286 
GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 
county is a sandstone, having greater resemblance to its extreme extension, the “grey band,” 
below Rochester, than any part of its rock or mass to the east. 
The Red sandstone covers the northern half of Sterling; appears at Sterling Centre, ex¬ 
tending up the creek to the saw-mill; showing at the two places one of its products, namely, 
salt springs. From its red color, and containing brine springs, it was for a long time con¬ 
founded with the red shale of the Onondaga salt group. 
There are two localities where the sandstone of the Oneida conglomerate was seen; one 
at Hulme’s quarry, to the southwest of the centre: the red sandstone appears in the road 
near his house. The other rock is about a quarter of a mile distant; color a light grey, some 
parts much intermixed with green shale, giving it a greenish color and mottled appearance : 
there are about five layers, but not thick. This quarry was opened for Wolcott furnace. 
The other quarry is on the road from Martville to Hannibalville, and was quarried for the 
mill at the former village. 
Clinton group. Though its range is but through the town of Sterling, it is more and better 
exposed in this county than through Oswego and Onondaga. It appears in the creek at the 
village of Martville, extending down below the mill. It shows shales and their fossiliferous 
masses, which are calcareous, and make good fire-stones. It is with this part of the group 
that the lower ore bed is connected. Ore was reported to have been here discovered, but the 
spot was not made known. In common with the greater part of the Great level, this section 
is thickly covered with alluvion, sand and gravel being abundant. The red fossiliferous ore 
is found at Peter P. Van Patten’s, which is but a short distance to the south of Hulme’s 
quarry: the ground which contains the ore does not appear to rise more than about twenty 
feet above the rock in the quarry. 
Lockport group. This is seen in several parts of the town of Victory, through which it 
ranges. The limestone is quarried at Doud’s, on the road from the post-office to Martville : 
about four or five feet are taken out for lime. It has a little dark blue shale between the 
layers. 
At Foster’s mill near Plainville, the upper mass is concretionary, from six to seven feet thick, 
and its grain sparkling: its color deepens by exposure. Under this is a layer of about a foot 
in thickness, rather compact; below which are thinner layers. 
At Hyde’s, about three-quarters of a mile to the northeast, there are shales and thin tough 
limestone slate rather than layers. It is highly fossiliferous, and in its fossils corresponds 
with the lower division of the group as it appears at Wolcott village in the fourth district, 
being the only part of the third district where it was seen, though about sixty feet thick at that 
village. 
The Red shale ranges through the town of Conquest. From the depth of alluvion and soil, 
it is exposed but in few places. Along the canal going east, it makes its first appearance 
about two and a half miles west of Port-Byron. It is associated along the canal with the yel¬ 
low and green varieties. The boring undertaken by the State at Montezuma, was, in August 
last, three hundred feet deep, the rock being red shale, the details of which I have no know¬ 
ledge. These borings are of great interest; for, according to Mr. Hall, the red shale is not 
