No. 275.J 
279 
cohesion or aggregation of its particles, the other being deposited in wa- 
ter like a precipitate, that fluid preventing adhesion* 
Calcareous tufa abounds throughout the whole of the gypseous hills, 
the earthy limestones which they contain highly favoring the solvent 
powers of the water which percolates the hills. So also the great cal- 
careous range contributes its portion, and the ancient alluvions likew^ise, 
some of which are highly calcareous, and have been carried south for a 
great distance, and affording a copious supply of the same mineral. The 
great abundance of calcareous waters in a zone or belt of about twenty 
or thirty miles wide, in the Third District, must exert no small influ- 
ence upon vegetation, tending to give a kind of perpetuity to wheat, 
which, when such waters do not exist, that grain soon ceases to repay its 
cultivator, unless art makes up the deficiency. 
An immense deposit of tufa covers the side of the hill and the road 
going from Tully Corners to Syracuse, on the west side of the Ononda- 
ga valley. It must be of great thickness, for neither the road which is 
cut into it, nor two ravines which are excavated in the tufa, reach the 
bottom. Lower down the same valley, at about fourteen miles south 
of Syracuse, there is another deposit, but of limited extent in compari- 
son with the former one. It projects from the hill to the right on the 
land of Joseph Ackels. 
There is a great deposit of tufa by the side of the rail-road which 
goes to Split-Rock quarry. It covers the side of the gypseous hill like 
a shield, the layers curving with the irregularity of the surface upon 
which it was deposited, and often discoloured or black by vegetable 
matter. 
Chittenango has been celebrated for its petrified wood, or rotten wood 
replaced by calcareous tufa, which latter is very abundant, and covers 
the lower part of the hill-side just below the rail-road commenced by 
the late J. B. Yates. Very little of the petrified tree now remains; 
what is now to be seen resembles the thin irregular layers which are not 
uncommon to tufa. Other masses, without any defined structure, strew 
the side of the hill, a constant increase taking place, from the water 
which oozes out of the hill. 
The space to the south side of Canastota, near to the village, com- 
prising the low ground between the hills to the south and the rise to 
the canal, seems to be covered entirely by lake marl and tufa. 
