GENESEE COUNTY. 
467 
which are more calcareous than those of this shale in most places. The compact portions of 
the shale have been quarried for firestones ; and the black stone store in this place is built of 
the same material. 
Farther south, we find the lower members of the Hamilton group at Clifford’s mill at Roan- 
oak, and a little north, where it consists of those portions that are nearly destitute of fossils, 
and consequently of less interest. In the Four-mile creek near Roanoak, the same shale is 
seen. 
The shales of this group are found in two or three places in the town of Covington : one 
of these is a mile north of Pavilion; and another, one mile and a half southwest, in the bank 
of the creek near Sprague’s mill. The rock in place is scarcely visible at either of these 
localities ; at the first it appears as a bank of clay, produced by the decomposition of the 
mass, leaving the fossils. This clay is used for bricks. At the latter, the decomposing edges 
of the strata are covered with gravel, the fossils being washed out by rains. 
At one or two places near Bethany centre, the upper shales of this series are seen; and 
near the village of Darien, on the Eleven-mile creek, there is a natural section showing the 
Ludlowville shale, the Crinoidal limestone, the Moscow shale, and near the same place the 
Genesee slate. The Ludlowville shale contains its usual fossils, Favosites, Cyathophylli, &c., 
the Atrypa concentrica and A. affinis, Delthyris and Strophomena. The crinoidal limestone 
has fewer fossils than usual, but the Avicula is numerous. The Moscow shale appears much 
thinner than elsewhere, and exhibits fewer fossils. 
The next range of towns south, as well as a great portion of Sheldon, Orangeville, War¬ 
saw and Perry, are occupied by the Cashaqua shale and the Gardeau rocks. The southern 
towns, with the more elevated portions of the range next north, are underlaid by the Portage 
rocks, and in Arcade we find the commencement of the Chemung group. 
In passing south through the towns of Darien, Bennington, Sheldon, &c., we find that the 
rocks (mostly shale) lie near the surface almost continuously, except in the valleys. Plough¬ 
ing often turns up the black or the green Cashaqua shale, and the road sides expose the same 
at frequent intervals. These shales are left in little eminences above the general level of the 
country, and being covered with alluvium, are often mistaken for alluvial hills ; whereas the 
soil is thin, and the removal of a few inches frequently exposes the rock. These knolls are 
seen along the road south, from Long’s corners through Darien to Bennington. This condi¬ 
tion of the surface, previous to the deposition of the alluvium or drift, appears to have resulted 
from the action of the waters of a lake or ocean, where numerous currents and counter cur¬ 
rents might wear away the intervening masses, leaving the projection of the little mounds of 
shale as we now see them. 
In several places slight “ diggings '’ have been made, upon the indications of some thin 
seams of coal. Three miles south of Wyoming or Middlebury there have been excavations 
at two points, and at one of these a boring of thirty feet. At the time I examined the place, 
the owners, Messrs. Marvin and Joseph Everest, were about contracting for a deep boring, in 
the sanguine expectation of finding coal. 
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