72 
GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 
color; the former more variegated. The innumerable reddish-colored paving stones, and 
pebbles both large and small, which are found in this district, are formed out of this hard 
rock. They are plentifully strewed over the surface of the southern counties, and also form 
a considerable portion of the rolled stones of the Mohawk and other valleys to the west and 
south of Lewis county. 
Some of the layers or parts of the red sandstone show, at their junction with the grey sand¬ 
stone, that the oxide of iron, its red coloring matter, has been transfused through its material, 
penetrating as far as its particles could find admittance. This is easy to conceive, as the 
greater part of this rock consists of coarser materials than the grey sandstone, and its parti¬ 
cles are less disposed to form accretions, or to accrete , than those of that rock; the coloring 
material would therefore find a more ready passage. Though the red color is seen below 
some of the grey layers, it is no argument against transfusion; for the iron might have been 
admitted at a distant point which was permeable, and then find its way at a lower level to the 
place observed, and below parts of impermeable layers. 
There is another view, which is this, that a mechanical mass may undergo a change subse¬ 
quent to its deposition, in which the red oxide of iron may, by chemical action, be converted 
into the black or green state. That a connection exists between the cause of crystallization 
and color in certain rocks, is evident; but for the present, in the instance of the red sandstone, 
the apparent cause is preferred. The numerous highly important facts, which observations 
on Infusorial bodies are now making known, will no doubt modify any opinion or theory 
founded upon transfusion or chemical action in the color of rocks, and thus offer a third known 
cause of their color. The property which some of these remarkable bodies possess of changing 
ordinary dark-colored mud sometimes to a bright green, and at others to a deep red, requires 
a suspension of opinion upon the subject, until something like a limit to their operation can 
be discovered. They form a part of the present active powers of the earth; and judging 
from the discoveries already made, and from rational analogy, their limit downwards as active 
powers will not readily be discovered, unless admitted to be the connecting link between 
inorganic and ordinary organic creation, and therefore the precursors of the beings which con¬ 
stitute the visible creation to our common or natural eye. 
The red sandstone is found only in Oneida, Oswego and Cayuga counties, with the excep¬ 
tion of a small portion of Lewis. It appears merely in a few patches in the town of Florence 
in the first named county, resting upon the grey. It no doubt will be found in the southwest 
part of Vienna ; extending from Oswego, where it underlies the alluvion, covering more than 
half the county to the south of Lake Ontario, and extending west from Oneida to Cayuga 
county. In Oswego county, it also appears in the northeast part of the town of Redfield, 
extending into the town above, and for a short distance into Lewis county, being the only part 
of that county where there was reason to believe that it existed. 
The first locality met with going west in Oswego was on Little river near Painter lake, and 
near the town line of Constantia. It extends along the river for about one-eighth of a mile, 
forming the banks, but much covered with moss. Stone has been taken from this ledge for 
the furnace at Constantia, and for Mr. Monroe’s tannery on the river. 
