310 
GEOLOGY OF THE SECOND DISTRICT. 
it. Hence it appears to have been formed by a partial uplift, sufficient to fracture the strata, 
and give them a slight inclination to the north and south. At the present time, however, no 
causes are in operation sufficiently powerful to remove the broken masses from a gorge of this 
description. At Keeseville and Cadyville, large rivers, the Ausable at the former and Sara¬ 
nac at the latter, still occupy these gorges as their channels, and have sufficient force and 
power to sweep out, especially in the time of high water, all rocks of an ordinary size. At 
this place there is merely a small rill discharging itself from a small lake of dead water, in¬ 
sufficient in itself to accomplish any perceptible change. To account for the present condi¬ 
tion of this rock, we have therefore to go back to a period when some current swept through 
this gorge with great force and power; for, by no other means could the materials, which 
once filled the space between the present walls of the gulf, be removed. 
In Cadyville is another gorge of this description, but its width is much less. Tt is a mile 
and a half long. The Saranac flows through it, and it has a fall of forty or fifty feet. It has 
an average width of fifty, and a depth varying from twenty to thirty feet. The force which 
produced this separation operated with the greatest power at the east end, where the rock is 
broken and displaced, and the gap is from eighty to a hundred yards wide. 
Other instances of fractures and of fissures occur in this rock, though none so large as those 
already given. From these facts, it seems that this rock has suffered more from agents cal¬ 
culated to produce these effects, than many others apparently equally exposed. 
Fucoidal Layers. 
Three miles from Chazy towards Lawrence’s corners, near the highway, the fucoidal layers 
are remarkably well characterized. The rock is a bluish shale, intermixed with some quartz ; 
but the materials were soft and fine, and hence the vegetables appear clearly defined, though 
too much enveloped in what must have been a mud, to show their specific marks. The mass 
is ten feet thick, and is a complete matting of fucoids. From this mass of vegetables there 
is a sudden passage to one filled with encrinal remains, together with Strophomena and Orthis. 
As this was not observed at any other locality in Clinton, I am unable to determine whether 
it is more than a local arrangement; and as the fucoidal mass is not sufficiently elevated to 
disclose what is beneath, I am unable to satisfy myself of their true position. About half a 
mile west, on a small stream, they appear in their usual form, passing into the potsdam sand¬ 
stone below. No fossil is ever associated in these masses of fucoids; they seem to have 
excluded every thing else, and to have formed a surface not well adapted to the habits of 
marine animals. 
Calciferous Sandrock. 
This is composed of 
1. A mixture of calcareous and siliceous particles, forming a rock of a yellowish brown color, in which 
calcareous spar forms a constituent part. It is always granular. It is too earthy to receive a polish. 
A few fossils make their appearance in the xipper part of this mass. 
