CLINTON GROUP. 
8? 
shaly sandstone, the layers being thickest in the lower part; under which, about two feet of 
ore similar to the upper mass at Stebbins’ creek, etc., and much intermixed with the rock ; 
below, four feet of sandstone and shale, with fossils quite numerous ; then about twenty feet 
of shale alternating quite regularly with thin beds of sandstone, and limestone showing iron 
ore ; under which is the lower bed of ore about two feet thick, oolitic, with fossils, the same 
as Bennet’s, Norton’s, &c. 
Near the saw-mill, a little higher up the creek which flows through this deep and broad 
ravine, the upper bed contains some geodes embracing crystallized limestone, quartz crystals, 
anhydrite, and also what appears to be a mixture of sulphates of barytes and strontian. 
Near to Westmoreland furnace, the ore is exposed in many places, particularly the lower 
bed; and where long exposed, it is of a good quality, the pyrites which it contains being 
decomposed, and the ore not so hard. 
Through the west part of Kirkland, Westmoreland and Verona, the country being more 
level than further east, a greater extent of surface of the Clinton group is exposed; thereby 
facilitating the observation of a large portion of surface of some of its members, but not the 
manner in which they are arranged, an examination of the ends or edges being necessary for 
that purpose. Near Verona the ore lies near the surface, spread over a considerable extent 
of ground. It is quarried a short distance to the west of the village, for the Taberg Com¬ 
pany, on the land of Mr. Eames; and to the south of that quarry, at Mr. Person’s, for the 
Lenox and Constantia furnaces, and at an intermediate point: the ore is very solid, and from 
twelve to fourteen inches in thickness. In excavating a well at Verona, it is said the same 
ore bed was encountered. The deposit at Eames’ is covered with eight to ten feet of allu¬ 
vion, consisting of large fragments of sandstone, ore and slate, the products of the group, par¬ 
tially rounded, and mixed with earth confusedly deposited. The upper part of the deposit 
consists of a hard sandstone from three to five inches in thickness, with some carbonate of 
lime, the surface water-worn; under this is a bed of hard shale of a bluish green color, with 
thin layers of calcareous sandstone; then hard sandstone and shale, below which is the ore, 
its overlying masses being but a few feet in thickness, and containing an abundance of the 
Clinton retepora (R. clintonii), the same fossil which exists in the mass in contact with the 
ore at Wolcott furnace, and in the bluish green calcareous shale at Martville, which correspond 
with the second or upper bed of that section of the State. There is very little apparent dip in 
the ore bed and its associates at Verona; and were it not for the great thickness of the rocks 
to the south which succeed to them, and the little elevation comparatively, they might be con¬ 
sidered horizontal. 
South of Verona towards Oneida Castle, and in other parts, some of the members of the 
group are exposed, consisting of shale and sandstone, and loose ore belonging to the upper 
bed. The sandstone is quarried at Tipple’s, and on the farm adjoining. It lies in low meadow 
ground near the surface, and is somewhat altered. The vertical joints are well defined in this 
stone, appearing in parallelograms, the angles usually acute and obtuse. These forms are 
very common in the sandstone of the group, being met with in almost all its localities. There 
are but about four courses of stone which are extracted at Tipple’s; the upper one showing 
