No. 275.] 
269 
were 370 feet deep. The first umss passed through was alluvial; this 
was 40 feet thick; then plaster rock 50 feet, after which the boring pass- 
ed through alternations of greenish, bluish, and red shale layers; the 
order not remembered by the Major. The borings by drying in the sun, 
gave an effloresence of salt, but the discontinuance of the work proved 
that it afforded no encouragement to a further prosecution. The hill 
where the boring wr.s made is 220 feet above the lake, consequently 
leavinn- 150 feet of excavation below the lake. 
With an observation or two, we shall terminate all that we wish to 
say in this report of the brine reservoirs of Onondaga. From all the 
borings which have been made in the rock, if we except those of Ged- 
des, it does not appear that they afforded any workable or profitable 
quantity of brine, and I am disposed from that circumstance to believe 
that such w^ould be the case with the welh at Ged dcs, were they insu- 
lated from the alluvial. 
Finally; theory, or in other words, conclusions from facts, prove that 
the deeper the wells are sunk into the alluvial, all other circumstances 
being the same, the stronger the w^ater. As the deepest alluvial must 
be where the excavation was deepest, this point or place must be first 
determined when stronger brine shall be needed. 
The whole of our observations show that We are not to seek for salt 
or the source of the brine where we now find its waters, but to seek it 
where it had existence, and where it has been recognized by all who 
have seen the hopper cavities and know their origin. They may be 
considered to be too few for so great a source as w'e have presented to 
us at Onondaga, but it does not follow because we see comparatively so 
few^5 that there are not localities where they were and are more nume- 
rous. Were it otherwise, we should vainly look for rock salt, since 
no trace of its existence in the district has met the eye of any one. 
Moreover, we must not lose sight of the porous or " vermicular rock," 
which is far more abundant than the hopper cavities. I do not for a 
moment suppose that the pores were formed by the salt, for w^e are 
without proof of the kind. I adopt the received opinion that they are 
caused by gaseous or vaporous matter, but I can readily conceive that on 
the removal of the elastic force that gives rise to the pores, the salt, in 
obedience to a common law of crystallization, would take to the cavi- 
ties from offering no resistance. Besides, w^e must not overlook the 
fact, that though the cavities of all kinds in any one locality be not 
great, the deposit which extends south , east and west, is to a great ex- 
