74 
GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 
manner; and 3, the crystallization of either one or more of the constituents or parts of a rock 
in which this structure exists. 
On the west side of the river, the oblicpie structure is not very observable, but the layers 
are well defined, and like those of the falls; they show a dip up the stream, or to the south, 
which proves conclusively that the falls were formerly higher than they are at present. 
In the upper rock of the falls, there are small globuliform masses, an inch in diameter, of 
red colored sulphate of barytes, such as are found in the same rock at Rochester. 
Fulton is the highest point up the river where the red sandstone was seen, the dam at Oswego 
village being the lowest point. No other rock whatever is observable upon it between the two 
places, or in any part of the county represented as being underlaid with this rock. Though but 
one place was noticed where the Fucoides harlanii was seen in place, namely, the falls at Ful¬ 
ton, yet from the blocks and other small fragments, round and angular, which show this fossil, 
it certainly was once abundant in the county, and is yet, but is covered with alluvion and soil. 
The red sandstone forms the whole of the north part of Cayuga county, extending from a 
line a little south of the falls at Fulton, over towards the head of Little Sodus bay. It is well 
exposed in the bottom of the creek at Stirling Centre, and in its sides, extending along the 
creek to McFarlane’s mill, a mile south. At Stirling Centre, the mass exposed is about 
twenty-five feet thick. The same sandstone appears in the road near Robert Hume’s, about 
two and a half miles from Stirling Centre, and four from Martville ; and also in a quarry be¬ 
tween Martville and Hannibalville. Here are the two kinds : the hard and variegated, which 
shows the diagonal structure; and the more coarse and friable, of a darker color. The 
Fucoides harlanii was not met with in place in the county. 
The red sandstone is geologically the lowest rock of New-York which contains brine springs 
of sufficient purity and quantity to be manufactured into salt. These springs are numerous, 
and at considerable distances from each other, being found from the eastern part of Oswego, 
to Niagara river. A salt spring exists on the land of Mr. Kenyon in the town of Hastings, 
at an old beaver-dam ; and at George G. Grizzle’s in the town of Palermo, Oswego county. 
At Stirling Centre, a brine spring rises by the side of the creek, through a fissure in the sand¬ 
stone ; and another spring exists near McFarlane’s mill, and a fifth near Little Sodus bay. 
The salt from all these springs was said to have had a sharper taste than that of common salt, 
owing probably to a more soluble muriate with an earthy base. 
Before it was known that the Clinton and Niagara groups were placed between the red 
sandstone and the red shale of the Onondaga salt groups, the two masses and their saline 
sources were considered to be the same, which created no small confusion among those who 
examined these different masses in accordance with their supposed and not their true relation¬ 
ship to each other. 
