Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 32

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094

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Next in the ascending series is a rock which, in this part of the State, constitutes a thin but level formation, and from its being a sandy limestone, has been named a calciferous sandstone. This rock appears as the surface rock between Antwerp and Carthage; be- tween the Checkered House, in Wilna, and Natural Bridge, between Antwerp and Ster- lingville; and in Theresa, Alexandria, Orleans and Clayton. In many places it is filled with fossils, and is valuelesss as a building ma- terial.

Next above this rock is the chazy limestone, which occurs highly developed, and abound- ing in organic remains, but, according to Pro- fessor Emmons, does not appear in the Black River valley. The next rock there is the Birds-Eye limestone, which included the close-grained, hard and thick-bedded strata, in which the layers of water limestone occur in LeRay, Pamelia, Orleans, Brownville and Clayton. Its color is usually bluish and light gray, weathering to an ashen gray; its frac- ture is more or less flinty, with many crystal- line points; and its fossils few and seldom ob- tained except on the weathered surface. Its characteristic fossil, in the manner in which its verticle stems divide and interlace with each other, presents features totally distinct from any known analogy, either in marine plants or the zoophites. These stems are filled with crystalline matter and often make up a great part of its mass. When polished, this rock presents an appearance which has given it the name, and in quarrying it readily breaks into regular masses. This forms the

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GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY.

surface rock over a considerable extent of Cape Vincent, Lyme, Brownville, Pamelia, LeRay and Wilna. The part that overlies the yellowish water-lime strata, abounds in nodules of flint that everywhere stand in re- lief upon the weathered surface. These are thought to be the fossil remains of sponges, or other form of animal life, analogous. These masses of flint often contain shells, corals, crinoidea and obscure traces of other organic bodies.

The Black River limestone, in the classifi- cation of Professor Hall, (the Isle LaMotte marble of Professor Emmons,) is interposed between the rock last named, and the Trenton limestone. It is a well-defined mass of gray- ish-blue limestone, in this county not exceed- ing 10 feet in thickness, but in its fossils clearly distinct from the strata above and be- low it. Five genera and six species of corals, and five genera and ten species of cephal- opoda, are described in the State Paleontology, as occurring in this rock. It is this forma- tion that contains the caverns of Watertown, Pamelia and Brownville.

It is to be observed of the strata that inter- vene between the water-lime and the Trenton limestone, that from their soluble nature the natural seams have generally been widened into open chasms, and that from this cause streams of water often find their way under ground in dry seasons. Although generally horizontal, the strata are occasionally dis- turbed by upheavals, as is seen at several places along the line of the railroad between Chaumont and Cape Vincent.

The next rock above those described, is named the Trenton limestone, which mostly constitutes the rock underlying the soil in Champion, Rutland, Watertown, Houndsfield, Ellisburg, Adams, and a part of Rodman and Brownville. In extent, thickness, num- be of fossil remains, and economical import- ance, it far surpasses the others. It underlies extensive districts in the Western States, where it is recognized by its characteristic fossils. Its color is usually gray, and its fracture more or less crystalline, occurring usually in strata nearly or quite horizontal, and often separated by thin layers of shale. Many of its fossils are common with the slates above.

Fossil plants of the lower orders are some- what common, but are limited to a few species. Of corals the number is greater; 20 different species of zoophites are found in this rock, Of that singular class of animals called trilobites, of which there are at present but few living analogies, the Trenton lime- stone furnishes several species. Of shells this rock affords a very great variety. Its stratifi- cation is generally nearly horizontal, and dis- turbances, when they occur, are usually quite limited. In some places it contains veins of calcite, and of heavy spar, the latter, in Adams, being associated with fluor-spar.

Resting upon the Trenton limestone, with which, in the bed of Sandy Creek, in Rodman, it is seen in contact, is a soft, black slate, readily crumbling to fragments under the

action of frost, and divided by vertical parallel seams into regular masses. From its appear- ance in the hills north of Utica, it has been called Utica slate. It has not been found ap- plicable to any useful purpose, although ex- periments have been made to test its value as a lithic paint. Where sulphuret of iron could be procured, the manufacture of alum might be attempted with prospect of success. Fos- sils are common, but less numerous in this rock than those below it. Several of these are common in the rocks above and below this, Only one species of trilobite is found, though they occur both above and below it.

