234 
GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 
The brine springs, or those of common salt, have a higher range. They appear first in 
the same group at Saltspringville, near the line of Otsego and Fulton counties, but this is 
the only locality where the brine was sufficiently pure to be made into salt. 
The next rock as to age, of these springs, is the Medina sandstone, in which brine, by 
boring and by springs, is known to exist, from the middle part of Oswego county to the 
Genesee river. 
The third being the great source of these all-important fountains in the State, are those of 
the Onondaga salt group, separated from the sandstone below by the Oneida conglomerate, 
the Clinton and the Niagara groups ; the whole of the brine having been furnished by the 
rock, and relatively to the rock are of local origin. 
The fourth source in the district, of springs of common salt or brine, are those of Triangle 
in Broome county, which will be noticed under the head of that county; they appear to be 
near to where the Ithaca and Chemung groups unite. 
The sulphur springs have a more extended geological range, being found in many more 
different rocks, and in numerous localities. They exist in the Utica slate, as in the creek 
near Utica; and near the junction of the Oneida conglomerate and Hudson river group, as 
in Steele’s creek, Herkimer county. They are numerous and most copious in the Onondaga 
salt group, this being the maximum rock for numbers and quantity of water. The springs 
commence with those at Sharon in the first district, and end to the west of Auburn. A sul¬ 
phur spring issues from the slate of the Hamilton group, at the foot of the falls on Handsome 
brook near Sherburne ; another from the Genesee slate, on Cayuga lake ; and the springs at 
Dryden are connected either with the Ithaca or the Chemung groups. In all these different 
rocks, with the exception of those of the Onondaga salt group and the springs at Dryden, 
they probably owe their origin to pyrites, the quantity of water discharged being also small. 
Two opinions exist with respect to the origin of mineral springs : in the one, they are con¬ 
sidered to be deeply seated, and to have a common source ; the other, and the only one which 
is in accordance with facts, regards them as surface waters, percolating different masses, 
giving rise to chemical action in some, and in others to a mere solution, dissolving the saline 
or other materials which they meet in their progress, and reappearing again at a lower level 
with new properties collected during their passage. 
