CHAUTAUQUE COUNTY. 
495 
land of Mr Barnard and Mr. Preston, passing from Ellington centre to Cassadaga creek; and 
again farther north, on the land of Mr. Strong, three miles north of Ellery centre. In all 
these places it is found only in loose blocks scattered thickly over the surface for a small 
extent, and evidently the remains of a once continuous stratum. 
At Panama the conglomerate occurs upon both sides of the stream between the upper and 
lower village, and follows the eastern slope of a hill for more than half a mile. Where I 
measured it upon the stream, it was about sixty feet thick. It lies in huge masses sixty or 
seventy feet long by twenty or forty wide and thick, with deep fissures between. Sometimes 
the masses are so arranged that these fissures form caverns ; and one place I was shown, is so 
excluded from sunlight that snow and ice remain during the summer. These masses dimi¬ 
nish in size and frequency towards the south, and soon disappear. 
Four miles northwest of Panama, on the land of Mr. Field, the conglomerate and sand¬ 
stone are found covering the ground to considerable depth. The whole is composed of frag¬ 
ments, most of them small, which are piled irregularly one above the other, as if rolled down 
from a higher eminence. The situation is at the foot of a hill upon the western side. Several 
miles west of this place, in Clymer, there is a locality of this sandstone, which has formerly 
been quarried for grindstones, and also for other purposes. 
About three miles southeast of Panama, on the east side of the valley of the Little Broken 
Straw, the conglomerate is found on the land of Mr. Lloyd. Still further east, on lot 13, 
land of Mr. Yosburgh, the sandstone occupies the surface of two or three acres, outcropping 
on the northern and eastern sides of the hill. In digging a well near the summit of the hill, 
the same rock was found. It was covered with a layer of “ fine beach sand the rock be¬ 
neath was fractured, and the surface worn and smooth. 
It is nearly impossible to indicate every point where this rock may be found ; those men¬ 
tioned have been personally examined ; other places probably occur, but the hills are frequently 
covered with forests and without road. The only remaining places to be noticed, are two hills 
in the southeast corner of the county, on either side of Case Run, which I visited on my way 
south to Warren. The mass, consisting mainly of sandstone, with little conglomerate, lies 
scattered over the sides of the hills and upon the tops, in huge blocks, the thickest noticed be. 
ing about thirty feet. This locality is on a range of elevated ground which extends southward 
between the Allegany river and Conewango creek ; the conglomerate and grey sandstone ac¬ 
companying it, are seen, with some interruptions, nearly the whole distance to the point where 
these two streams meet. Six miles south of the State line, there is a thin bed of coal, appa¬ 
rently resting upon the conglomerate. 
The soil of Chautauque is principally of two characters. That resulting from the decom¬ 
position of the rocks in place, is a clay loam mixed with angular and unworn fragments of 
the harder portions of the rocks, and known as the “ flat gravel.” This occupies all the hills 
and a large portion of the higher ground. 
The materials of this soil are coarser as we descend beneath the surface, and below are 
frequently composed of large angular masses, closely impacted together, and forming a mass 
of variable thickness, lying upon the surface of the rock beneath. Where in such cases the 