Sulphur springs are of frequent occurrence in this rock, and native sulphur is sometimes noticed incrusting the surfaces in ravines, where waters, charged with sulphuretted hydrogen, have been exposed to vegetable action.

Covering this formation, and constituting the superficial rock of Lorraine, Worth and a part of Rodman, is a series consisting of alternating layers of shale and slate, some of which are highly fossiliferous and others en- tirely destitute of organic remains. From the remarkable developments of this rock in Lor- raine, it has received the name of Lorraine shales. For a similar reason it is known else- where as the Hudson River group, from its forming the highly inclined shales that occur, of enormous thickness, in the valley of the Hudson. This rock is nearly worthless for any useful purpose, although at Pulaski and elsewhere, layers are found that are adapted for building. The mineral springs of Sara- toga arise from this rock. Having thus briefly ennumerated the leading geological features of the county, some generalizations of the several rocky formations may be made.

TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL.

To one accustomed to careful observation, the features of a country and the contour of its hills afford a reliable means of opinion on the character of the subjacent rock. There pertains to each of these in this county, a peculiarity of profile, when exposed on the brow of hills, that is as constant and as un- mistakable as any class of phenomena offered to the observation of geologists; and these dis- tinctive features arise from the greater or less facility with which the several rocks yield to disintegrating forces. The shales and slates being easily decomposed, and offering little resistance to the action of running water, pre- sent a rounded outline; running streams have here worn deep, winding gulfs, through which the channels meander, washing alter- nately the right bank and the left, affording a succession of crumbling precipices, often of romantic beauty, and spreading over the plains, where they issue from the hills, the broken materials brought down from the ravines. The rock is everywhere covered with soil, derived from its own disintegration, and is inclined to clay, from which cause, when level, there is a tendency to the forma- tion of swamps, from the impermeable charac- ter of this material. The soil is generally

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

fertile, and especially adapted to grazing, Wherever diluvial action has existed it has worn, with little difficulty, broad valleys, and removed immense quantities of the detritus to other places.

These shales form a ridge of highlands, ex- tending from the county through Oswego, Lewis, Oneida and Herkimer counties, being known in Lewis as Tug Hill. The margin of this elevated tract is worn into deep ravines, but when the head of these is reached, the country becomes level and sometimes swampy.

The limestone occurs in terraces, with steep but not precipitous margins, the whole of which is covered with a soil derived from its own decomposition, where not protected by drift. The soil is inclined to be thin, and con- sequently liable to be affected with drouth, but is extremely fertile and alike adapted to grass and grain. The richest and best portions of Jefferson county, if not in the State, are underlaid by this rock. Running streams, when small, do not wear ravines, but fall down the slope of the terraces in pretty cas- cades, broken into foam, and noisy from the numerous points of resistance which they meet. The Burrville cascades, in the south- west border of the town of Rutland, are among the most romantic and picturesque which the county affords.

The calciferous sandstone presents a flat country, with few valleys, and those but a few feet below the level of the adjacent plains. The rock is covered with a very thin soil, de- rived from its own decomposition, but one of much richness, from the presence of lime. It seldom descends by a gentle slope into the valleys, but presents a shelving ledge, very peculiar to this rock in this section of the State.

The Potsdam sandstone generally presents a level surface, but more liable to upheavals, and is covered with soil entirely brought from other formations, and varies in quality with the sources from which it has been derived. This rock never presents a fertile slope into the valleys, but is bordered with abrupt preci- pices, at the foot of which are piled huge masses that have tumbled from the face of the ledge.

The primitive rocks of the county present a constant succession of abrupt, rounded edges, scantily covered in a state of nature with timber, and, when cleared, with a thin soil, with intervening valleys of considerable fertility, that have received their soil from the wash of the hills. The nature and amount of soil varies with the rock, and is abundant and fertile where limestone and feldspar abound as its constitutents, but much less so where the chief element is quartz. The fact is observable that the south slope of the hills is more abrupt than the north, as if they had been more upheaved.

