170 
HELDERBERG DIVISION. 
outcropping edge all the way from near Catskill to Cayuga bridge. It is eighteen inches 
thick at Auburn. It extends on this line no farther west than the last mentioned locality. 
It is proper to say, in this connection, that from its hardness, it frequently forms a narrow 
terrace, something more than merely an outcropping edge ; but it never properly consti¬ 
tutes the surface rock of a continuous belt of country, as many of the New-York rocks do. 
In giving the preceding localities, it is not designed to intimate that they are the only 
ones at which this rock may be examined with profit, but they are leading localities in the 
range in which it appears in its northern outcrop. Many others exist at intermediate places, 
and this is perhaps found with a greater certainty than any other in the New-York series, 
and hence becomes one of the important landmarks in studying the system. 
Thickness of the Oriskany sandstone. At Leeds, compressed between its associates, it is 
only six inches thick ; at the rise of the Helderberg mountain, east of Clark’s, it is one 
foot; at Schoharie, two feet; at Cherryvalley, about eighteen inches ; at Oriskany falls, 
twenty feet; at Perryville, and below Cazenovia, only a few inches ; between Elbridge 
and Skaneateles, on the old Seneca road, thirty feet ;* at Auburn, eighteen inches ; a 
mile and a half south of Onondaga hollow, seven feet.* In places still farther west than 
any which have been named, a sprinkling of its peculiar angular sand is all which indi¬ 
cates its continuance ; yet out of the State of New-York, and within the limits of Penn¬ 
sylvania, this rock is said to be seven hundred feet thick. 
Relations of this rock in the JYein- York series. In Hudson river district, its relations have 
been spoken of: it succeeds, in the ascending order, the Encrinal limestone ; above, it is 
succeeded by the Cauda-galli grit. West of Cherryvalley, however, where some of the 
succeeding rocks disappear or thin out, it is immediately below the Onondaga limestone. 
These are the relations of the rock in Onondaga and Cayuga counties. The Hydraulic 
limestones are in contact with it below, and the Onondaga above. We have already 
stated that the Pentamerus, Delthyris and Encrinal limestones disappear in succession. 
The same fact exists in regard to the two rocks which intervene between the Oriskany 
sandstone and the Onondaga limestone. Near Mr. Geddes, at Tyler Post-office, the 
Oriskany is represented by a few boulders of the Niagara limestone. One was removed 
from beneath the Onondaga limestone, and found to be more than a foot in diameter: 
this mass belonged to the bituminous part of the Niagara limestone. 
Some peculiarities worthy of notice which accompany this rock. At a few localities, the 
lower part of the rock is a dark-colored sandy limestone. Fossilized wood, in angular 
pieces, as if broken by violence, have been found in the rock at New-Scotland. 
This rock is widely distributed in the drift south and southeast of the Helderberg. At 
the base of the Catskill mountains, in many of their gorges, and on the summits of the 
highest ridges in Greene and Albany counties, excepting those of the Catskill, boulders of 
the Oriskany sandstone are abundant. Many have found their way over the valley of the 
Hudson, and lie upon its eastern side, far beyond the limits of the rock. 
Vanuxem’s Report, p. 126. 
