A!)[oat tHfee-fburths of a mile to the northeast of PerryviHej on the- 
farm of Mr. Yan EpSj from 100 to 200 tons of iron ore was quarried 2;;. 
but found too poor^ or too hard to work. It consists of mixtures iii 
¥ery variable proportions of red oxide of iron, sand, coarse and fine^r 
with other siUcious matter. Some of the ore is* oolitic, some almost 
compact and jaspeiy. 
This iron and its sand is found immediately below two of the layers 
of limestone which forms the great terrace which extends through the 
three eountieSj and belongs i-n ali probability to the period of those 
series which are wanting to the west. This is the last appearance of- 
the red oxide of iron in the district, unless it should be discovered im 
the red sandstone and red shale of Otsego, which occur high in the 
iipper series, approaching to those which are near to the age of the 
soaL 
Gray sparry crinoidal limesSme. This rock in Madison, Onondaga and 
Cayuga, rests ypon the Oriskany sandstone, or in its absence, upon the 
water lime group. It is the limestone so extensively wrought near 
Syracuse,^ at Split-Rock and the quarries to the west, which adjoin to^ 
it, and of those to the east near the village of South Onondaga. It i& 
the limestone which is worked at the prison at Auburn, back of the 
village of Chittenango also, and other localities of the three counties. 
This limestone extends throughout the Third District, with but few 
interruptions. It is readily known by its gray colour, its crystalHne 
fracture, its numerous organic remains, so different as a group from 
those of the rock above, and those below^ for though it contains many 
of the fossils which belong to the sandstone, it contains a considerable 
number which are its own. 
The bottom layer of the Hmestone contains rolled stones at its lower 
part, more flat than globular. Some of the stones are like the hard 
sandstone found with the iron ore near Perry ville* others compacts- 
hard, of a dark chocolate colour, and containing some small cavities 
which, from the lamillar structure, appear to be filled with anhydrous, 
gypsum. 
The gray limestone is the rock of which the mason work of the 
enlarged Erie canal is to be constructed; and for toughness and durabi- 
lity as regards the action of atmospheric agents, it has not its equal in 
the district. Its only defect that I am aware of, is one not of grain, but 
of division on the large scale, caused by its association with a greenish, 
shaly matter, which was not equally deposited as to quantity, nor 
