occurs between Ely's saw mill and the road from Clin- 
ton to Waterville. 
If it be true, as a Pennsylvania farmer asserts, and I have no doubt 
of the fact, that the primary cause of the depopulation of every country 
upon the globe, has been a worn out scyil, how greatly in after times 
will these calcareous materials be prized. Without lime no agriculture 
