82 
GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 
kinds so characteristic of this group, the layers being soiled with iron; lower down, green 
shale and thin sandstone with the same kind of fucoids ; then sandstone, with diagonal divi¬ 
sions projecting in one place from the side of the ravine like a protruded or up-heaved mass ; 
below this, the Oneida conglomerate appears. The iron ore was not seen, being covered up ; 
but ore was taken from this locality by Judge Clealand, in order to ascertain the quality of 
iron which it would produce : it proved to be good. 
South of the village of Mohawk, and along Steele’s creek and its branches, are favorable 
points for examining the group from the conglomerate to the grey band ; this latter, through 
that section, attains its maximum thickness, being over seventy feet. It appears as a cliff 
in several points, as on the road to Dennison’s, below Eaton Burrill’s saw-mill, etc. It is 
used for lining the canal through parts of the towns of German-flatts and Frankfort. The 
rock is of quartz sand, white where long exposed, but grey, yellowish and brownish when fresh 
quarried. It is full of cracks, which divide the mass into conveniently sized stones for hand¬ 
ling. Near Mr. Betts’, on one of the roads south by Steele’s creek, it contains fossils, among 
which we find the casts of the head and tail of the Dolphin-head trimerus (T. delphinocepha- 
lus), which first appears with the iron ore beds in this group, and extends through the Niagara 
group, with which it ceases; also casts of an orthoceras, and of six or seven undescribed 
bivalve shells. This is the only locality in this sandstone, where these fossils were seen in 
place. 
The red laminated sandstone may be seen in two or more points. The red oxide of iron 
which colors it, has every appearance of having been transfused; it does not fill up the interstices 
between the grains of sand, but has attached itself to their surface, penetrating in part, and pre¬ 
senting a crystalline appearance. It was quarried between the east branch of Steele’s creek, 
and the road which leads to the Mohawk river. 
In the first branch of Steele’s creek to the west, the upper iron ore bed may be seen in place. 
Numerous fragments of it also exist in the brook, containing encrinal disks, which have under¬ 
gone partial solution upon their edges as represented in No. 3 of the wood-cut, and are re¬ 
placed by lamellar carbonate of iron of a yellow color. Fragments of the Clinton hemicryp- 
turus, particularly the tail, and for this reason it is alone figured in the wood-cut, are found 
in the ore, and the Broad agnostis also. The ore is a mass of accretions, oolitic, and of 
rounded fragments of organic bodies coated with ore. 
Back of Frankfort, on the road which goes to the furnace and to the Minden turnpike, a 
quarry was opened in the red sandstone, as was said, for the Ontario Bank at Utica. South 
of Utica are several points where some of the members of the Clinton group may advantage¬ 
ously be seen. The quarries of Blackstone & Davis are opened in the lower part of the 
group, below the ore beds; those of Gaylord & Norton in the upper part, above the ore; 
between which, are the ore pits or diggings of Mr. Wadsworth. The stone of these quarries 
is carried to Utica. At Blackstone & Davis’, there is a thickness of six or seven feet of sand¬ 
stone ; none of the layers, exclusive of the upper ones, are over six or seven inches thick, and 
some but half an inch, and separated or coated with shale. The color of the sandstone is 
dark grey, with some parts red ; the shale is blue when fresh quarried, but becomes a yellowish 
