158 
ECONOMICAL MINERALOGY. 
linear sides and irregular conical columns. At the southwestern termination of this extensive 
deposit, about a mile south of the cavern, there are the tufa petrifactions of six logs, which 
stand oblicpiely against a side-hill. They are still very perfect, (not having been often visited,) 
retaining the forms of the shelly scales of the bark, the knots, etc.* 
Probably the most noted of the springs which are iioav under consideration, are those found 
in the vicinity of Chittenango, in Madison County. At the base of a hill, the rocky strata 
of which contain a large proportion of carbonate of lime, calcareous deposits and incrustations 
of various kinds are to be found. These have been formed, and are probably daily in the act 
of formation, by the agency of the waters which continually percolate through this hill of 
porous limestone. From this locality, specimens may be obtained of leaves, moss, wood, etc., 
in all states, from that of the proper vegetable, to that of the hard calcareous substance in 
which scarcely a trace of vegetable matter can be detected. 
' Similar deposits and petrifactions are very frequent in the County of Onondaga. At the 
base of a hill near Syracuse, large masses of tufa are to be seen. More extensive deposits 
occur in the towns of Marcellus and Camillus; and here, trunks of trees, and aggregates of 
leaves and roots, converted into pure carbonate of lime, are - not uncommon. 
Calcareous tufa is also found in great abundance near the Genesee Falls at Rochester, in 
Monroe County; in Cayuga County; near Ithaca, in Tompkins County; also near the 
Falls of Niagara, and in various other places which it is scarcely necessary to particularize.. 
At the Niagara and Genesee falls, large masses of moss are found incrusted with carbonate 
of lime, evidently caused by the carbonate of lime held in solution by the waters which are 
continually passing over them. These incrustations, therefore, are undoubtedly to be referred 
to causes now in operation. 
There is a great petrifying spring, and vast beds of tufa, at Caledonia, in Livingston 
County. The whole neighbourhood of that village is one of the most interesting in the State, 
and even the fences exhibit rich collections of organic remains.! 
The vicinity of Chittenango probably affords the best opportunity for studying the cir¬ 
cumstances attending the conversion of vegetable matter into carbonate of lime ; and for the 
purpose of arriving at some conclusions with regard to these, I subjected to analysis various 
portions of the tufa or petrified vegetable matter, together with some of the water which issued 
from a side-hill, and appeared to be the agent concerned in the petrifying process. 
The petrified wood was found to consist ahnost entirely of carbonate of lime, with very 
minute and variable portions of silica, alumina, and oxide of iron. As I have before remarked, 
in some specimens not a trace of vegetable matter was discoverable, while in others its pre¬ 
sence could be easily detected. It is evident, therefore, that while the structure of the plant 
remains entire, the vegetable matter, by the petrifying process, is, wholly or in a great mea¬ 
sure, replaced by the carbonate of lime. 
From the side-hill at the base of which these specimens of petrified vegetables occur, springs 
of water every where burst out. The superincumbent rock contains a large proportion of 
* Canal Rocks, page 128. 
f New-York Review for January, 1839. 
