254 
GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 
Quarries are opened in the range of the division, for burning its stone to lime ; for building ; 
for flagging, and for marble ; all which were noted under the different rocks of the division. 
The Marcellus shales rest and rise on the limestone range, and appear on both sides of the 
valley at Cherry-Valley, showing the interrupted layers of impure limestone at the lower part, 
being well exposed at the ashery to the south of the village, and in the creek on the opposite 
side of the valley. The shales also appear at the head of Otsego lake, where several excava¬ 
tions for coal were made ; and extend also by the head of Schuyler’s lake, along the northern 
part of Richfield into the next county. The shales and the Hamilton group, at the northeast 
of the village, are but little remote from the verge of the limestone terrace. 
The Hamilton group is the next in succession, covering nearly one half of the county; 
crossing it from east to west in a broad but not very regular belt, owing to the south dip of 
the rocks and depth of the valleys, and appearing below North New-Berlin on the Unadilla ; 
below Garratsville, on Butternut creek ; at the north line of Laurens, on Otsego creek ; below 
Portland, on the Susquehannah ; and near the line of Maryland, on Elk creek, passing thence 
about east into Schoharie county. Whilst this group appears south in the valleys, the higher 
and overlying groups cover the hills extending themselves in a measure proportionally north. 
The great body of the Hamilton group in the county, consists of the harder kind of shale ; 
the two other kinds, though they exist in the county, form but a small part comparatively of 
the whole group. 
Upper part of the Erie division, consists of the Portage, Ithaca and Chemung groups. 
From the want of accurate knowledge of these fossils and their range as to superposition, which 
were formed during the period which elapsed between the deposit of the Hamilton and Cats- 
kill groups, being the position of the above groups, but little can be said of a precise nature ; 
for in all deposits of mixtures of sand and mud, forming sandstone, shale and slate, such as 
compose these groups, the fossil contents furnish the only character which can be relied upon. 
Happily the unsettled state of this subject involves no consequence whatever of a practical 
nature, being but a matter of science, where the sequence of the order of creation, and for 
every part of the globe, is the object; the instinct of science within us being to reveal the 
creator or creative power as matter of positive knowledge, by means of the visible works, as 
contradistinguished from the revelatory or poetic principle. Whatever of these intermediate 
products exist in the county, will be found in the towns of Worcester, Maryland, the lower 
part of Milford, the upper part of Oneonta, and in Laurens and Butternuts. The whole of 
that part which one or more of these groups may occupy, is colored of a light umber upon 
the map. 
Catskill group. This is more readily recognized by the predominance of sandstone, red 
sandstone and red shales ; from the peculiar oblique structure of its upper masses, and from the 
existence of thin beds of cornstone. It enters from the first district, where it covers a con¬ 
siderable surface and is of great thickness, appearing to thin out in its southwest course, 
which no doubt was the direction of the northern line of its deposit. It caps the hills to the 
southwest of the village of Oneonta, and continues thence along the river into Chenango 
county. It covers the whole of the surface of the town of Unadilla, the southwest part of 
