148 
GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 
The occurrence of coal in very small quantities is a very common character of the lower 
shales. Along the whole line of its outcrop, every few miles present an excavation which 
was made in these shales, in hope of discovering coal. The dark color, and the actual pre¬ 
sence of this fossil product, were considered sure signs of its existence in body. The failure 
to discover coal has been no small disappointment; so great would have been the immediate 
gain to individuals and the public, placed in so accessible a position as it would be for home 
use and commerce. 
The first favorable point to the east of the district, for the examination of the lower shales, 
is at Cherry-Valley, on both sides of the valley. At the ashery just below the village, it rises 
upon a surface of limestone, showing a series of irregular but parallel beds of very impure 
limestone, their surface on both sides presenting rounded elevations and depressions; each 
bed separated by friable slaty shale, containing iron pyrites, and numerous arborescent 
fucoids, with smooth surfaces, and about six inches in length, apparently of one species. 
Above these thin layers, there is a mass of about five feet thick of the same kind of lime¬ 
stone, upon which are the upper shales, rising to the height, as may be seen up the brook, of 
one hundred feet. 
The creek on the opposite side of the valley exposes a greater mass of the rock, and fossil 
shells are more numerous than at the ashery. There is there a less quantity of limestone, 
and greater tendency to show itself in the form of septaria. The upper thick mass forms the 
low falls of the brook. 
The road west over the limestone range through Springfield, and the road across the same 
to Cooperstown, show at a little distance low hills, the base of which is of the lower mass : 
several attempts for coal were there made. 
The hills which range on both sides of Bridgewater flatts, resting upon the corniferous 
limestone, are composed of these shales. On the land of Paley B. Babcock, there is an exca¬ 
vation for coal; portions of the shale being highly glazed, with here and there an accumula¬ 
tion of coal, rarely exceeding a few inches in length and a quarter of an inch in thickness, 
and an inch or so in width. In the slate is the Slender orthocera, a modiola, etc. This 
excavation is near the beautiful Elm, which for a great distance attracts the eye by its height 
and graceful form. 
Further south, about a mile and a half distant, another attempt for coal was made, at a 
higher level, on the land of Peter Crandel, but with no more success. A portion of the shale, 
from its color, was supposed to be plaster. It was ground for such, and spread, and with 
benefit as was said. No doubt a like result would have been observed, had any other shale 
rock been used. 
Near Waterville is the digging made by the Messrs. Bacon, and noticed by Mr. Conrad. 
It is by the side of the road to Cassville, and by the side of a brook up which for some dis¬ 
tance the Marcellus shales appear. They have a tendency to massiveness; in parts con¬ 
torted, and glazed with coaly matter, showing specks or particles of coal in the joints or 
cracks in the rock, the parts where it is usually seen in this rock. 
