GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 
The joints in the sandstone are numerous at the falls, dividing the layers into quadrangular 
blocks, either rhombic or more or less square. Some of the upper layers are a foot or more 
thick. The rock dips slightly up the stream, and inclines to the west side. The falls, it is 
said, have receded two rods in thirty years; not by the decomposition of the rock, but by 
frost, and the weight and movement of the water which flows over the ledge. 
Not far from the falls, is the grindstone quarry; it is on the east side of the river. The 
upper layer is much contorted ; those below it, for about twelve feet or more, are mostly good 
building stone. Some parts are thin, and of sufficient surface to be used for flags, but are 
not very straight. There is but one layer suitable for grindstones ; this is from eighteen 
inches to two feet thick, but not uniform in quality throughout its mass. It lies at the bottom 
of the quarry. It has the dots of hydrate of iron ; the cause here and at the falls being very 
obvious, and the result as before mentioned of the decomposition of pyrites. 
The rock is of an excellent quality for grindstones, but too hard for scythe stones. The 
grindstones, in their finished state, sell for fourteen to twenty-four shillings per one hundred 
pounds. 
The grey sandstone forms three falls on the north branch of Salmon river, the lower about 
forty feet, the two upper over twenty each, and not less than about one hundred feet of the 
rock is there exhibited. The upper fall has for its upper rock the same peculiar mass which 
appears on the top of the grindstone quarry ; and the rocks below, forming the falls, presented 
an accordance so great with those of Salmon falls as to leave no doubt of perfect identity, the 
one series being but a repetition of the other. 
Very little of the northeast portion of Oswego is settled ; and such is the case also with the 
whole of that part of Lewis county which is covered with the grey sandstone, and which forms 
its southwest border. No road or any means of communication exists between the two coun¬ 
ties, where this rock is the surface mass. This shows, notwithstanding the general diffusion 
of alluvion or drift, that soil is in no small manner influenced by the rock beneath it; that a 
sandstone like this rock, would yield an inferior soil to shale and limestone ; and that until 
the better soils were fully occupied, the former would remain in a measure uncultivated. 