Drift deposits occur promiscuously over rocks of every age, and when occurring in hills, present that rounded and conical outline often seen in snowdrifts. These deposits may be distinguished from soil underlaid by rock, by the endless variety of rounded outline

which they present, and are invariably covered by vegetation. Several remarkable valleys occur in the county, that must be at- tributed to causes that have long since ceased to operate. That of Rutland Hollow, paral- lel with Black River, continues across the towns of Watertown, Houndsfield and Hender- son, by way of Smithville, to the lake, having both its sides covered with Trenton limestone. It is considered by some authorities to be one of the abandoned beds of Black river. Evi- dences of the drift period are prominent in this valley, the surface of the rock often pre- senting a polished and grooved appearance, and at no locality is this more wonderfully shown than at the railroad bridge below Watertown village. The grooves are here widened and deepened into troughs, that obliquely cross the bed of the river, having their surfaces polished and scratched, show- ing that the rock was then as firm and un- yielding as now.

MINERAL LOCALITIES.

Anthracite has been observed in minute quantities in the Trenton limestone at Water- town, and also in the Utica slate in the south- western border of the county. Apatite (phos- phate of lime), is found in small crystals near Ox Bow, in massive form on Butterfield Lake, and near Grass Lake, in Theresa. Azurite (blue carb. copper), it found on an island in Maskollonge Lake, in Theresa. Calcite (carbonate of lime), occurs at Ox Bow and on the banks of Vrooman Lake. Tufa is found in a few limestone springs, and agaric mineral abounds in the caves on the north side of the river in Watertown. Marl occurs in Pleasant Lake, and satin-spar near Ox Bow, not far from Pulpit Rock. Celestine (sulphate of strontia), is said to occur in Tren- ton limestone. Chalcodite, a very rare mineral, is frequently obtained at the Sterling iron mine in Antwerp. Chondrodite has also been observed in Antwerp. Chlorite has been detected in bowlders, but is not common. Copper pyrites has been found in Antwerp, adjacent to Vrooman Lake and near the Ox Bow, and also about three miles from Natural Bridge, in Wilna. Dolomite occurs in white limestone. Pearl-spar is found at Ox Bow, coating crystals of calcite. Epidote is of fre- quent occurrence in bowlders of green-stone. It has not been found in its original situation in this county. Feldspar (orthoclase), besides forming a common ingredient in gneiss, often occurs, highly crystallized in Antwerp and Theresa, near Grass Lake, etc. Fluor spar occurs on the east bank of Maskollonge Lake, in Theresa, and is one of the most re- markable localities of this mineral in the State. Graphite (black lead), occurs in minute scales, to a small extent, in the white limestone of Antwerp. Heavy-spar is found on Pillar Point, in Brownville, on the shore facing Chaumont Bay and Cherry Island, in a vein of Trenton limestone, and in Antwerp, about a mile east of the Ox Bow, in a vein of white limestone. It also occurs in Theresa, on the banks of Maskollonge lake, and in

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GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY.

Adams. Hornblende, of the tremolite variety, is found in bowlders of white limestone, and occasionally in small quantities in Antwerp and in Wilna, near Natural Bridge. Amphi- bole (basaltic hornblende), is found in bowl- ders in crystals, firmly imbedded in trap and greenstone. Dillage is rarely found in bowl- ders of chloritic slate. Pargasite, in beautiful green crystals, occurs in white limestone at numerous localities near Ox Bow, and in a neighborhood known as New Connecticut, in Antwerp. Amianthos and asbestos are found in minute quantities in bowlders of serpentine. The latter also occurs near Theresa village. Idocrase, in small brown crystals, occurs oc- casionally on the banks of Vrooman Lake, near Ox Bow. It has been found in larger crystals in bowlders in Antwerp. Iron pyrites (sulphuret of iron), occur in Antwerp, Wilna, Theresa and Alexandria. Labradorite (opalescent feldspar), is occasionally found in bowlders. Limonite, or bog iron, is common in the swamps in Wilna. Ochre occurs in Champion and other towns in small quanti- ties. Magnetite, or magnetic iron ore, has been found in Alexandria. Malachite (green carbonate of copper), is found investing other minerals at Maskollonge Lake, Theresa. Millerite (sulphuret of nickel), occurs at the Sterling iron mine, in Antwerp, in delicate needle-shaped prisms, in cavities of iron ore, associated with spathic iron, chalcodite, and iron pyrites. Muscovite (mica), occurs rarely in bowlders of granite.

