WATER-LIME GROUP. 
115 
lying very near the surface, covered only by a little soil, and exposed in many parts, particu¬ 
larly in the creek near the mill. It has been quarried for enclosures only. It is of the right 
color and grain, and as far as those characters could be relied upon, appeared to be of the 
best quality. It contains geodes or cavities, either lined or filled with white sulphate of strontian, 
with some purple fluate of lime, and occasionally some gypsum. It appeared to be the upper 
bed, and its thickness is about four feet. 
Butternut creek, below Jamesville, offers the best point for showing the connecting part of 
the water-lime and Onondaga salt groups ; but more quarrying is required at the junction to 
show it clearly. Not far from Dunlop’s mill, on the east side of the creek, the upper layer, 
exposed above the kiln, is one of the drab layers, and is quarried for burning; under it is a 
blue one, with Plicated orthis; lower down, near the kiln, are other layers, the second of 
which contains replaced corallines; under these layers is a mottled one; below which, and 
the last to be seen at the quarry, is a layer resembling water-lime, but of a darker color than 
usual. Between that quarry and the plaster quarry of Reed and Brewster, other layers 
appear in the road; the first of which, in the descending order, is of a bluish color, breaking 
irregularly; under it is a softer one of a lighter color, rendered yellow by long exposure; 
then a drab limestone resembling the water-lime, full of round cavities filled with white lamel¬ 
lar carbonate of lime, with some sulphate of strontian; under which was a similar mass as 
to color, but containing epsomite cavities replaced with white limestone, which appeared to 
extend to the plaster quarry, and to form its terminal part. 
In Onondaga valley, the upper part of the group is exposed by the road-side ascending the 
hill towards Lafayette, and at the quarry a few rods to the east. The upper layer, which is 
under the 
1. Onondaga limestone, and some disintegrated Oriskany sandstone, shows a striped, but 
good and light-colored limestone. 
2. The next below, full of replaced columnariae, and some casts of Antique littorina: seven 
feet thick. 
3. Layer in this division: three feet thick. 
4. 5. Two layers, each about five feet, with diagonal cracks, and burnt for lime ; the lower 
layer is the best; the upper contains replaced columnariae. 
6. Layer of water-lime. 
7. Layer of blue limestone, of a dark color. 
8. Layer of water-lime, of a darker color than the upper one. 
The group is well exposed by the side of the railroad near Split-rock quarry : there the con¬ 
nection with the group below it can be seen to a large extent. The upper layers are quarried 
for building at Syracuse; they are striped, and contain Plicated orthis, Rugous avicula, 
cytherinae, etc. The bottom layer, upon which the group rests, is similar to the one which 
covers the plaster quarry in Butternut creek. 
