262 
[Assembly 
Salt Wells or Borings of Onondaga, 
The borings and wells which have been made at Syracuse, Salina, 
Liverpool, Geddes, Montezuma, &c. prove that the brine or salt waters 
exist in all these places in geological materials, which serve as reservoirs; 
they were not the materials which contained or enveloped the saline 
particles or masses from whence the waters obtained the salts which 
they held in solution, and which give to them their briny character. 
These reservoirs are of two kinds. The one formed of the porous or 
loosely aggregated materials, which form the second deposit of the group, 
and the upper portions of the red shale. The other being excavations, 
once forming the deep bottoms of ancient valleys, now more or less and 
irregularly filled with alluvial m^erials. These two classes of reser- 
voirs, in all probability, when not remote from each other, more or less 
communicate together. At present but one of the latter class is known, 
and now forms the bottom of Onondaga lake, but similar ones no doubt 
wdll be discovered, caused by the many large bodies of water which at 
a former period flowed from the south, but which now are concealed by 
alluvial materials. 
If the opinion just given be true, we ought to find two distinct classes 
of borings, one referrable to the rock layers which form the geology of 
the county, the other to no part of the saliferous group, nor of any rock 
mass of the Third District, but to its alluvial materials only. These 
borings also establish other important facts, to which we shall advert in 
their proper place. It is greatly to be regretted that no minutes of the 
borings were made and specimens saved, all the information collected 
being chiefly verbal, and obtained from Dr. Wright, the superintendent 
of the Salines. 
At Liverpool, north of Salina, there are two borings, one immedi- 
ately below the bank of red shale, upon which the town is built; the 
other some distance to the southwest, on the outside of the canal, and 
opposite to a depression which is in the direction of a supposed outlet 
to Oneida lake. This well is 81 feet deep, water good, if not as good 
as any on the salt reservation. Less water is drawn from this well than 
from the one at Salina. This well was bored through about 12 feet, 
principally of lake marl, below which was 14 feet of fine sand, follow- 
ed by 43 feet of a very fine clay of a grayish colour, under which, to 
the bottom of the boring or well, as it is termed, was gravel with some 
sand.* The first boring, the one below the bank of red shale, was 274 
feet deep^ Its whole course was in the red shale mass. At 60 leet 
* See Dr. Beck's Report. 
