MARCELLUS SHALES. 
149 
Above the falls on Oneida creek, extending to the saw-mill, is the best locality for the 
examination of the lower shales and its limestone associates. They begin near Foster’s mill, 
resting immediately upon the Seneca limestone. The lower part of the shales show a series 
cf parallel layers or beds of impure limestone, with numerous interruptions, many of which 
have the outward form of septaria. Above these are two layers, which are straight, and 
about three feet thick, and from this place appear to have been continuous to near Marcellus 
in Onondaga county. In the lower layer, the genus Goniatites first appears, with the Mar¬ 
cellus orthocera. These fossils were seen at the different points where these layers appear 
west, and the species noticed in the third district are confined to this rock. 
Near to the saw-mill are two excavations for coal; at the upper one, the Marcellus lingula 
is found, and the common small avicula which resembles a posidonia. Well characterized 
septaria are found on the east bank of Chittenango creek, near the high falls. They contain 
sulphate of strontian, carbonate of iron, etc., in their septse. 
A boring of one hundred feet for coal was made in the Marcellus shales by Mr. Sage, near 
the road from Chittenango to Cazenovia. Near Manlius square, two excavations were also 
made for the same object; one on the farm of Mr. Nettleton, near the turnpike, about a mile 
west of the village ; the other a little further west, on Mr. Marsh’s farm. The one at Mr. Net- 
tleton’s is by the side of a brook; the shale is much contorted, owing to crystalline limestone 
which is mixed with it. Both are very black from coaly material, of which minute veins are to 
be seen. At this place there is a fault, the first seen upon the upper range going west. It 
is quite local, owing no doubt to the same cause which has produced a similar one at Mar¬ 
cellus. At Nettleton’s, the shale and the limestone rock upon which it rests range side by 
side as parallel masses, and not as they were originally formed, the bottom part of the slate 
being on the level with the top of the limestone. At Marcellus, numerous sink-holes exist 
in the limestone, which forms the base of the shales; and far below the level of that rock, 
many large springs of water make their appearance in Nine-mile creek near by; these show 
subterranean passages or excavations, into which portions or blocks of upper masses have 
been let down to a lower level, as we there find. A little west of Nettleton’s, in the road and 
in the field on the north side, are large fragments of the black limestone, containing goniatites ; 
they were ploughed up, and put aside for wall stone. 
Between Onondaga hollow and Marcellus, the turnpike passes over the lower shales, where 
it rises to its greatest elevation. The shales form the top of the hill east of Marcellus, extend¬ 
ing along the pond, and rising with the upper shales to a considerable height on the south and 
west side of the village. At the quarry of Seneca limestone, there is five feet of shale upon 
that rock; then a layer of very impure limestone, breaking with a curved shaly fracture, 
containing the Marcellus lingula and a small ortliis, which is also found in the road, but not 
yet named. Along the pond to the southeast, the upper thick layer is seen, with fragments of 
rather imperfect specimens of goniatites, and orthocerse such as were before noticed. 
The outlet of Owasco lake at Auburn is in the lower shales. In deepening or enlarging a 
portion of it, a considerable number of very regular formed septaria were thrown out, a few 
of which were to be seen in the gardens of the village. 