Phlogopite .- This mica occurs frequently in the white limestone, but not in sufficient quantity or in plaits of a size that give it value. It is found on an island in Mill Seat lake in small quantities, and at a few locali- ties near Ox Bow. At Vrooman Lake a highly crystallized variety occurs, in which sharply-defined prisms and groups of crys- tals are found in great abundance. Pyroxene is common in our primitive rocks. On Grass Lake in Theresa, it is found white and crystal- lized, in groups. Near Ox Bow it has been found in small quantities, and near Natural Bridge in large black crystals, with sphene, etc. Coccolite occurs in the same vicinity. Quartz, while forming the greater portion of primary rock, and almost the sole material of sandstone, is rarely found crystallized. On Butterfield Lake, and at several localities in Antwerp, it is found in crystals. At Natural Bridge, chalcedony occurs in nodules in white limestone. Flint is a common associate of the Black River limestone. Agate in small quantities is found in Wilna, near Natu- ral Bridge. Jasper and basanite are very rarely found as pebbles in the drift forma- tions. Scapolite in detached crystals is rarely found, imbedded in white limestone, in Ant- werp. Adjacent to, and perhaps within, the town of Wilna, near Natural Bridge, the variety Nuttallite, in fused crystals of a pearl gray color, occurs with pyroxene and sphene. It is sometimes massive, and admits of cleav- age. Serpentine is of frequent occurrence in nodules, in white limestone, in Antwerp, but it is far less abundant than in St. Lawrence

county. It is various shades of green, and its weathered surface becomes white. A mineral allied to this, and named by Prof. Emmons, Rensselaerite, but by other authors Steatitic Pseudomorph, occurs in great abun- dance in Antwerp and Theresa, where it as- sumes various colors, varying from white, through gray, to black, and a texture from finely granular to coarsely crystalline, and cleavable. An extensive locality of the jet- black variety occurs on Butterfield Lake.

The red oxide constitutes the principal specular ore of iron in Antwerp, Phila- delphia and Theresa. and may be said to be the principal ore of Northern New York. It is invariably associated with brittle, varie- gated mineral, which has been named Pysyn- tribite, but which recent analyses indicate to be a rock of indefinite composition, closely re- lated to Agalmotolite, and varying much in its proportions of alumina, magnesia, lime and the alkalies. In some form or other this mineral is associated with the ore in every lo- cality where the latter has been noticed in this county, as if it were a necessary associate. Besides this nondescript mineral, specular ore is associated with Calcite, Spathic iron, Chal- codite, Quartz, Millerite, and, more rarely, Heavy-spar. In Theresa, this ore was pro- cured during the working of the furnace near Redwood, and has been found on an island in Maskollonge lake. In the edge of Philadel- phia, adjoining Theresa, there occurs a body of specular iron ore between the gneiss and Potsdam sandstone. When wrought alone it makes an iron known to founders as " cold short," and from its mixture with lime is found to be very useful as a flux in assisting in the reduction of other ores. The mines which have been wrought with most profit in Northern New York, are those in the south- west corner of Gouverneur, and adjacent in Rossie. In this same range, in Antwerp, a deposit of iron ore was discovered in 1837, and was developed and wrought by George Parish. Adjacent to, and forming a part of this, is the Thompson mine. Sterling mine, in Antwerp, was discovered in 1836, its loca- tion being in the same range and geologicnl relation as the last. There are seven or eight mines in a range, including those in Philadel- phia, apparently coeval in age, and produced by a common cause. Abbout two miles from Ox Bow, in Antwerp, occurs the Weeks ore bed, once owned by George Parish.

Sphene (scilecio-calcareous oxide of tita- nium), is found in white limestone with par- gasite, in Antwerp, near Ox Bow, and near Natural Bridge. Spinel, of a pale red color, has been observed in crystals at Vrooman lake, near Ox Bow, and four miles from that place towards Theresa. Talc occurs in small quantities in bowlders. Tourmaline is occas- ionally found in gneiss in Antwerp and Theresa. Wad (earthy manganese) has been noticed in swamps in Watertown and else- where. Wollastonite (tabular spar), occurs with Augite and Coccolite at Natural Bridge. Delicate fibrous varieties have been found in bowlders in Wilna.

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

THE ICE AGE.

