No. 50.J 
81 
Tabular spar — In bowlders near Boonville, associated with green 
coccolite, green pyroxene and brown granular garnet — The specimens 
are often of great beauty.* 
Sulphuret of lead, associated with sulphuret of zinc, the latter also 
alone — One or two unimportant localities. 
Sulphuret of copper — With the preceding but still more rare. 
Sulphate of iron and alum — Formed by the decomposition of iron 
pyrites, which, as usual, is abundant. 
ONONDAGA COUNTY. 
We have in this county a fine illustration of the influence which 
important mineral productions exert upon the prosperity of a people. 
When brine springs w ere first discovered in this part of the State, it could 
hardly have been anticipated that they would in so short a time, have 
yielded such a large return. As I have in a former report given a de- 
tailed account of the brine springs of this county, and have offered such 
suggestions as occurred to me in regard to the manufacture of salt, it 
will not be necessary to occupy much time with them at present. I 
may be permitted, however, again to advert to the importance of an 
attention to this manufacture as one in which the State is deeply inte- 
rested, and for the improvement of which no trifling expenditure should 
be regarded. The erection of a State reservoir for the purification of 
the brine cannot be too strongly insisted on. By such an apparatus 
much waste a\ ould be prevented, the salt rendered more pure and the 
expense of manufacturing it greatly reduced. 
Besides the invaluable brine springs which this county contains, it is 
well supplied with many other useful mineral productions. Among 
these we may reckon several important beds and quarries of the argillace- 
ous oxide of iron, of gypsum, marl and water limestone, w^hich are found 
in abundance for all the uses to which they are ordinarily applied. Of 
gypsum there is probably on the Auburn and Syracuse rail-road, one of 
the most extensive beds to be found in the State, and as for marl, the 
bed of the Onondaga lake is entirely composed of it ; while all around 
it, in the vicinity of Syracuse and in other parts of the county, there 
are deposits of similar kind. 
Among the objects which in this county engage the attention of the 
mineralogist are the extensive calcareous depositions which are found 
* Prof. O. P. Hubbard, in Silliman's Journal, XXXII, 230. 
[Assembly, No. 50.1 H 
