ONEIDA COUNTY. 
263 
and bluish shale chiefly, is the interposed mass between the Clinton group and the Onondaga 
salt group. In the gully back of Dr. Noyes’ house near Hamilton college, the group appears 
with the same associates as at Hart’s mill. With the white carbonate of lime of the concre¬ 
tionary part, Dr. Noyes has found galena and blende ; a fact of some interest, as these ores 
also appear at Lockport and the Falls of Niagara ; and there is something like good evidence 
that this group is the rich lead-bearing rock of Iowa and Wisconsin, which is there of great 
thickness. 
Onondaga salt group , consisting in this county of a thick mass of red shale, at the lower 
part of which there is some green shale ; the red shale uniform in its character, showing only 
some green spots, as maybe seen near Vernon centre. The red is followed by drab, brownish 
and bluish layers, often irregular and thin, which change their color by exposure, assuming 
one or other of the former colors. It is very thick through Oriskany and Skanandoa valleys. 
From its calcareous composition, it will no doubt furnish abundance of water-lime. No gyp¬ 
sum in mass has as yet been discovered in it, but some small fibrous portions were found in 
digging wells, between Skanandoa and Oneida creeks, to the southwest of Vernon centre. 
The Helderberg range , which is the same with the division of that name, leaving out the 
Onondaga salt group, consists in Oneida county of the Water-lime group, Pentamerus lime¬ 
stone, Catskill shaly limestone, Oriskany sandstone, Onondaga limestone and Corniferous 
limestone, and has been cut down by the Sauquoit, Oriskany, Skanandoa and Oneida creeks, 
exposing one or more of these different masses on the side-hills of the creeks where they 
traverse the range. The hills present points of their northern termination, capped with lime¬ 
stone, which, by the dip of the rock and rise of the valley, disappear under the valley about six 
to eight miles south of the northern line. The sides of the hills do not expose much of their 
rocks, from their gradual slope, being formed of alluvion, tufa and soil chiefly; but occasion¬ 
ally a rock projects where steep, and appears in the brooks which descend from their summits. 
At Cassville a quarry is opened in the corniferous, from which considerable stone has been 
taken out; also on the east side of Bridgewater valley, where the same mass is exposed in 
the side-hill at Mr. Green’s. Under this rock the Onondaga limestone appears, showing an 
unusual thickness, unless confounded with associated masses, from change in their mineral 
character, and the absence of their distinguishing fossils ; no quarry being opened, but all the 
stone there taken from the corniferous limestone above. The last point in the valley where 
the limestone appears, is in a sinkhole opposite to the Elm tree at Mr. Babcock’s. 
The ascent to Paris hill from Sauquoit valley, north of the Machine factory, shows the 
Water-lime group ; which is quarried below the brow of the hill. The corniferous is largely 
quarried for flagstone at Eastman’s upon the same hill, on the road to Waterville, and the stone 
carried to Utica. The Onondaga limestone is quarried at a lower level for enclosures, the Oris¬ 
kany sandstone appearing beneath it, and the latter rocks facing the valley of the Oriskany. At 
a lower level, and upon the side-hill, is Munger’s old lime-kilns, where the Water-lime group is 
exposed for some distance, and also in other parts further north. The last point where the 
limestone appears as a ledge, is at the saw-mill near Waterville. 