There are little or no evidences of intense glaciation previous to the tertiary period; it was not until the quartanary was ushered in that glaciation assumed its grand proportions here. The fact that gneissoidal and granitic rocks are the surface rocks in the northern portions of the county, is evidence that the territory was among the earliest portions of the globe to rise above the waters of the primeval ocean, without subsequent prolonged subsid- ence. There are many theories concerning the causes that have produced and ushered in the glacial period, among them the most plausible, changes of level of land surface. Visitors to all mountain lands observe snow and ice upon each considerable elevation, and perhaps it is sufficient in this connection to cite the fact that glaciation seems to have been one of the finishing processes of world- making; fitting the surface and soil conditions for their capabilities, to maintain and sustain the higher and more important forms of animal existences. The countries that are the most thickly inhabited are the ones that have been submitted to the most intense glaciation. The scenery of lake and forest, the formation of hills and valleys, have in most instances been sculptured and shaped by glaciation.

Professor Agassiz was the first to study the glaciation of the Alps; that of Greenland, Alaska, and other countries has since been studied by others. It has been found that exactly a similar wearing away and scoring of the rocks, the transportation of detritus, and other forms of ice action, may be observed all over the north part of the continent, and this is now the accepted explanation of the same phenomena and conditions here. They can be accounted for in no other rational manner. It has been thought that there has been more than one period of glaciation, but a study of the local conditions seem to reveal but one period here. This section seems to have been in the centre and track of the most intense de- nudation. The movement of the ice lobe seems to have begun upon the shores of the Atlantic, perhaps as far north as Greenland, and slowly crept southward year by year, always most intense upon and near the ocean, or other large bodies of water, and to have extended as far south as Central New Jersey, then following an irregular line northwest- ward to near the east end of Lake Erie, thence south westward to Cincinnati, Ohio, thence northwestward to Central Iowa, and continu- ing via Bismarck, Dakota, to an unknown dis- tance over the Saskatchewan. There was at the same time another lobe moving from Alaska, on the Pacific, extending as far south as Northern California, and another extending from North to Central Europe, upon the east- ern continent. Ice seems a solid and rigid body, but is really a solid with some of the characteristics of a liquid.

These semi-solid movements have been most carefully studied and measured in Greenland. It has been found that ice moves over that continent wherever there is a slope of 40 feet to the mile; and in the Alps over a like slope,

the distance of 70 feet a day where there was an ice front of not more than a half a mile. On steeper slopes and wider fronts, the move- is several hundred feet a day. The power of ice to tear away and transport rock masses from one place to another, seems to lie in the fact of congealation at night, and thawing during the day time. Ice expands in freez- ing. This is the force that loosens and rends the solid mountains. These detached masses, falling upon the ice, are carried to lower levels, or frozen fast to the bottom ice, and carried onward with the mass, scoring and grinding the rocks, over which they move with prodigious energy.

GLACIAL STREAMS.

It was not until the closing scenes of the glacial period, when these great masses of ice were thawing and wasting away, the slow ac- cumulations of many thousands of years, that the system of glacial rivers, seen all over the county, were formed. The more prominent ones came down from the direction of Char- thage, trending southwestward, and empty- ing into Lake Ontario. What is known as Rutland Hollow, and the swamp in the towns of Rutland, Watertown and Houndsfield, was one of these old glacial river beds, dividing just east of the city of Watertown. One branch flowed along its bed through the Ceme- tery, the other through the Fair ground, thus making the site of Watertown an island at that time. Where it crosses the present river, near the new engine works, deep striæ may be seen in the heavy bedded birds- eye limestone. Later on, and nearer the close of glaciation, this channel in Rutland was filled or dammed with ice, and a lower one, the same as the one now occupied by the present river, formed. The old geologists, before glaciation was much studied, believed that the present river channel, from Water- town to Dexter, is later and denuded by causes now in action; but the better explana- tion seems to be that the present river-bed is the old channel of preglacial erosion, tempor- arily dammed with ice during the glacial period, and that, upon the ice thawing, the present channel was again re-occupied. It is readily observed and apparent that while the ice-sheet overlaid the whole country, all pre- viously existing streams became filled and dammed with ice, and new ones established, flowing southward, or, as in the case here, more to the westward.

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Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 32

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823- Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094